Cold Rooms for Tom Whitaker’s Tempus Foods Pt. 2
Chiller Cold Rooms, Walk-In Freezers and Ambient Areas at Tempus Foods
Traditionally charcuterie is produced within the confines of stone cellars in Italy and France, with the cuts of meat being cured and aged to produce beautiful salamis, sausages and other flavoursome products.
Tom Whitaker’s flare and passion for charcuterie has brought this to process to Surrey, with the help of MTCSS and CB Refrigeration. Tom’s culinary business has developed since becoming a Masterchef Finalist in 2010, with his company the London Dining Concept delivering bespoke fine dining. You can find out more about the start of Tom’s business ventures and love of all things charcuterie on our blog Tempus Foods Pt. 1.
Now Tempus Foods will produce the best of British Charcuterie with the help of Tom’s business partner – the winner of Masterchef 2010 and self-proclaimed Charcuterie fiend – Dhruv Baker and MT Cold Storage.
MTCSS were able to produce the environments required to create the highest quality cured products.. The MTCSS team installed an array of cold rooms, vital to the method of producing charcuterie – this included one dual purpose chiller and freezer room, to freeze pigs and beef coming in which had not yet to be butchered; one ambient room for the aging process; one temperature controlled room to prep the meats from cutting to curing; one freezer to store the cuts of meat and one chiller to store the curing meats.
MTCSS supplied and installed the monoblock refrigeration units for the dual purpose chiller and freezer – this cold room was used as a holding freezer for three to four months a year. A split refrigeration system was fitted in this freezer to act as a chiller for the remaining months of the year. The MTCSS team also installed the flooring within the prep room using a classic altro floor cover – we applied capping and cover to form a waterproof seal to the walls.
This bank of cold rooms was designed to imitate the stone cellars used in Italy and France, creating the temperature conditions with monoblocks and other refrigeration units. The use of space available in the building was carefully considered, ensuring the maximum space was able to be used in each cold storage unit. The refrigeration units were installed above the cold rooms, on top of the mezzanine to avoid using space which could be used to store and prepare the meats.
Adhering to the strict deadlines in place by the incoming produce, MTCSS and CB Refrigeration successfully installed their cold room solution to meet Tom Whitaker’s vision and allow his British Charcuterie innovation to come to life.
The deadlines haven’t stopped there for Tom Whitaker and his partner-in-charcuterie Dhruv Baker, the pair have found themselves working 12-15 hours a day at the beginning of the week in order to prep the volume of meat coming in. And then it will be nearly 2 months before their first product is ready, the initial batch being used as samples for those waiting to get their hands on it.
You can find Tom on Twitter to follow his charcuterie journey @Mr_Fennel, alongside Dhruv @DhruvBaker1. Or you can find out more about Tom’s other business venture The London Dining Concept on their website.
Bert De Mooij, Bespoke Chiller Cold Room for Q Flowers Ltd 2021
From coming into contact with MTCSS to the finished product, has been a great and easy process.
The members of the team listened to our wishes and offered us exactly what we needed. From picking the type of cooler machines, the doors, the lights - everything was exactly adjusted to our wishes.
Even though through the COVID period where availability of materials were challenging, the cold room was finished on the date as was planned when signing for the order.
Very professional company from start to finish.
Catherine Hester Fenwick, Ambient storage at Brabourne Wines 2021
‘Brabourne Wine is a small, family run vineyard in Kent. In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a Conservation Area and with listed buildings, we needed to find a solution to store our wine without building afresh or making any material differences to the current buildings. MTCSS were amazingly flexible. They worked with us to develop a solution that fitted inside one of our outbuildings. Given the limitations on space and the requirement to have racking suitable for pallets, virtually everything about the project had to be bespoke but Darren never lost patience with the endless queries in the planning phase. Once on site, the team was professional, friendly, flexible and quick. They have delivered a solution which is perfect for our needs and exceeds our expectations. We are at the smaller end of their usual customer base, but we were never made to feel as though we were any less important than a major supermarket chain. We would certainly recommend them to anybody needing a controlled climate for storage (or any other reason)’
Chris Rudd, Frank Rudd & Sons
" From the initial enquiry to project completion, the team at MTCSS were both prompt and professional - delivering exactly to our requirements. " Chris Rudd, Frank Rudd & Sons Office Installation
Cold Room Refurbishment at Steve’s Family Butchers
Steves Family Butchers now has a fantastic refurbished cold room, which actually looks like a whole new cold room thanks to MTcss cold storage solutions. We found they responded in a very quick and helpful manner which meant that they communicated well with us and kept us informed well. The refurbishment was completed to a very high standard in a professional manner. We are exceptionally pleased with the service that we received.
Dual Compartment Cold Room Installation, London
From the beginning I found Gem’s customer service fantastic, out of all of the companies we spoke to for quotes she was the most responsive and attentive. Even when we were still finalising and it wasn’t confirmed if we were proceeding with MTCSS yet, she was always great with keeping in contact to see if we needed anything, and very responsive with emails, and also phone calls.
Andy and Nathan, have been great throughout the entire process. Both have been on hand for any queries we have had and very responsive again to all forms of communication. Everything has been handled promptly and efficiently both before, during and after the build. Any questions we have had they have always gotten back to us with an answer very quickly.
The gentlemen who completed the install here on site, where very friendly and mindful of business operations while completing work. Each day they would check in with who was here in the morning to explain what they would be doing, what access they required, and asked if and how this might affect our operations or customers. Again, they were very clear and open with communication and was happy to help find solutions when we had issues with the shelving.
Overall our experience with you has been very good and we have been left a happy customer. I would also just like to say a thank you to yourself Gem, Nathan and Andy as you have all been very great throughout our customer journey!