On The Side

Chef Watch  Featuring Martin Orr of Dine Murrayfield, Edinburgh     How long have you been a chef? I’ve been a chef for 30 years this year. Why did you become a chef? My parents had a small B & B in the village I grew up in. I would help my Mum cook and…

Yes, one of mine I know, you were expecting Tom Cooks! Bread Month to come to a dramatic conclusion with a sourdough fanfare. I do appreciate that many of you get fairly excited about the stuff. And if we’re looking at the economic benefits of home made, making your own really scores here. Assuming you already…

In a previous existence I spent much of my time advising the licensed trade. When it came to law reforms affecting licensees, many hours were spent trying to persuade governments of the unworkability of many a scheme, and hundreds more ranting after those protestations were ignored. Lorna Slater MSP These days I live an untrammelled…

Sounds like part of a bad joke, doesn’t it? Readers of a certain vintage will remember this one. – How do you know if you have an elephant in the fridge? – You can see its footprints in the butter. Sarah and Steve Mitchell Substitute buffalo for elephant and it works just as well/badly. In life, how…

Now I know this column likes to keep up with the seasons and, to a lesser extent, with food trends, but I had no idea it was blessed with the gift of prophecy. Readers of Tom Cooks! will be aware that for the past two Fridays we have been giving you joyous things to put…

I’m not sure that I really understand what genetic modification is. What I do know is that, even leaving genes out of the equation, mankind has been mucking about with its fruit and veg for centuries. Never more it seems, than with today’s hero, the orange. Given the ubiquity of the fruit, it surprised me…

Chef Watch Featuring Jack Coghill Chef and Co-owner of Jack ‘O’  Bryan’s, Dunfermline How long have you been a chef? I started working in the kitchen for the family business when I was 14 washing dishes after school. When I left school (16) I started full time in the kitchen with my passion being pastry…

This article was influenced by two things. Firstly, there was the announcement that chef René Redzepi is to close his renowned restaurant Noma in 2024. Situated in the Danish capital Copenhagen, Noma has five times been voted the world’s best restaurant. And secondly there was the rather lurid headline in Sunday’s Observer that Jay Rayner…

How many of you know what this is? For nearly three years now we’ve been running the Chef Watch feature. Perhaps it needs a little freshening up – especially now that a certain lady in The Scotsman has not only adopted it, but also copied most of the questions. There is a certain sameness (if…

Less than three weeks to go. Admit it, you’re stuck for ideas aren’t you? It gets easier if you’re buying something for a food lover, but beware. I have cupboards stuffed full of interesting, but unopened packets of rare condiments, and we’re still working our way, very slowly, through the five mills of golden salt…

Chef Watch Featuring Georgios Alexiou Head Chef, The Tollhouse, Edinburgh How long have you been a chef? I was late to start by the usual standards. I am in kitchens since I was 21, so 16 years now, 7 of them here in Edinburgh. Why did you become a chef? It started by accident. I…

The local GP and his wife enter your restaurant. The exchange between them and your waiter goes something like this. Table for two, please. We’ve booked. Smith. Yeah, I know. Mrs Smith, did you look in the mirror before you came out? What on earth made you think that top goes with that skirt? And…

Take your life in your hands and hurtle down the vertiginous slope to Hawkcraig Point in Aberdour. There you will find the home of the force of nature that is Wendy Barrie, chef, food fanatic and ambassador for the Slow Food Movement Scotland. I’ve been slightly surprised how few people actually know of the Slow…

Don’t start shouting that I’m cheating and that’s why you didn’t guess it. If managers of Scottish supermarkets are allowed to sit supinely (is that possible? – Ed) while head office decrees that they should label their turnips as swedes, then I’m entitled to redress the balance. And anyway N is also for navet, the little…

Chef Watch Featuring Calum Montgomery of Edinbane Lodge, Isle of Skye   How long have you been a chef? I’ve been working in kitchens for almost 19 years now! Scrubbed my first professional pot in early 2004 whilst still in school (aged14) but started to make my way through the ranks at 16. Why did…

I’ve done a bit of teaching over the years. I enjoyed it, but living with an education professional made me realise that, as with cooking, there’s an awful lot more to it than the untrained amateur might think. A lot of it was in my specialist field of liquor licensing. Lectures, seminars and master classes…

Adam is on the right Chef Watch Featuring Adam Newth of The Tayberry, Broughty Ferry   How long have you been a chef? I was 14 years old when I first started in a small cafe in my home town of Arbroath. So 17 years now.    Why did you become a chef? To cut a long story…

Last week’s Tom Cooks! on the subject of the martini cocktail attracted more attention and comment than I anticipated. Some of you also expressed interest in The Savoy Cocktail Book, compiled by Harry Craddock, head bartender at the hotel’s American Bar. While the book is long out of print, an enterprising publishing company, Martino Fine…

Passionate. I must stop it. It’s just too Mills & Boon. Perhaps, but it’s easier said than done when you meet food enthusiasts, the ones who go wild eyed when talking about their produce, the ones who can declaim about it for hours while never, ever being boring. I first encountered Robin at a demonstration…

Well, it’s the opening day of the Edinburgh Festival. Last night we’ve been at Murrayfield, entertained by the National Youth Choir of Scotland and a troupe of gravity defying Australians, appropriately titled Gravity & Other Myths. What to do before the opening event? I’d passed Inverleith Park a day or two earlier, and had learned…

RED SAUCE BROWN SAUCE A British Breakfast Odyssey Felicity Cloake Mudlark                 pp373               £16.99                                   It was Somerset Maugham who said, to eat well in England you should have…

  Chef Watch Featuring Sandra Folkes-Joseph of Sandra’s Island Fusion, English Harbour, Antigua   How long have you been a chef? Nine years. Why did you become a chef? It gives me a sense of satisfaction to see someone enjoy an nice meal. Favourite ingredient The famous Curry Goat All types of peppers. Favourite or…

Mangoes in Antigua Prominent among the products of J K Rowling’s imagination were the food and the sweets beloved of her heroes and heroines. In particular I remember Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. It is significant that the good Mr Bott had no need to create an Every Flavour Fruit. It exists and is called the…