][1]The latest instalment of the 5pm Blog’s Chewin’ the Fat chef interviews is with Steven Tweedie, Head Chef at Arisaig in Glasgow’s Merchant Square. A popular spot with 5pm customers, the long established restaurant specialises in contemporary Scottish dishes that make the most of locally sourced ingredients.
Arisaig always has a lively programme of wine and whisky dinners along with other food-themed events. Keep an eye out for their whisky blending event on June the 13th.
In this interview, Steven discusses what makes a dish Scottish; the cold-curing merits of fish head soup and, from his early career, he looks back at the right and the wrong way to ask the head chef for a duvet day. We also discover the role of jockeys’ whips in his kitchen.
Q: How long have you been at Arisaig?
ST: About eighteen months. I’ve generally worked in Glasgow or on the outskirts. Before coming to Arisaig, I was at working on Arran.
Q: How long have you been in restaurants?
ST: I’ve been in kitchens for 22 years. I started at the age of eleven washing dishes and doing bits of prep and then I got sick of doing the washing up and started to learn how to chef properly. To be honest, I was a bit of a handful when I was younger and my Mum thought that working in a kitchen would keep me out of trouble. She was right. It teaches you discipline and the importance of doing things correctly.
][4]Q: I imagine that many of your bosses in the early days were fairly strict?
ST: I learned to take it seriously very early on. I remember coming in hung-over one day and, as punishment, the head chef made me fillet about ten stone of haddock. That taught me that it wasn’t a good idea to phone your boss at two in the morning and tell him that you weren’t feeling well and would be in late the next day.
Q: Do you run a very tight kitchen?
ST: Most kitchens are less regimented now than when I started out but you still need to do things properly. I like to encourage the chefs in my kitchen to learn all the skills they will need to be a good chef. It’s a ground up approach so I’ll teach them how to butcher a deer or break down a side of beef. So many chefs now just use pre-packed portions of fish or meat. It’s easy but it’s expensive. If you know how to use every part of an animal and can butcher it your own requirements then that helps you to make better margins. In turn, that helps when you need to ask the restaurant owner for anew piece of kitchen equipment. Restaurants are not an easy business to make money from and value starts in the kitchen.
][5]Q: What makes a dish Scottish?
ST: We try and source as many of our ingredients as we can locally and we also use foraged ingredients such as Scottish berries. We make as much in house as we can. By no means all traditional Scottish recipes are stodgy but some are. We try to refine Scottish recipes and make them lighter without losing sight of where they have come from. We try to add some flair, some spice, perhaps a European twist.
It’s about balance. For example, there is often a risotto on the menu but we don’t use rice. We use barley instead and that gives it a great al dente texture. Or, instead of using Parmesan, we might use a Scottish cheese, even a cream cheese, to give it a bit more texture and a different flavour. It’s giving the flavours a twist.
Q: Which dishes are the most popular at Arisaig?
ST: It’s things like the fishcakes, the cranachan dessert or the haggis fritters served with onion gravy and crispy kale. We also do a Scottish twist on a classic French cassoulet. That’s made with pork belly, venison sausage, duck leg, ham hock and pearl barley along with duck fat roast potatoes.
Q: Do you have a favourite ingredient to work with?
ST: My favourite product to work with is fish. It’s so delicate so you have to be very careful what you do with it. I also like working with fresh berries and other foraged ingredients.
Q: You have a night off. Where would you eat out?
ST: I’m a big curry fan. If I get a night off then I like to go to Thai or Indian or Japanese places which have a different food culture from the one I work in. I like to eat food where I perhaps don’t understand the menu. I’ll often pick at random or choose something which I’ve seen another table order. I like the excitement, the surprise of not knowing what I’m going to get. Having said that, my wife usually picks something a lot nicer than I have.
Q: Name one chef that inspired you?
ST: My first ever head chef, Angus Boyd. He used to have Mitchell’s in Charing Cross and there was another branch in the West End. Now his Mitchell’s restaurant is in Carmunnock. He introduced me to the kitchen and taught me respect for the produce and also that the kitchen has to make money. I usually see him at least once or twice a year these days. I’ll go and do a shift or two at his restaurant. I always learn something new.
Q: What is the most exotic thing you have ever eaten?
ST: Fish head’s soup is probably the strangest. It was pretty tasty actually but having the eyeballs and so on looking up at you could have been a bit off-putting. It cured my cold though. I always think you should try everything once to see if you like it or not.
Q: You could get anyone in world to cook a meal. Who would it be?
ST: I’d like some home-cooked food. I miss the whole Sunday roast thing. I’d go for a roast dinner from my granny. Or soup. She did a lovely thick soup.
Q: As a chef, what gets you out of your bed and into the kitchen every morning?
ST: Every day is different. You never know what your day holds for you. I like that. You also have eight or nine different personalities to deal with and that’s always fun.
][6]Q: What has been your daftest customer complaint?
ST: I’ve had people tell me that the cranachan’s too creamy. It’s supposed to be creamy. Maybe 80% of it is cream. Of course, it’s creamy. I’ve also had people complaining that their soup is too hot. I suppose some people just ask silly questions. I know I have.
Q: Any kitchen slang that we can print?
ST: Some of the boys use a bit of rhyming slang: Christopher Reeves for leaves and jockeys’ whips for chips.