€2 million kitchen refit is under way at Kelly’s
A €2 MILLION refurbishment is being carried out to the kitchens at Kelly’s Resort Hotel in Rosslare to create a modern efficient and comfortable working environment for the staff while future proofing its flexibility to adapt to changes in the food service area.
The development involves a major investment by hotelier Bill Kelly and his family in the business, the mainstay of the local economy, and enhancing the hotel’s ability to adapt to changes in global food trends.
Mr Kelly said €2 million would be spent overall on the refurbishment which includes a new in-house laundry.
‘It is a big investment, but it’s the right thing to do,’ he said.
‘We’re putting in top of the range kitchen equipment, and refrigeration, with everything controlled by a state-od-the-art system,’ said Mr Kelly.
‘We’re under pressure to get all the stuff done in the timescale and it means we’re out of the offices in order to enlarge the kitchen area.’
Mr Kelly said he was looking forward to 2017, which looked good in terms of bookings, despite the uncertainties caused by Brexit.
‘It is certainly a worry on the horizon, but I don’t think it will have as much of an effect on tourism as it is already having on trade,’ said the hotelier.
‘We need to maintain our cusomer base and look at keeping the retentation, whether that’s for agritrade or tourism,’ he said.
The creation of the new kitchen, which is to have lifespan of 25 to 30 years, involves the complete renovation of the existing kitchen and bakery area of 277 square metres and the building of an additional 120 square metres to include a new goods receiving area, all new preparation and refrigeration areas.
It will also include the building of a much larger bakery area with state of the art deck ovens for bread production. Four months of planning and design went into developing the scheme which includes a complete new mechanical and electrical installation.
All ware washing, pot and glass washing equipment is fitted with high spec heat recovery systems so each machine will use far less electricity than the old machines. They will also use far less water and chemicals.
The kitchen will now include induction cookers for the first time with close to 100% energy efficiency as well as creating far less heat in the kitchen.
Kellys is due to reopen on February 17 following its annual Christmas and New Year break, with events including cookery demos planned with top chefs, among them Catherine Fulvio, Eugene Callaghan and Stephane Rochard.