The brand new, purpose built, Ashton Park Garden Centre boasts the largest outdoor plant area in Tameside and offers just about everything for the gardener. Ashton Park also houses a new 150 seat café and a continental style coffee shop. As Catering Supervisor, Marc Appleton is responsible for the centre's new kitchen and front of house servery.

Marc Appleton
Restaurant/Coffee Shop Manager

Can you outline your role here at Ashton Park Garden Centre?

As the catering supervisor I'm responsible for what goes on in the restaurant, both front of house and in the kitchens, ensuring that the service and food are of a very high quality. I also have to make certain that everything is standardised so that when customers return the quality is the same. I have a head chef who runs the kitchen for me, but I'm in charge of ensuring everything runs smoothly as well as dealing with all the health and safety practices, sourcing suppliers and getting materials in at the right prices.

How did you first hear about Vision Commercial Kitchens?

I first worked with Vision around six years ago at the Barton Grange Garden Centre in Cheshire, which has now been taken over by the company that own Ashton Park. Vision also fitted out Café Med in Woodford when I was working there although I didn?t work with them closely I did end up working in the café. So I'm familiar with Vision and the work they have done. I know the quality of their work and what we can expect when we have them in.

At what stage did you get involved with Vision in terms of the planning process?

It was a few months before we opened; initially I was involved fairly loosely in all of the communication between the Garden Centre and Vision just so I knew what was going on and what to expect. I then became involved in the whole design and development process down to details such as selecting the crockery, the theme of the restaurant, the colour scheme and the design of counters and how we would run them. I was also consulted about the equipment we needed to go in the kitchen.

So did you have to liaise closely with the chef and with Vision?

When we started the fit out, we didn't have a head chef so I had to wear the hats of both the head chef and front of house manager which meant I had to be very much involved in the design of the kitchen. Vision were on hand to advise at all times which was crucial for us. With their experience in the industry we felt totally reassured.