What was one of the first things that Michael Mannel noticed when he got a new dishwasher? "When I glanced at the timesheet of the guy who does the washing-up, I saw that he was doing less work." The guy he's referring to is Mamazougou Nadijou. Born in Togo, he has worked at Glottertal's oldest hotel and restaurant "Zum Goldenen Engel" for the last eight years. Michael Mannel certainly doesn't begrudge the fact that his staff member has fewer dirty dishes to deal with. Live and let live is his motto – and when you see how successful he is at recruiting staff it's pretty clear that it works!
His approach basically consists of being friendly to people and creating a good working environment in the kitchen. That's the kind of pleasant, informal atmosphere he experienced himself when he and his wife spent a season working with the world-famous Haeberlin family at the Auberge de l’Ill, before the two of them decided to take on the "Zum Goldenen Engel" hotel and restaurant in 2006, which had previously been in his wife's family.
hood type dishwashing machine
The inn can seat 80 people in its à la carte restaurant, though this can be expanded to 120 for special events, and an additional 60 guests can be seated in the garden in good weather. "Zum Goldenen Engel" is also a hotel, but the popularity of this traditional inn is by no means limited to Black Forest tourists. The Glottertal townsfolk also appreciate this venerable old building, and it's a popular choice for family parties and funeral wakes.
Mannel favours home-style cuisine with striking French and Mediterranean influences. The periods he spent working at the Colombi Hotel in Freiburg and the Romantik Hotel in Bad Hersfeld earlier in his career were clearly put to good use. Mannel certainly runs a professional operation – and that includes professional kitchen equipment.
One of his most recent additions is a M-iClean H from meiko. He was determined to get the very latest generation of hood type dishwashing machines, and he is delighted with the results:
"The automatic hood system helps us work faster and delivers outstanding wash results."
"The surfaces of our dishware used to be rough and lacklustre, but now they come out smooth and sparkling. We've just replaced our glasswasher with a machine from the MEIKO M-iClean range, too, and that makes life much easier because we no longer need to polish the glassware by hand when it comes out of the machine", says Mannel enthusiastically.
It's clear that Mannel sets great store by perfectly clean dishware, but he also focuses on aspects that may not be immediately obvious at first glance: "We run a combined heat and power plant here and seek out sustainable sources to buy produce for the restaurant." One of the things I like best about the M-iClean H is that it has a feature to keep the steam inside the machine when you open the hood, so the air quality in the kitchen is better, much less humid.
I was equally impressed by the fact that it consumes less energy and water and has stainless steel piping to ensure a long service life." But Mannel being Mannel, he is also impressed by one of the key soft factors that MEIKO customers appreciate:
"They offer a fantastic support service. Whenever we have a problem they immediately send someone to help!"
