Cornwall is famous for the quality of its seafood, and as a result has some of the world’s greatest seafood restaurants. Two of them can be found in the fishing village of Porthleven. Kota and Kota Kai are run by chef patron Jude Kereama, whose imaginative takes on classic seafood have garnered him an array of awards including three AA rosettes – Kota is one of only five restaurants in Cornwall to achieve this - along with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and many other prestigious honours. He has also appeared on The Great British Menu four times, and made it through to the final in the 2021 series.

Jude’s menu combines advanced techniques and local produce to create bold, flavourful dishes, and he utilises modern equipment to achieve many of them. Recently he has been using an Orved Evox 30 vacuum packer, supplied by Taylor UK. “I’ve tried a lot of different vacuum packers in my career,” he says. “This one is amazing!”

The Evox 30 is a powerful unit capable of quickly creating a vacuum that allows chefs to prepare food for safe storage or for a range of cooking techniques like sous vide. Contained within its stainless steel body is a carefully designed vacuum chamber made from strong, flexible polymer. The chamber features rounded corners which make it easy to clean, and a wireless sealing bar that automatically seals bags of food during the vacuum process.

The Evox 30 is controlled via four touch sensitive buttons, and is capable of four different sealing levels with a maximum achievable vacuum of 99.8% (2 millibars).  As well as different programs for preparing ingredients for storage and cooking, it also features a cycle designed for use with sealed containers. A powerful sensor automatically shuts off the machine once the desired level is reached, making it simple to use in busy kitchens.

“The Evox 30 is very flexible,” says Jude. “Not only is the vacuum chamber really big, so you can do large amounts of ingredients at once, but you can also vacuum pack larger items outside of the chamber thanks to the hose attachment.”

So far, the Evox 30 is more than able to keep pace with Jude’s imagination. “It’s managed to handle everything we’ve thrown at it so far,” he says. “We’ve been trying out lots of different things – liquids, and different types of proteins as well as compressing various fruits and vegetables. It’s a very flexible, clever piece of equipment!”

The Evox 30’s compact size (355mm wide x 365mm deep x 184mm high) means it can be installed almost anywhere, allowing kitchens of any size to take advantage of vacuum packing techniques. Two versions of the Evox 30 are available, one with an 8 cbm/h pump, the other with a 12 cbm/h pump if more power is required.

Jude is in no doubt that it’s a powerful addition to his kitchen. “It’s a great design, very clean and modern,” he says. “It’s just brilliant, I can highly recommend it!” 

Taylor UK and Hubbard Systems are part of HTG Trading, which has over 40 years’ experience as a foodservice equipment supplier. Hubbard Systems is the UK distributor for the market-leading Scotsman range of icemakers. Taylor UK is the exclusive distributor of the Taylor, Frigomat and Pratica ranges in the UK, and a preferred supplier of ISA, TurboChef and Perfect Fry equipment.

 For more information go to www.taylor-company.co.uk