Megrim: our new star catch
Seafood Scotland is an organisation that I have been keen to find out a little bit more about. I met with Jess who works with them on sustainable fishing in Scotland, so I could get plenty of information on what Scottish seasonal fish we should be using and why.

So: ever heard of megrim before? Me neither…but come and try it on our June menu. 90% of the Scottish catch gets flown to Spain as the “king of white fish” but we hardly use it in Scotland!

Megrim is similar to lemon sole, with a similarly delicate texture. It’s such a shame: we have sustainable produce at our disposal in Scotland that we don’t use. But hopefully the tide is turning on that! (Pun intended!)

June menus: summer’s coming!
We start looking at planning June’s menu soon, which will have a summery feel.

June will bring us some wonderful fresh ingredients via our forager Ben: wild watercress, sea aster & fresh elderflower. We will making good use of them in dishes such as a delicious homemade elderflower jelly.

Casa San Lorenzo: salads and our celebration supper
We are told by Erica, our wonderful gardener, that we will have salad leaves ready to pick by June, as well as some summer vegetables, all from our very own Casa San Lorenzo kitchen garden.

Speaking of Casa San Lorenzo, don’t forget that we’re celebrating our first harvest at a special supper on 20 June. Look out for our special family tasting menu. Tickets are going on sale now – it should be a fantastic night. Book early to avoid disappointment!

Special menu for Slow Food Week
You’ll know from our blog posts that we are proud supporters of the ‘Slow Food’ movement, with its focus on growing, producing and preserving the authenticity of food. We will be featuring a special menu from 18 – 24 June (Slow Food Week) to promote our suppliers who are living the slow food dream!

Art and food: showcasing the best of Bute!
The National Galleries of Scotland’s new exhibition starts on 18 May – Masterpieces from Mount Stuart, showcasing some amazing art. Meanwhile, downstairs in the Scottish Cafe & Restaurant kitchen, we are delighted to feature some terrific Bute produce to run alongside this.

We have sourced Ritchie’s of Rothesay smoked salmon, and beef from Bute Land Limited. And to really get into the spirit of things, we are trying out some archive cake recipes from Mount Stuart, as part of our special afternoon teas.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Suzanne

…and meanwhile, we’re having a special supper in celebration of our first harvest from our kitchen garden, Casa San Lorenzo.  Join us to hear how we’re getting on in our kitchen garden adventure.

Erica Randall, our Head Gardener, will be talking about her progress to date and her first produce from the plot. I’ll be updating you on how this is going to impact on our kitchen and which suppliers have been involved in supporting us to date.

Suzanne, our Head Chef will be talking you through a 5 course family tasting menu.

We’ll be using ingredients from ten of our favourite suppliers. Here’s the list, to give you a flavour of the range of produce:

Peelham Farm (meats), Phantassie Food (fruit & veg), Scotherbs, Graham’s the Family Dairy, Burnside Farm (game), Hebridean Salt, Ben Robertson Forager (mushrooms and other wild foods), Arbroath Smokies (fish), Summer Harvest (rapeseed oil) and Cuddybridge Apple Juice.

The tasting menu will be priced at £30 per head.  A special selection of Scottish beers, ciders and other delicious drinks will be available for purchase separately on the night.

Come and join us on Wednesday 20 June at the Scottish Cafe & Restaurant, from 7.30pm. We’re selling tickets for the event now.  Don’t miss out!

The List publishes regular food and drink reviews, but also an Eating & Drinking Guide, covering around 800 different establishments across Edinburgh and Glasgow.  Now in its 19th edition, it’s written by a large number of local reviewers – and it’s understandably trusted by its readers. Its Hit Lists are the top recommendations of restaurants and cafes.

Making us equally proud, then: making it into the Hit List ourselves, for not one but two entries! Lara was so happy she even had a few tears of joy with the fantastic entry for Centotre.

The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant picked up an extra entry for their sustainability!  Thanks to all our wonderful Scottish suppliers that have helped us with bringing the best local and artisan Scottish produce to our lovely customers.

Look out for The List guide in bookshops now.

www.list.co.uk

We’ve got one word… awesome!!

The Scottish Thistle Awards are designed to discover and celebrate excellence and innovation in the Scottish tourism industry for our visitors. They were established by VisitScotland to help raise standards in Scottish tourism.

The Catering in Scotland Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in the Scottish food world. They include a wide range of categories, including healthier eating and innovation.

We’re delighted to be shortlisted for the Sustainable Business Award, sponsored by Zero Waste Scotland. The final is on 24 May at the Glasgow Hilton. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I’m so proud of the team.  I know that we’re delivering a better product now than we ever had but we’re still so keen to learn new things, source new ingredients and make our food even tastier.

Casa San Lorenzo, our kitchen garden venture, is already providing a means for us to expand our food horizons.  The range of leaves and herbs that grow wild in East Lothian alone is like learning a new food culture.  We’re loving it!  We’ve added a wonderful foraged salad to both our menus.

We’re looking forward to getting older as a business, getting better and getting even more excited about looking after you all.

I’m doubly pleased because using Scottish-produced salt ties in with my own story, having been brought up next to Prestonpans, a town famous for its salt pans. Prestonpans made salt from the sea of the Firth of Forth right up until the 1960s.

