Monday 17 May 2021
A few years ago, as I sat overlooking the harbour in Sydney – I was living there and working at Time Out – an Italian chef, upon clocking my Glaswegian accent, looked at me and said, ‘Scotland? Great produce! But you don’t know what to do with it.’ This, I realised, feeling suddenly pale in the Australian sun, is the global reputation of Scottish cooking. Sure, our produce is world-renowned – salmon, shellfish, whisky – but there is little faith that we, as Scots, know what to do with our own bounty.
Ethical Shellfish Company boat
It is, of course, nonsense. The people have known how to cook with their country’s wares for millennia – culinary craft has been honed throughout historic invasions, waves of immigration and the spice laden kists of imperialism – but somehow so-called Scottish cuisine has left us with haggis and tatties, deep-fried fish (we don’t talk about the other deep-fried thing) and chicken Balmoral. Glasgow chef Grant Reek