Based in London, Kol is the UK’s first Michelin star Mexican restaurant, championing British ingredients, nothing is imported that means no avocados or limes. With a string of accolades including being named Best New Restaurant in Europe by La Liste, hitting No. 20 in the UK's National Restaurant Awards. Santiago was also named Best Chef at the GQ Food & Drink Awards.
“Kol means cabbage, we want to show that things that are undervalued can be special if you put them in the right context. Running a Michelin star restaurant is directly related to quality, and quality means consistency,“ says Santiago Lastra, Chef Patron at Kol. “We opted for an iCombi Pro combi oven 6 1/1 and the iVario Pro L with pressure. The RATIONAL cooking systems help us to get that consistency by using their pre-set programs so that our staff have actual recipes and processes all the time.“
Record staff shortages in hospitality are affecting all business owners. Santiago explains “One of the issues we have in the UK is that there is not enough staff, something that we can do as businesses is to take to care of them and make their work life easier and more efficient.“
The in-built ‘assistants’ within the RATIONAL intelligent cooking systems are like having an extra chef in the kitchen. For example, the advanced iCookingSuite technology gives the systems the ability to take over the cooking process. It can recognise the food’s weight, size and condition and it will automatically monitor and adjust cooking parameters to ensure the chef gets the best possible results.
