Dekton by Cosentino – Providing Design Solutions for New Restaurants Worldwide
Tags: news and events | 8 years ago | Written by: Cosentino
The new ultra-compact surface Dekton® by Cosentino is providing an ideal design solution for professional kitchens and restaurants worldwide. It is made from a complex mix of the raw materials that are used to manufacture glass, porcelain and quartz surfaces, and then placed under ultra-compression to form the final product. This creates a material with a variety of unique benefits for commercial applications such as its ability to resist heat, stains and scratches and withstand high volumes of traffic when used as flooring. A selection of restaurants have recognised Dekton’s® superior properties and have utilised it in their establishments, including Restaurant Dani García, Restaurant DiverXO and Okami in Spain, The Woodspeen in West Berkshire UK and Restaurant André in Singapore.
RESTAURANT DANI GARCIA
Dani García is an award-winning Spanish chef with several restaurants in Spain. For his latest venture, the new Restaurant Dani García in Marbella, he wished to create an open-plan space with no physical barrier between the kitchen and the dining area, so as to add theatre for the guests. For this reason, Dani García stated, “the spectacular space where the kitchen is located should be the light of the premises, contrasting with colours and elements located elsewhere in the restaurant”. Another fundamental element influencing the design of the restaurant was the idea of creating a fairy tale setting, playing on the contrasts of colours and materials complemented by a spectacular menu offering an exceptional experience to diners.
Dekton® was specified for both the flooring throughout the restaurant and also the worktops and tiling in the professional kitchen. The kitchen is illuminated perfectly as the “light” at the heart of the establishment thanks to the use of impeccable white Zenith, which contrasts with the dark colour of the Keranium flooring and the green plants which adorn the walls. The tiling in Restaurant Dani García is also unique in that it has been customised with an engraved crackle effect.
From an operational point of view, Dekton® was the ideal choice of material for this project in many ways. Its mechanical properties give it over five times the flexural strength of granite, making it more resistant to abrasion and ideal for high traffic areas such as restaurant flooring. It is incredibly easy to maintain and never needs to be resurfaced or refinished. The large format slabs (320cm x 144cm) also contribute an element of continuity to the flooring, giving an elegant feel throughout.
In the kitchen, the clean white Dekton® in Zenith offers more than just aesthetic appeal. Scratch, stain and heat resistant, it is the perfect choice of material for a space where daily en-gbge is very intense. The low porosity of Dekton® ensures that liquid spills will not penetrate the surface, ensuring it is easy to clean and maintain. It is also highly resistant to UV rays, making it suitable for both indoor and outdoor use as it will not fade or degrade over time.
OKAMI
Okami is a Japanese restaurant in Malaga offering an inspiring mix of traditional Japanese cuisine with local fare. The owners wanted to reflect Japanese culture throughout the building, including the careful use of materials and colours to truly immerse diners in a new world after entering the premises.
Dekton® was chosen for the flooring and the restaurant’s bar, reflecting the adaptability of the material and the variety of colours on offer. The manufacturing process allows Cosentino to control the pigmentation and decoration of each slab to offer better colour consistency, resulting in a beautiful long-lasting product that will not fade over time. The deep black hues of Domoos on the bar and Sirius for the flooring contrast perfectly with the red design elements within the restaurant.
Once more, Dekton® provides ideal benefits when used in a commercial restaurant environment, due to its heat, scratch and stain resistant properties. In Okami, the bar is used by the chefs to assemble the sushi under the watchful gaze of diners, so ease of cleaning was also a very important deciding factor when selecting materials in order to ensure a hygienic kitchen environment.
THE WOODSPEEN
Internationally acclaimed two Michelin star chef, John Campbell selected Dekton by Cosentino worksurfaces for his new cookery school and restaurant, The Woodspeen, which is located in the beautiful West Berkshire countryside near Newbury. 12 slabs of Dekton® in Danae have been installed in the cookery school in addition to a striking five-metre long pass, which opens up the kitchen to the whole restaurant. The worktops were fabricated and fitted by Marble Workshop.
