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November 16, 2015

Last month the 5pm Dining blog was waxing lyrical about The Printing Press Bar & Kitchen which had just launched on Edinburgh’s George Street.

As we noted, the project has some high profile names behind it. The concept, design and menu were developed by Des McDonald, ex-Head Chef at The Ivy in London and former CEO of Caprice Holdings.

Lanarkshire-born Colin Fleming is the Head Chef for the new 180 seat restaurant and bar having done stints with The Road Hole restaurant at The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews; Restaurant Martin Wishart in Edinburgh and the Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn in Dunblane.

We had a chat with Colin and he showed us how his kitchen prepares the starter of roast wood pigeon with heritage beetroot and hazelnut crowdie. The recipe is here.

Colin Fleming, Head Chef at The Printing Press.
Colin Fleming, Head Chef at The Printing Press.

5pm: Can you tell us about your work before you were here?

CF: Before I came to The Printing Press, I was a head chef at The Seafood Restaurant in St Andrew’s. Previous to that, I worked at Restaurant Martin Wishart in Edinburgh and also at The Balmoral. For three and a half years, I was Head Chef for Nick Nairn in The Kailyard in Dunblane. That got me ready for big numbers which is what we will be doing here.

5pm: Have you always wanted to work at the high end of the restaurant business? Nick was the youngest Scot to get a Michelin star back in the day and Martin did so much to kick start Edinburgh’s Michelin boom.

CF: I was only with Martin for a short time but it was a great experience. I started my career out at The Balmoral hotel having moved through to Edinburgh when I was seventeen. I was at The Balmoral for three and a half years. It was a good training ground for young chefs. I think there were ten to fifteen of us that went through The Balmoral doors around that time and many went on to do great things.

5pm: How long have you been doing this now?’

CF: I’ve been cooking for nineteen years. I started when I was fifteen, straight from school with no qualifications. It’s a good career but you have to put in the hours, the hard work.

5pm: What drew you to it?

CF: I always enjoyed cooking at school. I went straight into working in a restaurant in Glasgow, pot washing on a Saturday night, doing a bit of prep work. I never wanted to be a chef, but I just fell into it, same as a lot of people. It has gone very fast but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

5pm: Over the last twenty or so years, there has been an emergent Scottish culinary identity which is ingredient-led. Is that how you see your cooking?

CF: Over the last three or four years, there has been a big emphasis on produce and seasonality. There are a lot of young chefs who like to get a bag of powder in and play about with that. I’m not knocking that style of cooking but, I think to do that style of cooking, you need to know the basics first. You need to know your groundings: how to make a beurre blanc or a béchamel and then progress from there. My style of cooking is pretty much classical.

5pm: Is the idea at The Printing Press to let the ingredients speak for themselves?

CF: We are about having three to four ingredients on the plate and letting the main ingredient do all the talking; not over complicating things. We have a burger and fish ‘n’ chips on the menu but we want to have the best burger on the menu, the best fish ‘n’ chips. It’s all about doing things properly. There’s a lot of people that put a burger or fish ‘n’ chips on the menu and they are not done properly. There’s nothing worse than that.

The dining room of The Printing Press.
The dining room of The Printing Press.

5pm: Did you spend a lot of time sourcing your Scottish suppliers?

CF: We spent a lot of time dealing with Buccleuch beef. We went down to their farm to taste their beef and try it out. Same with the veg suppliers. We need suppliers who can give us the volume we need with consistent quality.

5pm: What are the big sellers?

CF: At lunchtime, it is things like the burger or the fish ‘n’ chips. At lunch, people just want a quick bite to eat and go back to their office. At night-time, we are selling our partridge, pigeon dishes, scallops. There’s a good mix. There is nothing on the menu that isn’t selling consistently. We have a good variation on the menu to suit all tastes and needs.

5pm: Is there anyone you can pin-point as being influential?

CF: Growing up, Marco Pierre White was huge and then Gordon Ramsay after that. Having said that, I wouldn’t say there’s any one person that has influenced me a lot. I think you have to influence yourself to a certain degree. You have to have the determination and drive to want to do this job. It comes from within.

Borders grouse with red cabbage and brambles at The Printing Press.
Borders grouse with red cabbage and brambles at The Printing Press.

5pm: If you could get anyone in the world, alive or dead, to cook you a meal, who would it be?

CF: My granny was a great cook and taught me a few things at a young age. She could make me mince and tatties again.

5pm: It used to be the case that if you wanted to be a good chef, you’d have to leave Scotland and go to London and Paris, whereas now, there is a lot more home grown talent.

CF: In the last ten years, Edinburgh has come on leaps and bounds with the amount of restaurants that have opened up. Tom Kitchin, Martin Wishart, The Balmoral, Paul Kitching, these establishments have been great for Edinburgh. We rival London now in terms of the food scene and that’s something Scotland should be proud of. There’s so many nice bistros and delis open now. They are everywhere, and it broadens people’s minds.

5pm: What has been your worst kitchen disaster?

CF: We were setting a function for 450 with Nick Nairn. This was one of the nights where Nick Nairn was in cooking with us. We had a sea bass dish on the menu.

Lovely bit of wild sea bass, all portioned up nicely and all ready to go. The food was plated up, just waiting for the fish. And that’s when all the ovens clonked out at once. We had to get the pans on and start getting 450 bits of fish cooked off.

We got it out eventually but it was a bit embarrassing having Nick Nairn standing next to you and you’re running about trying to cook 450 bits of fish to order.