Need a coffee but could be tempted by a beer?
Dither no more.
Brewed and Baked, a new licensed coffee shop in Musselburgh has started serving barista-brewed coffee along with a range of wines, beers and spirits.
Baristas and beers
Formerly The Burgh Bar, the new venture also serves everything from breakfast rolls to hot meals via a beer and a sandwich. They’ll even do you a glass of Prosecco with a jam and cream scone if you are feeling fancy.
At the helm of the new business is husband and wife team, Andy and Cheri Lund; no strangers to the hospitality trade, having previously run the Cross Keys Hotel at Canonbie.
Of course, bars have been muscling in on traditional restaurant and café territory for years. These days, there aren’t many bars that don’t make at least a stab at providing a decent bar menu. And we don’t mean a selection of old Scotch pies in a heated cage on the bar top.
The old distinctions between bars, bistros and cafes are losing much of their meaning as our eating and drinking habits and customs evolve.
Gen up on gastronomy
Changing food trends are just one of the topics explored the UK’s only Masters course in Gastronomy which is offered at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University.
The MSc Gastronomy course proposes that food is more than just a lifestyle accessory or experience. Building upon an understanding of ‘gastronomy’ coined by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1825 as ‘the reasoned comprehension of everything connected with the nourishment of man’, the course examines how food connects and influences people, places, politics and processes, as well as the environment, societies and economics of the world around us. There’s a lot more to food than just food.
More than fuel
Students on the year long course study food culture and communication, food systems and science, food production and politics and much more. They are also taken on a variety of field trips, tastings and visits to food producers. All designed to expose them to many of the ways that food is much more than just the fuel that we eat or something to show off to others.
Students and academics connected to the course have made a three and a half minute film which challenges the popular understanding of the term ‘gastronomy’.
They argue that it has been adopted and subverted by TV chefs, among others, to refer to a particular style of cooking, high-end food products and gourmet experiences.
There are twelve fully funded places available on the course next year (starting in September) for applicants domiciled in Scotland and the European Union. Organisers would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in a place: www.qmugastronomy.com.