The restaurant kitchen was designed for use by professional chefs, but also needed to be aesthetically pleasing from the guest’s perspective, hence the choice of Dekton® for the pass to create an attractive yet highly functional feature. Its thermal shockproof properties make it resistant to both extreme heat and extreme cold, so hot plates or pans on the pass do not leave marks.
In contrast, the cookery school needed to have a mix of durability and function, according to chef John Campbell. Whilst the worktops would need to endure the same en-gbge as a professional kitchen, it was important that they had a homely quality so as not to intimidate visitors to the cookery school. The thin dimensions and finish of Dekton® offered all of this, whilst also providing a pleasantly tactile surface for dough, as the bread making course is one of the most popular classes on offer.
RESTAURANT ANDRE
Award winning Restaurant André is well known in Singapore for culinary excellence, currently holding fifth place in the coveted Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Walking into the newly renovated restaurant in the corner of trendy Bukit Pasoh Road, diners are greeted with sleek designs, clean lines and perfectly aligned table settings. The use of Dekton® by Cosentino’s Spring 2015 Collection can be seen from the entrance through to the heart of the kitchen, with Keyla, Keon and Galema chosen to complement the muted tones throughout the space.
The technical characteristics of Dekton® made it the perfect choice for the professional kitchen and restaurant, due to its ability to resist fire and heat, allowing direct contact with hot objects whilst maintaining its beautiful aesthetic. The collaboration between Cosentino Singapore and Restaurant André further highlights Dekton’s® unmatchable properties, and its potential to seamlessly integrate in the design and architectural industry in Singapore and Asia.
Taiwanese-born chef and co-owner Andre Chiang trained in France and views his menu as an exploratory journey, treating diners to enchanting courses with his signature flair and sophistication.
Chef Andre comments, “The opportunity to work with Cosentino came pretty naturally to me. At Restaurant André, we pride ourselves in the food we serve so it’s important that our facilities and environment makes for an effective and efficient space. I especially love Dekton’s® multi-faceted properties like its resistant to stains, heat and scratches which are important aspects to look for in a commercial kitchen. Another plus is Cosentino’s wide variety of designs and colours that ensures the products are in sync with my design philosophy.”
RESTAURANT DIVERXO
Restaurant DiverXO is yet another award-winning restaurant to select Dekton® by Cosentino as part of its design for both its beauty and technical properties. The only restaurant to hold three Michelin stars in Madrid, the aim was to create a space that would offer a unique dining experience, immersing diners in the creative world of owner and head chef, David Muñoz, a concept achieved through the fantastical decor and carefully chosen materials.
The ultra-compact surface, Dekton® has been used in several areas including the kitchen worksurfaces and flooring and wall cladding throughout. In an establishment where daily en-gbge is intensive, Dekton® offers several technical properties which make it the ideal choice, including its ability to withstand extreme temperatures without changing aesthetically and a high resistance to abrasion, stains and scratching. Ease of cleaning is equally a vital requirement for worktops used for food preparation, and Dekton® provides this. The possibility of producing it in a large format also ensures seamless surfaces, creating clean lines and a feeling of infinity in the restaurant.
The choice of colours available in Dekton® was also an important factor in choosing the product. Colour Domoos has a delicate matte finish for the work surfaces in the impressive central open-plan cooking area of the dining room, catching the eye of waiting diners who are able to watch their dishes being finished before service. Clean white Dekton® Zenith was selected for the kitchen worksurfaces, whilst the simplicity of Dekton® in grey Sirocco provides the perfect backdrop for the walls and flooring throughout the restaurant, giving a sense of continuity and elegance.
Chef David Muñoz comments, “What I love about these products is not just the feeling of calm they offer so that the element of fantasy can flourish, but also because they provide a sense of infinity, something very important to me. If you look, you’ll see that the Silestone tables and the Dekton central dining table, the worktops and kitchen walls all have a feeling of something inifictine, something endless, and in the end, the concept of the DiverXO experience is a bit like that”.
ENDS
