OLD SPITALFIELDS MARKET

London

Delicious dishes have always been at the heart of the Old Spitalfields Market in London, and now Hallmark Kitchens has brought to life relaxed fine dining to The Kitchens.

The market was first opened back in 1638 and in over 350 years has gone from being a wholesaler of fruit and veg for London’s growing population to a famous market housing a wealth of restaurants and shops and a popular arts and crafts market.

Old Spitalfields Market has always been a champion of great street food, but restauranteur Nuno Mendes and hospitality expert Stephen Macintosh took on the venture of evolving this offering even further, creating a high-end street food environment that would complement the existing traders on site.

With this ethos in mind, The Kitchens at Old Spitalfields Market was born, offering a distinctive, central hub of 10 units selling an exciting mix of contemporary dishes in the market’s relaxed communal environment.

The kitchens were designed by Foster & Partners in conjunction with Hallmark Kitchens, who fit out the stalls and food units with equipment from the leading manufacturers, ensuring that the area was built to accommodate the needs of the kitchen staff to the highest standard.

This project, which opened in the autumn as the first phase of an ongoing refurbishment, required the Hallmark team to procure ultra-compact equipment to maximize the space of ten units, while ensuring that the chefs could consistently deliver a high standard of fine dining street food.

Hallmark managing director Kevin Jennings said: “The primary challenge was to procure fit-for-purpose equipment and manufacture the very specialist fabrication within the timeframe of the overall project.

“Particularly, as the whole project was ‘fast track’, our stainless steel fabrication had to be manufactured from the steelwork fabricator’s pod drawings, as there would be no time to measure after the installation if the programmed opening date was to be met.”

The oven of choice for the hub was the SpaceCombi Magic Pilot Junior model, by leading German manufacturer MKN, which offers exceptional capacity but in a more compact size compared to the bigger models and was chosen after careful research.

“The oven is very flexible, quick and easy to use,” said Miguel Cordova, chef de partie at Thousand Knives, which sells Japanese small plates in The Kitchens.

“We use it for making our hot and spicy ramen and miso soup, roasting chicken bones for our yakitori tare sauce, cooking marinated pork shoulder and vegetables for our spring rolls, and warming through sushi steamed rolls.”

Hallmark are proud to have been able to work with Old Spitalfields Market, and are thrilled to see that they are delighted with their new equipment and working area.