The kitchen at The Vincent has been brought back to life as Morris Hospitality’s production kitchen and butchery.
Under the direction of Head Production Chef, Dan Greenwood, one of the kitchen’s main responsibilities is preparing the array of premium meats for the group’s collection of Victorian pubs from the bulk deliveries from suppliers.
Dan says that apart from the obvious cost benefits, there are other big advantages to the concept.
“Skilled labour is always hard to find, so pulling this kind of labour out of the kitchens and letting the chefs focus on the thing they do best which is service makes a lot of sense,” he said.
“I can spend a bit of time continuing to build the strong relationship with suppliers like Flinders & Co, and it just gives us a bit of quality control over the product that ends up making it into the restaurant kitchens and onto the plates of our guests. I can make sure we’re getting the consistent level of excellence we’re looking for.
“Centralising also means we can make the most of any trim and wastage and have it all in one place to repurpose and value-add to it rather than it just being used for staff meal or chucked into a stock. We can actually repurpose it in a way that is more thoughtful, so it doesn’t get wasted.”
Before joining the Morris Hospitality team six months ago, Dan was working in product development for LaManna gourmet supermarkets, where he’d also been head chef for their ready-meals production kitchen.
“I started out in restaurants and then transitioned into production kitchens after that,” he said.
“The hours are a little bit more family-friendly and I found it really interesting. I did some time in airline catering before that, and I’ve just kept growing in that side of hospitality. I just really enjoy it.”