On The Side

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…

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…