‘Provenance’ has become a huge buzzword in the foodie community.
But while many restaurants claim to focus on ‘local produce’ or ‘Scottish ingredients’, how can you be sure that what you are eating hasn’t accumulated thousands of air miles (and dreaded carbon) before it reaches your plate?
Well, at one Edinburgh venue, you can now track exactly how far your food has travelled – down to the last mile. A ‘100 Miles’ menu has launched at Grazing by Mark Greenaway, located in Edinburgh’s Waldorf Astoria Caledonian Hotel, where every ingredient has been sourced within 100 miles of the restaurant.
Chef Mark Greenaway has always been inspired by seasonal Scottish ingredients, a key consideration when he opened his Grazing restaurant within The Caledonian in 2019. But the 100 miles menu takes this provenance to a hyper-local level, with the menu actually listing the distances that various ingredients have come from. Their honey, for example, has travelled just two miles, the cream 21 miles and the strawberries 35 miles, with Arbroath smokies being positively exotic and travelling 72 miles to the restaurant.
The environmental benefits are obvious, but the 100 Miles Menu also aims to showcase the sheer quality of suppliers we have here in Scotland. I found myself feeling genuinely smug at the thought I was doing a small bit for the planet, supporting local producers and also getting to enjoy a high-end dining experience.
We were greeted on arrival to the restaurant with a welcome glass of champagne, a thoughtful gesture after a mix-up with our booking led to a delay in getting seated. There are four courses on the 100 Miles Menu (rather unusually, two are desserts) and each course is paired with a cocktail.
First up was a delightfully crisp ‘Fresh Martini’, made with Nc’ Nean Wild Botanical Spirit and a Pea and Mint Vermouth. Nc’Nean is one of Scotland’s most exciting young distilleries, based on the Morven peninsula looking out to Mull. You can almost taste the sea in their innovative Botanical Spirit, making it the perfect accompaniment to the first course, an Arbroath smokie tart. The tart was served with broad beans and a curried cauliflower custard to ensure the fish isn’t overpowered, and it was an ideally flavoursome, yet light, start to the meal.
Next up was a Perthshire lamb loin (travelling 45 miles), served with a ‘shepherd’s pie’ stuffed onion. For those who don’t fancy meat, the alternative dish is a hake fillet with a delightfully crispy skin – possibly one of the best fish dishes I have ever had. The cocktail pairing is an ‘Amarosa’, made with sweet vermouth and Amarosa rum liqueur from Edinburgh-based distillery Buck and Birch.
I was delighted to indulge my sweet tooth with the first of two desserts, a raspberry sorbet scented with Kingsbarns whisky. It was perfectly paired with a raspberry cocktail made using local vodka and caramel liqueur (nothing too heavy, to ensure room remained for the final course of the evening).
The second sweet was a summer strawberry and elderflower cheesecake, a wonderfully light end to the meal that was topped off with a strawberry parfait and jelly. The final cocktail, featuring strawberry infused Nc’ Nean whisky, left me feeling suitably merry to stumble out onto Princes Street and enjoy some of the capital’s finest bars.
For £75 a head for all the food and drink, the 100 Miles menu feels like great value for money, especially when you consider the opulent location. And with the added bonus of being environmentally friendly -not to mention supporting Scottish producers- what’s not to like?
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