Many hotel properties produce impressive meals of quality a cut above their competition. But few likely do so with such small and efficient kitchens as those within Cambria Suites properties.

“Our kitchens are designed to operate with one cook,” says Phil Beilke, Cambria’s senior director of brand management. “For peak times, we cross-train hotel staff to come in for 45 minutes to help with cleanup, but it’s essentially a one-person space.” Cambria also provides prep sheets and checklists that guide the cook in preparing for the next shift. “It’s a complete turnkey system,” Beilke adds.

The diminutive kitchen can serve more than 100 at breakfast, produce sandwiches and salads for all-day grab ‘n’ go, and prepare food for attendees who are using the hotel’s approximately 2,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space.

Overall, the F&B options at Cambria Suites are detailed for all dayparts. Breakfast includes eggs cooked to order, served with thick-cut bacon or chicken-apple sausage; Belgian waffles with whipped cream; and slow-cooked, steel-cut oats topped with fresh fruit. The dinner menu is equally ample, with such items as fully loaded Angus burgers, chicken sandwiches topped with roasted red peppers and artichokes, and a zingy house salad of mixed greens, bleu cheese, strawberries, and balsamic vinaigrette. A selection of organic soups, a full-service bar, the Wolfgang Puck barista bar, and chef-selected buffet menus round out Cambria’s culinary offerings.

BOISE BEGINNINGS
Cambria Suites, a Choice Hotels International brand, launched in 2007 in Boise, Idaho, featuring a traditionally equipped 500-square-foot kitchen. The cookline and prep area consist of a flattop griddle, four-burner range, full-size holding cabinet/proofing box, convection oven, and salad prep table. A single drop-hatch dishwasher handles cleanup. Food storage space, while minimal, is backed up by the nearby Sysco distributor.

The Boise kitchen, spec’d by the owners before Cambria finished the prototype, “covers about the same space, but has a layout different than later kitchens,” Beilke says.

BEYOND BOISE
Cambria’s kitchen development has been a work in progress. The next six locations after Boise used a prototype developed by the Cambria team. Assisting them in overall development of the brand’s F&B concept and equipment package has been the Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group of Washington, D.C.

The key difference in these kitchens was an all-in-one, ventilation-free cooking system consisting of a grill and two-top burner with a combi oven below. While the choice did save on the installation of costly hoods, it did not pass muster with building inspectors in certain jurisdictions, Beilke says. Reliability and capacity issues with the ventless equipment caused the design team to go back to the drawing board.

NEXT GENERATION
Cambria’s second and current prototype covers 550 square feet plus 110 square feet of dry storage. The equipment package is similar to that of Boise, but the layout has been improved to reduce the number of steps the cook has to take to execute the menu. About 14 Cambria locations are now using this kitchen. The layout incorporates a breakfast bar area along the exterior of one kitchen wall, covering 80 square feet. The breakfast bar curves around seamlessly to the Reflect coffee bar, lounge, and dining area, part of a 1,260-square-foot space.

The third prototype, slated for rollout this year, decreases the amount of kitchen space to approximately 450 square feet. Additionally, the Cambria Suites design team is testing action stations, consisting of sneeze guards, under-counter refrigeration, and butane or induction burners, allowing the chef to create omelets or pasta dishes in front of guests.

The action station beta test at two locations has been “a big hit,” Beilke says. “Our F&B revenue per occupied room has gone up by an average of about 16 percent, thanks to the change. It’s a minimal investment and will let us move some of the kitchen equipment to the front.”

Janice Cha has covered the foodservice industry for more than a decade, focusing on kitchen equipment for the past seven years.

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