The event was organised by Qook!’s sole UK distributor Peterborough-based KFE, in conjunction with manufacturer QBTEC based in Woerden, Holland. Qook! is a brand of premium commercial kitchen suites in Europe, supplying high-end restaurants and hotels in Holland, Belgium, Germany and France.

Chefs on the trip included:

• Adam Smith, Woven by Adam Smith, Ascot
• Eric Snaith, Titchwell Manor, King’s Lynn
• Jason Wass, Stein’s Group, Cornwall
• John Molnar, The Cod’s Scallops, Nottingham
• Laurence Henry, The Martin’s Arms, Colston Basset
• Lenny Carr-Roberts, Bugle Inn/The Fox, East Sussex
• Mark Poynton, Caistor Hall, Norwich
• Simon Hulstone, The Elephant, Torquay

Day one featured visits to the Michelin-starred restaurant Inter Scaldes in Ruining, where chefs enjoyed a personal tasting menu from head chef Jerome Achtien and a private tour of the kitchen, including the Qook! suite. The next stop was Pesca, a unique seafood concept in Rotterdam, where customers buy their fish at market prices from the fishmongers, choose their sides, and a unique menu is created.  

After a night of rest at the boutique Van Rossum Stadshotel in Woerden, chefs embarked on a tour of QBTEC’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to witness the skill and expertise that goes into every custom-made Qook! suite.

A final stop at fine dining restaurant Calva in Nootdorp saw chefs participate in an interactive workshop with master chef Tom Beckers, cooking a range of dishes including steak, cod and oysters on an Adieu grill built into a Qook! suite.

Commenting on the trip, Smith said: “The Qook! kitchen we saw at Inter Scaldes is the sort of kitchen that all chefs dream of. It has everything you could want for and was absolutely beautiful. It’s obviously a restaurant that's aiming to be at the absolute top of the league of the gastronomic scene and it was special. It's very, very impressive.

“When you want to operate at the elite level and you want to work in restaurants that aspire to have fantastic accolades and be busy, with all cooking there is no rulebook. You choose how you want to work, and everybody will work slightly differently. To have that opportunity with Qook! to design something bespoke for yourself, to have the expertise and the knowledge of people who do that for a living all the time, I think is fantastic.”