On The Side
Restaurants: When Will There Be Good News?
It seems to be a gloomy day. I’m not just referring to wildfires and strikes and global warming. On one of this column’s favourite subjects, restaurants, the news seems to be worse than usual. Now I’m not shedding any tears over the impending closure of Noma. Rene Redzepi has declared that the model for his…
Read MoreThe Air Fryer Chronicles Part 1
Air Fryers. Didn’t have one; didn’t have a view for or against, though a few friends are keen devotees. Life changed last week in the shape of a large box as a birthday present. Indian giving, possibly. Anyway, have beast, will fry. For experiment 1 below, I had no clue what to do and nothing…
Read MoreWhat’s In A Name? I’ll Drink To That
Dionysus NOT Dionysios Dionysios, I said to myself. Are you sure? Is it not Dionysus? Sad, I suppose, that the idea for a column can materialise when you’re taking your best girl out for a hot date. Early evening at the flickers followed by some leftover chicken stew. Don’t tell me that I can’t show…
Read MoreStrange Culinary Things At Galungan
A question I’m commonly asked relates to unusual foods which I’ve consumed over the years. People are usually expecting tales from far flung places, involving Johnny Foreigner and his more disgusting habits. Well, it’s not just charity which begins at home. Try, as I have done, describing haggis to a busload of 50 non Scottish…
Read MoreP is for … Potato
My wife laughs at me. I really don’t understand why. When I’m asked what is my favourite vegetable, there can be only one answer – today’s hero, the potato. Not only do I fail to comprehend why that’s remotely amusing, I genuinely find it difficult to see why anyone would make another choice. My grandson…
Read MoreThe Food Producers – Whirly & Gregorie Marshall of Blackthorn Salt, Ayr
Whirly & Gregorie Marshall Salt: essential for human life; one of our senses of taste. The stuff which makes our food worth the eating. But there is more: much, much more. Did you know that there are over 14,000 things you can use salt for? Whirly Marshall does, and her husband Gregorie can probably tell…
Read MoreThe Food Producers – James Robb of East Pier Smokehouse, St Monans
This must be a pretty easy life, I said to myself. Although it’s his day off, James Robb has served me a bite of lunch in the East Pier Smokehouse, hard on the water’s edge at St Monans, in the part of Fife known as the East Neuk. Not a cloud in the sky; the…
Read MoreO is for… OXO
Well some Food Alphabeticals are easier than others, and time was short for today. Even the mighty Larousse Gastronomique has only 10 pages for the letter O. Despite the illustration on the left, today’s choice is not based on a favourite ingredient of mine. What I prefer to feature is something which has a bit of history,…
Read MoreThe Food Producers – Nick Sinclair of The Edinburgh Butter Co
Most of us go on holiday for a break. Nick Sinclair is not like most of us. When in Australia with his wife Hilary, he spotted a van advertising the company wares, artisanal butter. Becoming a big thing in Oz, his friends told him. So on their return to Scotland, the two of them started…
Read MoreChef Watch Featuring Mathew Sherry of number one, The Balmoral, Edinburgh
Chef Watch Featuring Mathew Sherry Head Chef, number one, The Balmoral, Edinburgh How long have you been a chef? 15 years, since 2008. Why did you become a chef? From a very young age I knew, I just always loved food and wanted to cook. Favourite ingredient My favourite seasonal ingredient at…
Read MoreTom Eats! To Be Replaced
Impending redundancy is a nasty, invidious thing. It seeps into you and shakes your sense of self worth. Fear, generally, impacts on your well being and your capacity for logical analysis. This has never happened to me before. Shall I rage against the machine, like Ned Ludd and his fellow 19th century weavers, smashing up…
Read MoreAll Rise
Making hot cross buns at the weekend, my thoughts turned to yeast. Why, I pondered apart from breads and enriched breads, (traditional buns, croissants and the like) is yeast used so little these days? I then researched it a little. I found hundreds of recipes using the stuff. Back to the drawing board. So instead…
Read MoreEaster Food: Why and Why Not?
On Sunday I attended an excellent performance of Bach’s St John Passion at St Giles Cathedral, the choir in extra fine form. It was sung in the original German. Fortunately the programme included a translation. With Easter approaching, I got to thinking about its traditional food and the symbolism. If you were brought up in…
Read MoreThe Rice, The Table and The Asparagus
It’s Indonesian, but you won’t find it in Indonesia. You’ll find it in the Netherlands, but it’s not Dutch. If you’ve been to Amsterdam, you’ll know I’m referring to the traditional feast known as the rijsttafel, a very large number of tiny plates of Indonesian food served with rice. I ate this on my first…
Read MoreChef Watch Featuring Martin Orr of Dine Murrayfield, Edinburgh
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…
Read MoreWhy Sourdough Won’t Be The Climax of Bread Month
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…
Read MoreDeposit Return Scheme or Diabolical Ruddy Shambles?
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…
Read MoreFound A Buffalo?
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…
Read MoreBread Month and Review of Do Sourdough
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…
Read MoreO is for Orange
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…
Read MoreChef Watch Featuring Jack Coghill of Jack ‘O’ Bryan’s, Dunfermline
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…
Read MoreThe Death of Fine Dining?
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…
Read MoreIngredients and Gadgets – The Floor is Yours
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…
Read MoreBooks for Christmas 2022
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…
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