Chef Watch Featuring Jamie Scott of The Newport, Newport on Tay

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, langoustines, scallops, garlic, pork collar, asparagus, chanterelles

Favourite or signature dish

My favourite dish is spaghetti carbonara made with guanciale, no cream and extra black pepper

Favourite kitchen tool or equipment (apart from sharp knives)

My favourite kitchen tool is a thermomix

Food hero(es)

Niklas Ekstedt, Paul Ainsworth, Simon Rogan & Massimo Bottura

Any food you can’t/won’t eat

I can’t stand saffron, and am not a huge fan of basil

Comfort food/guilty secret

Carbonara if I feel like cooking or a takeaway from a good Chinese.

If I’m going out to eat, and I can’t get a table at your place, where should I go?

If you can’t come to us, go to Sol y Sombra for tapas in Broughty Ferry, The Bach in Dundee or the Seafood Ristorante in St. Andrews.

Stupidest customer or kitchen experience

The old favourite of filling the fryer with clean oil and forgetting to close the tap after originally draining it. The odd customer that requests the vegan menu but is OK with the fish course and the ice cream for dessert.

 

Jamie won Masterchef: The Professionals in 2014. In 2016 he opened The Newport Restaurant. Two years later it won the AA Restaurant of the Year Award. Not one to rest on his laurels he opened The Newport Bakery in 2020, just before the pandemic. It has outlets in Newport and Dundee. He also has an interest in the Daily Grind cafe businesses, and has a street food truck, Smoking Barrels. As if that wasn't enough he runs an outdoor pop up seafood restaurant called Shipwreck at Newport from spring to autumn.

 

On The Side will be back in two weeks' time