Top Michelin chef Wishart gives pub grub star appeal

Senior Feature Writer & Food Writer

Wednesday 15 February 2012

The appetite for gastropubs has never been as strong in Scotland as it is south of the Border but that could all change with the nationwide launch of the first-ever Scottish pub menu devised by a Michelin-starred chef.

Custom byline text:

Cate Devine EXCLUSIVE

From today, customers in Scottish pubs can sip on a Grolsch, a Caffrey's, a Coors or a Cobra beer while enjoying a selection of mid-priced seasonal dishes, all made in-house, from a menu created by Martin Wishart, chef-patron of the Michelin-starred Restaurant Martin Wishart in Leith.

In place of the usual bought-in pie and chips or chicken Kiev, punters will be able to choose a starter of ham hock terrine with apple compote at £2.48 or a pan-fried pigeon breast with spiced red cabbage at £5.42.Main courses will include roast cod with cabbage and smoked salmon at £10.94, chicken cooked in beer at £10.86, or venison casserole at £10.94. All dishes will be made from seasonal Scottish ingredients and made from scratch in-house, and matched with a beer.Menus can be downloaded by chefs, publicans or licensees in any of the 1500 pubs, bars and clubs brewers Molson Coors supplies in Scotland – including St Jude's Glasgow, Carrigan's in Blantyre, the Signature Pub Group in Aberdeen, and the Montpelier group and Peacock Inn in Edinburgh.A spokesman for the brewers said: "Any publican or licensee in Scotland can download the menu – they don't need to be a Molson Coors customer."The idea behind the dramatic move is to encourage Scottish publicans to improve the food they offer by cooking on site, and to make the most of food as a revenue driver. Research conducted by Molson Coors, who invited Wishart to work with them in Scotland, found only one-third (33%) of pubs with turnover of less than £300,000 currently offered hot food and that, despite two-thirds of Scottish pubs offering food, just 10% of pub-goers eat in pubs at least once a fortnight. Wishart, whose restaurant at Cameron House at Loch Lomond won its first Michelin star last year and who recently opened The Honours, a brasserie-style restaurant in Edinburgh, said he was delighted to be asked to create the pub menus.He said: "This has been a new challenge for me, as I'm more used to matching food with wine or whisky rather than beer."It was important the dishes were practical and easy for pubs to produce. The menu is fully costed, reasonably priced and, importantly, returns a healthy profit. "But it's also a challenge to chefs, to inspire them to cook in-house and to source their own ingredients direct from suppliers such as independent game dealers and fishmongers. Wishart, a columnist for The Herald Magazine, added: "Some pubs tend to use a lot of bought-in, pre-made meals that are not produced locally. "With this menu we're not trying to produce a Michelin standard menu. We're trying to introduce something that's seasonal and local and that doesn't cost the earth."Some 71,000 jobs rely on business from pubs in Scotland and we want to secure and even grow that figure."Phil Whitehead, managing director of Molson Coors Scotland, said: "The pubs with food trend is much less mature in Scotland than in England, where food now accounts for more than half of overall turnover and is described as the reason behind the resilience of some outlets during a tough trading environment."l Read Martin Wishart's column in The Herald Magazine every Saturday.

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Top Michelin chef Wishart gives pub grub star appeal

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED