On The Side

In June and July we published 15 articles aimed at helping you to lose weight and keep it off. On The Side featured, in five instalments, The Wee Fat Lawyer’s Diet Book. For the first time ever, Tom Cooks! had two columns a week, The Wee Fat Lawyer’s A – Z of Food and Recipes from The Wee…

The plea to the Almighty to give us this day our daily bread is probably the most common prayer in the Christian world. After two days at the Edinburgh School of Food & Wine, I found myself with a fortnight’s worth, and did wonder if I had overdone things a bit. I have been making…

It’s early April. Another batch of you with 31 March year ends will have hung up your gowns, spreadsheets, laptops or whatevers and joined the happy band. The band, that is, of the wastrels, parasites on society, to wit the retired. So let me tell you how it is, by relating something which happened to…

Chef Watch Featuring Glasgow’s Latest Michelin Star Holder Graeme Cheevers Unalome, Glasgow   How long have you been a chef? I’ve been a chef for 19 years now, it is all I have ever done or wanted to do from a young age. Why did you become a chef? I suppose it was just something…

Meet Dougie Bell for the first time, and you immediately notice two things. The first is the trademark pork pie hat, worn at all times. The second is the permanent twinkle (albeit not in my truly dreadful photos.) You just know at first encounter that this has not been an ordinary life. Two of his…

In December I highlighted a few food books and cook books which looked promising as presents for people of quality who know and love their food. And, would you believe it? I now find myself the proud owner of most of them. It definitely pays to advertise. TASTE: My Life Through Food Stanley Tucci Fig…

Chef Watch Featuring Masterchef: The Professionals Winner Jamie Scott The Newport Restaurant, Newport-on-Tay, Fife How long have you been a chef? I have been a chef professionally for 15 years Why did you become a chef? I became a chef because I failed to become a professional golfer and I love food Favourite ingredient Onions,…

Well, food lovers, is your diary primed? What famous British food day is with us next week? Warning: the answer may not be the obvious one. And while you’re pondering, who can tell me what a collop is? I encountered it years ago in a Scottish hotel where the dinner menu featured a dish entitled…

I was well into my twenties before I did it for the first time. I’d watched it, obviously. I have a recollection of seeing it done in a plate glass window in Edinburgh’s Princes Street, and being struck by how ruinously expensive the whole process was. While many things came to me early in life,…

So Gordon Ramsay’s production team for The F Word phone up your buffalo farm. They want to come up so the great man can see you making your buffalo mozzarella. Sure, you say. There’s only one teeny problem – you don’t produce mozzarella. In fact you’ve never made cheese in your life. It wasn’t quite…

Chef Watch Featuring Stephen Harris of The Sportsman, Seasalter, Kent How long have you been a chef? I became a chef in 1995 – 27 years ago. Why did you become a chef? I thought I might be good at it and I knew I wanted my own restaurant. I figured the only way to…

Happy New Year! As you are probably aware, this column doesn’t make new year resolutions. Well, not for me, but I thought you lot could use a few. Avoid Vegans Part 1 Lift up any packet of ready made, allegedly plant based food and shudder. For starters, if you are eschewing meat (as opposed to…

It’s usually quite easy to tell when food has gone off. When restaurant reviewers are downright bad, it’s sometimes harder to notice. Last week was intended to be the last On The Side column of the year; however, a food review appeared on Saturday, which I felt I couldn’t let pass. In the last Tom…

Those who know me will be aware that much of my life is centred round three Fs. Food, Football and Books. (Ah, you noticed the flaw in the last part of my tricorn rhetoric. Never mind.) I write a fair bit about food books in this column, so perhaps I can justify that as the…

I know that some friends will be recoiling in horror at the thought of this stuff. Truth be told, cooked without care its coarse bitter leaves are pretty unpalatable, and its reputation as Scottish peasant food hasn’t helped. The original spelling in Scots was kail. It was an important staple, largely because it would grow…

Chef Watch Featuring Phil White of LeftField, Edinburgh How long have you been a chef? Very long time, Tom. I started when I was 16 at the National Exhibition Centre. It was great. We cooked from 4 people up to 2000. We also got to sneak into the gigs at the arena afterwards. Why did…

For a number of years now I have been making my own Christmas pudding. While I guess my mum did too, at least in the early days, I have no recollection of any great tradition surrounding it, the silver threepenny excepted. I normally get round to it in the latter part of November, but when…

Were you as shocked as I to read of the recent death of Aldo Campeol owner of Le Beccherie in Treviso in northern Italy? Shock at the passing of a 93 year old man? Hardly, but it was the news that he was credited as the father of tiramisu, which had me shaking my head…

I hesitate to use the C word, but we have now passed Hallowe’en. I find a good bookshop to be the source of a perfect Christmas present for many. If anyone on your gift list is at all interested in food, there is a plethora of suggestions for all levels of expertise, and to suit…

Chef Watch Featuring Christopher Trotter, Fife’s Food Ambassador How long have you been a chef? More years than I care to remember!  My hotel management training began at the Savoy in London in 1977. The one year I was meant to spend in the kitchens turned into three. It was the most amazing experience. Why…

Cameron Bell It’s midday on a sunny Sunday, and I’m here for my lesson at The Smiddy Night School in Powderhall. Now I know what you’re thinking. This is just one example of the flexibility and adaptability of the amazing business run by Cameron Bell, wife Emma Roeder and their team from converted blacksmith’s premises.…

Sometimes one is simply spoiled for choice. You can alight on a letter for a food alphabet columns and lo! the world is your oyster. As it may turn out to be when we get to O in a few months’ time. But J? Fewer examples than you might think. Jackfruit, currently best friend to vegans. I rejected…

  Chewing The Fat: Tasting Notes From A Greedy Life Jay Rayner Guardian Faber                        pp136                                           £6.99 I have long believed that Jay and I…

Chef Watch Featuring Willie McCurrach OBE FIH, formerly Head of School, City of Glasgow College, Food Technology How long have you been a chef? I have been a chef for a total of 50 years and loved every minute of my career. I started as a student at Aberdeen Technical College and was really impressed…