][1]Gregor Kazmierczak is the head chef at The Terrace Restaurant in the Crowne Plaza hotel on Edinburgh’s gorgeous Royal Terrace. Located just around the corner from Edinburgh Playhouse, the hotel is very convenient for pre-theatre diners.
For the past four years, Gregor has been serving traditional Scottish food with a modern twist at the hotel. The menus at the Terrace Restaurant change seasonally and the new, early evening, summer has just been introduced. You can view it here.
The Terrace Restaurant opens out onto the hotel’s private terraced gardens – a popular spot for pre-dinner drinks on summer evenings. The gardens are also available for barbeque parties.
In this Chewin’ the Fat interview, we talk with Gregor about sticky toffee pudding; the discipline of being a chef and the tricky concept of veggie chicken noodle soup.
5pm: Tell us about the food in your restaurant?
GK: Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland so we try to provide traditional Scottish food with a modern twist. People come here and they want to try Scottish produce; they want to taste what Scottish food is about. Most of our food is based on Scottish ingredients and traditional Scottish methods of cooking but we also try to implement modern touches.
We try to introduce a wow factor so that even if people come and have, say, a steak pie in the bar there is always something new about it. So with the steak pie we bake it in a different shape and serve it with crisped vegetables or garnish it with a purée. Now that summer is here, we might serve it with a nice fresh pea purée, just something to keep it fresh and new.
5pm: What’s the most popular dish on the menu?
GK: The sticky toffee pudding has been on the menu since I started here. We took it off the menu briefly but people kept asking for it. It’s a really old recipe that I got from an old Scottish chef. I’d never seen it made that way before. It’s so good that people keep requesting it. I can’t divulge the recipe but I would definitely recommend it. We have people discussing it on Internet forums.
5pm: What got you into cooking?
GK: My great grandfather was a very famous chef back home in Poland so it was always there in the background. I had always known people who were chefs and they seemed to really enjoy their jobs. They were passionate about it and I wanted to share that passion. I was never going to become an electrician or a plumber.
When I was at school we had to do a stage in a restaurant. I already knew people in the industry so my stage was in the best restaurant in my home town of Kalisz. From a young age, I was gaining experience of good food and proper techniques.
I worked there for three or four years and then moved to another high level restaurant. We had a lot of Polish celebrities and singers and actors in there. We even had the Polish president. It was really good fun.
][5]5pm: What is the best thing about being a chef?
GK: At the restaurant in Poland, where we cooked for the President, we could be very creative. That’s what I like about being a chef, you don’t need to stick to the rules.
You also get to meet a lot of people and make them happy. When people come into the restaurant and enjoy your food, you have made their day. It’s beautiful.
There is also a sense of community between chefs. Even if you don’t know someone, you can Facebook them from the other side of the world and you will have things in common to talk about. In my home city, most of the chefs knew each other so we would always meet up and go out for dinner together. It was fun.
A chef’s job is not an easy one. It involves a lot of discipline. Being a chef teaches you the priorities and values which are useful in life from timekeeping to being organised. Being a chef helps you grow up as a man with good values. In my work I have to be organised and it’s the same in my private life. That stems from my job.
5pm: And the worst thing about being a chef?
GK: The hours. You are working when everyone else is enjoying their time off. At Bank holidays, during the weekend, at night, at Christmas, when everyone else is meeting up, seeing their family and going out, chefs are at work.
It means that a chef’s social circle tends to be with other people in the industry. Most of my friends are chefs. None of my friends are going to ask me to come out on a Saturday night. Sunday and Monday are my weekend.
5pm: Do you have a favourite ingredient to work with?
GK: I love salmon. It’s so versatile and there are so many things you can do with it starting with salads and amuse bouches and so on. I also like working with vegetables, especially in the spring and summer months when produce like asparagus comes into season.
I like to play around with berries and other fruits in the summer. When you have really good, fresh fruit or berries then you don’t need to over complicate things. Serve them the way they are. How do you improve on a really good strawberry?
][6]5pm: Is there anything you couldn’t eat?
GK: I like all food. Even as a young kid, I wasn’t fussy. I’m not so keen on sorrel but I’ll taste it. I don’t understand chefs who won’t taste something they are cooking. That’s your job.
5pm: You have a hot date coming around. What’s cooking?
GK: Salmon. A salmon salad, nothing heavy. Perhaps with a little lime and chilli to heat it up. A refreshing fruit dessert maybe with a sorbet or sabayon.
5pm: What’s in the fridge at home?
GK: I like sport so my fridge is very healthy – brown bread, a lot of fish, chicken, vegetables. In my private life, I like to eat very basic food. I spend all day cooking with fancy ingredients so when I go home or even when I go out, I want something simple like roast chicken with roast tatties and gravy. I want them to be cooked well but I want simple food.
If I go back home, my mother is always worried what to cook for me. I don’t want her to cook anything fancy. I want to eat her traditional, home cooking.
][7]5pm: You can have anyone in the world cook you a meal. Who is manning the pans?
GK: Marco Pierre White. He is a legend. I would love to see him cooking for me. That would be some experience. He created a path for everyone else to follow.
5pm: What’s been the daftest customer complaint?
GK: The daftest thing I’ve heard wasn’t from a customer. It was a waiter who came up to the pass and said, ‘Chef, we have a customer on table two who is a vegetarian. Can they eat your chicken noodle soup?’
That made me laugh, I just asked the waiter if they had engaged their brain before opening their mouth.