Convotherm Maxx at South Lodge
South Lodge is a luxury spa hotel in West Sussex, set amongst the idyllic South Downs. Executive Chef, Lewis Hamblet, oversees three onsite restaurants, each with a unique style. Guests can enjoy locally sourced food in the three AA rosette Camellia restaurant, choose from a vast selection of healthy indulgence in the spa’s Botanica restaurant, or discover an array of flavours during a 10-course small plate experience in The Pass restaurant. With several teams operating in an open-plan kitchen, versatile and reliable equipment is paramount to smooth service, as Lewis explains;
“When you have 10 courses, from tender meats, fish, bread and desserts – anything really. You want to be able to quickly switch between one and the other. You can’t have a line of 10 ovens, there’s just not space for that. That’s why the Convotherm maxx is so ideal. Our sister hotel, Pennyhill Park uses Convotherm and they have always sung its praises, so when we needed a new oven, we got in touch with Welbilt and chose the maxx.”
Since the Convotherm maxx has been installed, it has proven to be a very popular piece of equipment;
“You’ll come in some mornings and there’ll be a queue for it”, Lewis reveals, “It may be located in The Pass, but everyone uses it. And that’s basically down to its’ reliability and response times. You can choose between steam or dry heat, and control the temperature to within one centigrade. It can reach up to 2500C. The problem with such high heats is that the food discharges so much grease and mess, but of course all you’ve got to do with the maxx is press a button and Convoclean takes it all away”.
Convotherm’s Convoclean allows chefs to choose between several settings, depending whether the oven needs a deep clean, or a quick rinse. Lewis describes how convenient and powerful Convoclean is;
“We actually use it to clean other things as well as the Convotherm itself. Bits of the grill, or other things we can’t put through the wash – we just put it in the Convotherm and as well as cleaning the oven it cleans the other equipment too! I’ve been really impressed with the maxx, it’s incredibly responsive, like no oven I’ve ever used. When we do replace ovens in the future, we’ll definitely be using Convotherm, because it’s just such a great bit of kit”.
To find out more, please visit https://www.convotherm.com/maxx or alternatively, you can call Welbilt UK on 01483 464900 for further information.
