Dekton® by Cosentino Chosen for Renowned Restaurant and Cookery School: The Woodspeen
Project: The Woodspeen Restaurant and Cookery School
Location: Berkshire, UK
Project end date: October 2017
Duration of Project (for Cookery School refurb): 3 months
Original Architect for Restaurant and Cookery School: Softroom www.softroom.com
Kitchen Designer for Cookery School Refurbishment: Snugg Kitchens www.snugkitchens.co.uk
Builder: Donovans Construction www.donovanconstruction.co.uk
Application: Restaurant Pass and Cookery School Worktops
Material: Dekton®
Colour: Danae
Thickness: 20mm
Quantity (m2): 5
Application: Cookery School Worktops
Material: Dekton®
Colour: Trilium
Thickness: 20mm
Quantity (m2): 45
The revolutionary ultra-compact surface, Dekton® by Cosentino has once again proven to be the surface of choice for professional chefs, with its recent installation by internationally acclaimed Michelin Star chef, John Campbell for his restaurant and cookery school, The Woodspeen.
Situated in the beautiful West Berkshire countryside near Newbury, The Woodspeen Restaurant was built on the plot of a once thriving local pub that had been left in a state of disrepair. After a year, the new building came to life, keeping the shell of the original pub but adding a large extension to the rear to create a bright, airy restaurant with fantastic views of the rolling countryside.
During the original renovation, Dekton® Danae was chosen for the restaurant’s remodel, designed to add a touch of theatrics to guests who are able to see the inner workings of the kitchen from the restaurant. Campbell wanted to steer away from the austere nature of standard stainless steel tops often found in professional kitchens and instead create a link between the kitchen and onlooking diners, and so Dekton®, which offered both a beautiful and practical design solution, was used for the opportunity. As Campbell explains, “Pans, plates and extremely hot utensils are used in the space each and every day so it’s important that the surface is able to cope with the heat, which Dekton® does brilliantly.”
This initial introduction to the ultra-compact surface led Campbell to install it once again when embarking on the recent refurbishment of The Woodspeen Cookery School, citing how impressed he was with the surface’s durability as one of the core reasons. “The countertops in the restaurant are over three and half years old, but still looks just as good as when it was put in – hence why Dekton® was the obvious choice in the Cookery School. It looks good, it feels good, but importantly it gives us all the benefits required.”
Located just yards away from the main restaurant, the Cookery School is open to both professional chefs for intense training days and enthusiastic home cooks who enjoy the various different courses on offer. Campbell wanted the space’s new design to bridge the gap between a commercial and domestic kitchen, ensuring that all students felt at home in the space, however it was also key that the material specified for the tops would be robust enough to cope with intense daily use. Having already seen Dekton’s high resistance to heat, scratches and stains in action in the restaurant, Campbell was assured it would be more than up to the job, while offering additional benefits for the particular skills taught in the school. “Perfect for the Cookery School, Dekton® remains the same temperature as the room, unlike marble and granite surfaces which can be at a much lower temperature to their environment. When we are teaching students to make bread for example, we can turn out the dough straight onto the surface as it’s very tactile, smooth and a pleasure to work on.»
Previously used in the restaurant, Dekton® Danae was selected again for two worktops in the cookery school, creating contrast and giving the center of the space a feeling of spaciousness due to its lighter hue. Selected for the remaining worktops and splashbacks in the Cookery School, the award-winning Dekton® Trilium, part of the Industrial Collection, immediately stood out as the obvious choice for Campbell. «Trilium, wow, amazing. What the whole restaurant and the cookery school is all about is natural woods, materials, coppers, bronzes and brick, so this design really complements the dark colors and metallic elements and was the obvious choice here. For me, the Dekton® tops really create the visual wow factor in this kitchen.»
About Dekton® by Cosentino
The Dekton® by Cosentino ultra-compact surface is a new and innovative category of surfaces created with the objective of becoming a global leader in the world of architecture and design both for indoor and outdoor spaces.
Dekton® is a sophisticated mixture of the raw materials that is used to manufacture glass, porcelain materials and quartz surfaces. The Dekton® surface can recreate any type of material with a high level of quality. It is manufactured in large format (up to 320 cm x 144 cm) and thin thicknesses (0.8 cm, 1.2 cm and 2 cm). It as superior technical characteristics: resistance to UV rays, scratches, stains, thermal shock and very low water absorption.
All of these characteristics unique to Dekton® are present thanks to the technology used in its production, which has been developed exclusively by the Cosentino Group’s R&D department. Dekton® is manufactured with Technology of Sinterized Particles (TSP), an innovative ultra-compaction process. This contributes greatly to the fact that Dekton® is a completely revolutionary product; it is durable, very easy to maintain, and has potential for both indoor and outdoor uses including flooring, façades, wall cladding and worktops.
The prestigious architect and designer Daniel Libeskind used Dekton in the creation of “Beyond The Wall”, his only work in the Iberian Peninsula. Dekton® is sponsor of the “Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar”, where more than 40.000 m2 of the product have been used in different areas such as the façades, flooring and other coverings.
Dekton® XGloss has obtained Red Dot Award: Product Design 2016
