One of the biggest causes of large claims for providers of restaurant insurance are fires caused by frying ranges or frying equipment.
The very nature of what you are doing, heating cooking oil up to very high temperatures, is fraught with danger.
Any restaurant owner will be well aware of the dangers to their staff of trying to put out fires involving hot fat or oil. They will advise their staff that in the event of a fire there are only two things they should do, get themselves and customers out of the premises and then phone the fire brigade.
Even when the fire brigade turn up, they will not enter the building unless there are lives at risk. This usually results in a seriously damaged building along with contents that are either destroyed or unlikely to be used again.
For this reason, insurers do not like these risks. Their opinion is the same for takeaway insurance and there is a selected market for a broker to go to when getting a quote.
What this means is that, if you have a restaurant, takeaway or any establishment serving food (ie a pub with bar snacks) you must declare if you have either a frying range or any type of equipment that heats oil or fat automatically. Even if it is a table top fryer that costs £50 at Argos, you need to declare this. The reason being that if you have deep fat frying equipment, and you have a fire, then a claim may be turned down if you have not declared this to your insurers.