Scotland’s top chefs take to the stage at The Staff Canteen Live 2019 at ScotHot
The Staff Canteen is back in Scotland for this year’s ScotHot along with our headline sponsor Westlands! Over two days we have some of the best Scottish chefs live on stage, showcasing the best of Scotland’s produce.
On day one we had five chefs, all drawing in a huge crowd and delivering stunning plates of food for our audience to try.
Sauce Poivrade
and salt baked celeriac
From Scotch Beef to scallops, Scotland’s finest was well and truly on show – these dishes were complimented by some amazing techniques displayed by our chefs. They basted, they roasted, they cured and let the audience in on a few of the tricks of the trade.
Peter McKenna, chef owner of The Gannet in Glasgow did two scallop dishes – one was raw and served with spruce, radish, lemon puree and roe powder. The second was seared with bonito butter and herring roe.
He said: “For me and my team at The Gannet, scallops are the best natural ingredient coming from Scotland. It was a no-brainer that I was going to use them when I was asked to do The Staff Canteen Live.”
He added: “For years I’ve been watching The Staff Canteen Live and it’s always ahead of the curve when it comes to showcasing the best chefs in the country. It’s a great platform for everyone from junior chefs to chefs like myself to see what is going on in the industry.”
Peter was followed by Lorna McNee, sous chef at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie who cooked roe deer with Sauce Poivrade and salt baked celeriac. Then it was the turn of Scott Smith, owner of Fhior in Edinburgh, showcasing Scotch Beef Skirt from sponsor Quality Meat Scotland.
Coming off stage after cooking a recipe he had never done before, Scott was pleased with the finished dish and equally pleased to have a great crowd turn up to watch.
“It’s really good to work with The Staff Canteen again,” he said. “ScotHot looks fantastic this year and it’s so important for chefs to get out of the kitchen and get on stage, which The Staff Canteen Live allows them to do.
“Doing a demo pushes you out of your comfort zone, as chefs we are naturally quite introvert so to be pushed helps you to grow.”
During each demo the audience were able to try samples from our sponsors Major International and Westlands – they also saw first-hand the chefs on stage using a fantastic Rational oven.
Finishing off the day we had two former MasterChef: The Professionals contestants. Dean Banks took part last year, reaching the finals and today he was cooking nori salmon, salmon roe, cucumbers, wasabi mayonnaise and matcha green tea.
He also announced the name of his first solo restaurant in St Andrews, Haar, which is set to open on April 4, 2019.
Jamie Scott, chef owner of The Newport in Fife, won the show in 2014 and he closed the first day of The Staff Canteen Live 2019 at ScotHot.
Cooking a stunning Scotch belted Galloway beef dish he served it with braised onion, onion puree, a beef fat crumb and a red wine sauce.
He said: “I love an opportunity to talk about Scottish produce and I’ve been following The Staff Canteen for eight or nine years now, it has inspired me massively so it’s great to now be up there and have the chance to emulate chefs who I have watched on the same stage in the past.”
The Staff Canteen Live could not happen without our headline sponsor Westlands and all of our other great sponsors: Major International, Rational, Quality Meat Scotland, Seafood From Scotland, Pommery, IMC, Campbells & Co, Wenlock Spring and Thermomix.
We also couldn’t do it without the brilliant students from City of Glasgow College.
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