Chef Bob McCann, FEWMCS, CCA has been an Executive Chef for 45 years. During that time he learned and honed his skills at European locations such as The Savoy in London and the Grand Central in Northern Ireland plus the P&O Orient Cruise Lines. He is now Professor of the Culinary Program at Humber. Since 1983 he has been using those skills to teach culinary students at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada how to work towards becoming world class chefs.

When Humber agreed to create a new teaching kitchen, Chef McCann had his own ideas of how he wanted his kitchen to look. He wanted to create a wide open look and feel to this new facility for teaching purposes. Chef is a proponent of cutting edge technology and had been planning this kitchen in his head for some fifteen years. Now it was time to see his ideas come together. His idea was to create inclined open class room seating at one end with two large hi-definition closed circuit screens across the far end, some 60 feet away. UP YOUR STACK™.com visited the installation a few weeks ago to see for ourselves.

The challenge was that his concept included a full Garland cooking lineup, back to back in the center of the space. A normal design with currently listed hoods would effectively block any lines of sight between students and the closed circuit monitors due to typical large sized hoods that would need to sit over the equipment. The room’s tiered seating configuration made the obstruction factor of traditional hoods even more problematic.

He enlisted the aid of the Vent Master Company located 15 minutes away in Mississauga, Ontario. If you have flown into Toronto, you have been in Mississauga. During the first meeting he told company officials that he wanted a ventilated ceiling much like he was accustomed to working with in Europe. The reply, was no! They would not be able to provide a ventilated ceiling as they had not been approved for use in North America. Vent Master officials expected the process to obtain approval to be far too daunting and time consuming. Chef McCann had a short schedule, one year to obtain all approvals, remodel the space and open the doors.

Chef McCann is not an easy person to deny. He would not accept a no even though fifteen years earlier, another firm had worked very diligently to bring the ventilated ceiling technology to the US. At that time, product testing had made it through UL. However, NFPA did not accept the product due to differences of opinion regarding fire protection.

At the second meeting, Chef McCann insisted he would take nothing less than a ventilated ceiling for his new kitchen. He convinced Vent Master officials to make a serious effort to obtain approvals for this concept, still new and unexplored in North America. In return, he promised his full cooperation to work with Vent Master and any code officials that would need to be convinced. This promise would lead to weekly meetings with all parties throughout the project.

Once Vent Master agreed to make the effort, Joe Profenna, Director of Engineering was given the task of figuring out how to proceed at several different levels, all concurrently. Designs needed to be developed for the kitchen as well as the ventilated ceiling system. UL Canada was contacted and Vent Master explained their needs. The local AHJ planning officials needed to be notified that Humber College wanted a new kitchen ventilation concept installed in their new facility. Overall, Joe Profenna’s concern was one of close and critical coordination between all parties, especially an understanding of responsibility for installation of this concept.

UL Canada cooperated by making trips to Ireland and the UK to review installed systems in those countries, all the while determining what product changes would be required to meet Canadian standards. Many hours of discussion and meeting ensued with a strong spirit of cooperation that something good was happening.

The existing space for the new kitchen contained obstacles. In order for this concept to work, it was determined that multiple column supports needed to be removed in order to provide the visual access required by the design. The ceiling had to be reinforced to carry the weight of class rooms overhead. No small challenge under any circumstances.

Critical to the success of the potential project, Joe Profenna determined that he would need complete project control and supervision regarding all aspects of the ventilation system. He took on responsibility for the complete system including the ventilated ceiling itself, fire suppression system, all ducting, make up air and roof top fans. His responsibility would include installation of all of these various pieces of the puzzle. It proved to be the right decision.

Humber opened their new kitchen in December of 2004. It has proved to be a resounding success and talking to Chef McCann proves he is one happy man. The students look happy working in their new environment. Chef Bob comments that in addition to gaining the sight lines he sought, he also gained a level of quiet, essential to a teaching institution.

The finished ceiling is at 9’-11” above the quarry tile floor. No typical hood hangs down below that finished ceiling level. Only the chrome fire system pipes drop down over the cooking equipment. 24” of space above the ventilated ceiling accommodates all of the other equipment. Completely installed by Vent Master, the stainless steel ventilated ceiling contains the exhaust components called cassettes, make-up air supply, lighting and fire extinguishing system drops over the equipment.

Chef McCann states that “Our new kitchen at Humber College represents the future of kitchens with the walls coming down”. Chef is proud that this project, aided by private industry included no government funding.

Vent Master is currently awaiting UL approval in the United States. A second installation has just been completed in Vancouver, BC, Canada for celebrity Chef Rob Feenie in his Lumiere Restaurant featuring exhibition cooking. This location is expected to open this summer. Vent Master was honored by NRA with the Innovator Award for 2005 for their development of the ventilated ceiling which will be featured in Chicago, IL at the NRA Show from May 21-24 next month at McCormack Place.

Contact Dan O’Brien, Director of Sales at Vent Master for more information and photos. danobrien@ventmaster.com

Author: George Zawacki, www.upyourstack.com . Reprints by permission. Contact george@upyourstack.com.