Forest Tea House and Restaurant

In 1999 Chris and Jenny Tabb gave up their careers in finance when an opportunity came up for them to take over the Forest Tea House and Restaurant at Burley, in the heart of the New Forest, Hampshire.

Although The New Forest is a "great place to live and work", what followed was several difficult years trying to establish and grow the business. With the outbreak of Foot and Mouth, Chris and Jenny being new to catering and the arrival of their first child things were tough. They knew they had a challenge on their hands. Gradually trade began to grow which in turn highlighted the real problem - the poor kitchen layout. This had evolved over time and was preventing the business from meeting current demand and growing.

Chris said: "The layout was awful and privacy in our home was constantly compromised. The Tea room kitchen was squeezed between our lounge and our private garden. There was a very small exit to the front of house and to get out of the long and thin kitchen you had to swivel your hips with a handful of hot food and squeeze past the dishwasher. It was a complete nightmare."

There was bottlenecks everywhere, the worst being the 42 year-old gas oven, which could not handle the amount of cooking and baking they needed - and food had to be constantly rotated to ensure it cooked evenly. Chris was getting up in the middle of the night to do the days baking before putting on the roast for Sunday lunch.

Chris and Jenny first approached Carford in 2003, two years before they were in a position to redesign the kitchen, at a time when they desperately needed more capacity.

That started a two-stage improvement, an upgrade in the general ambience of the dining room with new furniture and lighting and a new Zanussi gas oven in the kitchen. This helped to improve the general trade and take some pressure off the cooking times but was only a small step in the grand scheme of things.

So now Carford's designers - project-managed by Ian Bryant - worked closely with Chris to produce a whole new layout, based on a new shape kitchen that planners and builders provided. In came a Blue Seal Convection oven, refrigeration, heated gantry, new tabling and shelving manufactured in Carford's inhouse facility.

Out went the bottlenecks, the kitchen is squarer in shape with much more efficient workspace and better workflows. The cook-line is much closer to where the customers sit; food is served onto the heated gantry and then passed easily to the front of house.

Forest Tea House and Restaurant seats up to 75 customers inside and 50 in the garden, and attracts visitors and locals alike through word of mouth. It has also developed regular coach and group business through personal contact. It is open 10am-5pm, seven days a week, 364 days a year and employs up to 15 staff.

The new kitchen has improved service no end. There are excellent workflows into all three dining areas, the front tea room, the conservatory and garden. Now when a coach of visitors arrives staff can handle them professionally and quickly. Chris said: "The kitchen we have now is perfect. We have improved the quality and variety of our food and serve our customers with confidence, no matter how busy we are. Carford did a great job, their input has helped boost our business enormously."