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
Super read. Guys not being taught to type or cook at school was a 1960’s blunder.
It certainly was. A theme that runs through the Chef Watch columns is that most of them hated school and couldn’t wait to get out. No one has credited a home economics teacher as their inspiration.