Edinburgh New Town Cook School site visit;

On Wednesday morning I met the principal of the Edinburgh New Town Cook School, Fiona Burrell. We had a short discussion about the history of the cook school and the building as well as my aims for the visit. 7-7a Queen Street, Edinburgh, B listed.

PDF of plans; cook school plans

Food storage;

The food is stored in the basement, with a dry foods room, a room holding the fridges and freezers and a room for general and wine storage.

The dry food room – shelving on walls and barrels on wheels with high volume ingredients eg flour and sugar

Each item was clearly labeled on the same place on each box / tub.

The fridges in separate room, with temperatures checked twice a day.

They use multiple regular fridges rather than a cold room as smaller fridges are easier to cope with when a breakdown occurs – one large fridge breaking would ruin everything – spread the risk over multiple separate fridges.

Only helpers or teachers can collect the food from storage – they don’t trust students.

The food is looked out and pre measured for students the day before they cook. I will implement this in the shop by having pre portioned ingredients available.

Users;

They have 16 full time students with 2 teachers at once – occupancy

Students do their own clean up every day and dishwasher to sanitise everything once a week. In my project this will be done for students so they can eat without having to worry about dishes. This will also reduce the noise in the building, making it more neurodiverse friendly.

For corporate events, evening and weekend courses users don’t do their own clean up, extra help is employed for this = extra cost for classes.

There is no specified accommodation for neurodiverse students it is done on an individual basis. The interior has no specific intention for neurodiverse accessibility.

other accommodations for neurodiverse users are; written exams have no time limit (same for non native English speakers), a scribe, reader, or computer available for written work, they encourage students to work at their own pace to build confidence.

Materials;

window decal same as logo

chains over doors to keep flies out

slip resistant floor with mitred corners

covered lights

white rock, stainless steel – splash backs

6m corian demo worktop wooden benches – visiting teachers don’t always respect the surface – can only use the middle 1/3 – only part visible on camera for screens

gas – needs better ventilation – more expensive and louder

main kitchen

stainless steel workstations in middle and edge

drawer and cupboard each in middle

central wooden work bench – dampens sound – hard to maintain but manageable due to high maintenance of the entire kitchen.

Falcon cooker – aga – 13 years old still works

induction hob – uses more electricity but has better efficiency

everything’s on wheels – cookers, workstations – flexi hoses gas

no deep fat fryer – fills ventilation with grease and causes fires – Fiona and chartered loss adjustor

stools in the kitchen – shorter than bar stools

noise – comes from fridges, machinery eg hand held beaters

grease in sinks

grease trap requires cleaning – gross
enzyme doser – practical – automatic but expensive

emergency shut off button

deliveries – need space for deboxing ingredients – hygiene – high and low salmonella risk

bins

bottle, food, main, grease, recycle
out back same as delivery entrance – ground level door next to staff

production kitchen – lift

lighting

covers on lights in case of breakage

lux 25 min

food safety;

cooksafe, food standards Scotland

https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/downloads/CookSafe_website_update_-_Complete_copy_-_February__201612_%281%29.pdf

Above shows the food storage including dry storage and refrigerators.

Above shows one of the teaching kitchens. There are a number of benches all on wheels with their own power supply. The 3rd picture shows the materials used for the 3m long teaching bench – Corian and wooden slats. Fiona stated that the surface can be damaged by chefs being careless will hot pans however it has laster very well. She also stated that 3m is unnecessary when teaching, partly due to the small area that the camera can cover when projecting so students can see.

There is a long mirror above the teaching bench to allow students to see what is going on.

There is a list of ingredients to be ordered and prepared as well as equipment needed for classes the day before.

The cook school has worked well around the existing structure, making use of the high ceilings and glass. The second kitchen is predominantly stainless steel for ease of cleaning.

Detail;

https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/architects/interactive-building/balustrades

Tadao Ando designs Wrightwood 659 exhibition space in Chicago

The modern angular staircase has been placed within a 1929 brick apartment building in Chicago.

texture and pattern on the concrete
balustrade – glass panel recessed into concrete with a metal handrail
I like the supporting wall as it grounds the stair and adds a different visual form to the structure.

By adding a reinforced concrete wall as a central spine column, the architecture remains in alignment with the existing architecture.