On The Side

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…

I have to share something personal and embarrassing with you. Is it just me? The it in question is insistence on a very specific implement for a particular job, even though one’s batterie de cuisine contains many alternatives. A couple of years ago I counted up 118 gizmos in two drawers under the hob. But,…

On Sunday I was cooking burgers at the Jubilee street party. Been up to much this week? enquired a friend. Yes indeed, I replied. Five days cutting up dead animals. It’s not the most normal of replies, and attracted the attention of a good few folk. More details? Certainly. Ash MacMillan A couple of months ago, I wrote about…

Chef Watch Featuring Robert Corrigan  latterly of Mr C’s Pies  How long have you been a chef? I started cooking in a professional kitchen on 14th February 1969. A Saturday job at a Stakis Steakhouse. I turned 15 the following week. In the June the chef went on holiday and I was the “chef” for…

No one does, of course. These faceless men and women who selflessly eat out anonymously in the world’s finest establishments, paying their bill at the end and leaving without comment. But what is Michelin all about? The idea for this piece came about from a conversation over dinner. In a Michelin starred restaurant, as it…

Michael Kaplan The supermarket most local to me sits just behind Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium. Next to it is an industrial plant, well protected with security cameras and razor wire. This is not, as you might assume, due to its proximity to Gorgie and Tynecastle Stadium. The principal reason is that they, quite legally, manufacture morphine.…

Lest my good pals Nyssa, Ash and Dereick of the Edinburgh School of Food & Wine are concerned, allow me to allay their fears. Going to a cookery class is usually a fun thing to do. Read recent articles for details. NOT Fiona G Lines Written Pre Class Today, I speak from the other side…

Chef Watch Featuring John McMahon, Executive Chef of Prestonfield House, Edinburgh How long have you been a chef? I have been a chef for over 35 years ever since leaving school. Why did you become a chef? My father was a publican and as I had no real direction in life at 16 years old…