We’re thrilled that Scotland has been able to tap into one of its own natural resources and produce a natural ingredient that is such an important part of our cooking.  Exciting!

www.hebrideanseasalt.co.uk

These busy little beasties will become a vital part of our kitchen garden – pollination, and therefore growing, wouldn’t happen without them. They will hopefully also provide a few pounds of honey for us.

Victor’s favourite Friuli-based producers, Nonino, have already agreed to distil our first batch of honey and make our own Casa San Lorenzo grappa.  Victor can hardly wait.

Operation Volunteer
Erica invited ten of her enthusiastic green-fingered friends to tackle our first day dig at the garden.  It was wonderful seeing how much was achieved in just one day.  They even planted our first sweet peas! Thanks guys, you were stars and you’re welcome back any time.

I don’t think you can stay in this industry if you don’t care about what you do… the Saturday nights out on the town, the birthdays, the weekends away… all gone but it’s absolutely fine because we (the chefs) love what we do.

Over more than 20 years it has changed so much. People are far more educated about their food, how it’s cooked and where it’s from.  In my opinion this has taken everything up a notch in the kitchens that embrace this mind set.

We need to know more, for our front of house staff to know more, so that we can better inform our well educated customers.

The garden we are undertaking – Casa San Lorenzo – is all brand new to me so this is a huge learning curve as to how to plan and grow for the year.  Seasonal and sustainable are words thrown around a lot these days.  That’s a good thing as the more we hear this the more it becomes second nature to us.

We embrace this way of  menu planning & cooking at Centotre and The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant and this is what we are striving for every month on our menu changes.  Some months are harder than others to be creative but lucky enough May is a cracking month.

Asparagus – specifically Pattullo’s asparagus from outside Blairgowrie,  Perthshire – is so beautiful.  It’s around for only four or five weeks and will be on my menu in several different ways.  My advice is that as the season is short use it while you can. Chargrilled  Warm Asparagus with a coddled egg dressing, wild herbs and some rapeseed oil… delicious!

I had a meeting with a forager (Ben Robertson) this morning and blew my socks off with the products that he can literally source in our own back garden. Look out for Sea Aster and Black Lovage knocking around our seasonal May menu.  How exciting!

Suzanne O’Connor
Head Chef at The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant

We still need to ‘grub up’ the remaining roots and it is also necessary to spray the area to eradicate any perennial weeds. This may all sound a bit drastic but it is important that the ground is prepared properly.

We plan to avoid the use of chemicals but there are several persistent weeds on site (Docks, Dandelions, Couch Grass, Ivy and Few-flowered Garlic - Allium paradoxum) that need to be removed before any soil preparation or planting takes place.

Many perennial weeds can reproduce from very small root parts and we run the risk of spreading them through the garden as we landscape. We believe that using a weed killer at this stage will allow us to use non chemical techniques in the future.

All weeds will compete with crops for water, light and nutrients, but perennials can be particularly difficult to remove once established amongst the intended fruit and vegetables.

Soil results
The results from our recent soil analysis show we have a slightly acidic soil (pH6.2) which is ideal for most fruit and vegetable growing. The nutrient levels are also good, but we will still improve the soil by adding organic matter (compost or manure).

Organic matter is the wonder substance for growing as it: increases the soil’s ability to hold moisture, but simultaneously aids drainage; provides a slow release of nutrients to the crops; and increases the soil’s micro fauna to create a healthy soil system. All of this ensures strong and vigorous plant growth.

Erica Randall
Head Gardener, Casa San Lorenzo

A Little Bit of…Tosca
Scottish National Gallery
Saturday 19 May

2.30pm in the Gallery
Scottish Opera will bring ‘a little bit of Tosca’ to the Scottish National Gallery. Puccini’s famous opera set in Rome has been cleverly re-written into a lively 20-minute version that will be performed, fittingly, in front of David Roberts’ magnificent panoramic painting of the Italian capital.

Based on a form of Japanese storytelling, the stories unfold to a series of colourful illustrations, brought to life by a storyteller, singer and two players. After this Gallery performance, Dr Patricia Andrew will deliver a short talk on David Roberts’ painting.

4pm in The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant
There will be a second performance at 4pm in The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant, enabling visitors to enjoy the opera over a Gardens Afternoon Tea (£14.95) or a Cream Tea (£5.75).

Book a table to avoid disappointment!

For reservations contact events@lovehappyfood.com or call 0131 226 6524.

‘A Little Bit of Tosca’ is part of the Festival of Museums.
For more details of this Festival, visit festivalofmuseums.com

Rome Menu
Set menu available from noon until 5pm Monday to Saturday

Insalata di Zucchine
Warm salad of courgettes, dressed with Amalfi lemon, pine kernels, Pecorino Romano and extra virgin olive oil.

Maiale alla Griglia con Carciofi
Peelham farm pork chop marinated with rosemary and char grilled. Served with fresh artichokes marinated
with fresh mint and a little garlic.

Frutta Fresca con Sorbetto
Seasonal Italian fresh fruit platter with fresh berry sorbet

2 courses £14.95
3 courses £18.95