{"id":5136,"date":"2024-10-06T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/?p=5136"},"modified":"2024-10-06T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T16:18:15","slug":"ross-caithness-head-chef-at-an-cala-ciuin-on-the-isle-of-mull-on-how-instagram-has-benefitted-chefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/?p=5136","title":{"rendered":"Ross Caithness head chef at An Cala Ciuin on the Isle of Mull on how Instagram has benefitted chefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

What was your first industry job?<\/strong>
\nA bistro in the east end of Glasgow called Tibo – a great place that gave me the opportunity to kickstart my career.<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t in kitchens, what would you do?<\/strong>
\nProbably manufacturing; I worked in a few factories, including a Michelin tire one, before entering the culinary field.<\/p>\n

What industry figure do you most admire, and why?<\/strong>
\nThere are many amazing chefs, but I would say Ferran and Albert Adri\u00e0. I met them a few years ago and dined at several places around Barcelona; the food was simply mind-blowing. I would have loved to experience El Bulli back in the day, as their innovations have opened up new aspects of cooking for chefs today.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your pet hate in the kitchen?<\/strong>
\nLateness.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the oddest thing a customer has said to you?<\/strong>
\n\u201cWe got pregnant on our last visit to you\u201d – a lovely couple who created a literal food baby.<\/p>\n

Sum up your cooking style in a single sentence\u2026<\/strong>
\nLocal, seasonal produce cooked with love and butter.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the worst review you\u2019ve ever had?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve been quite lucky not to have received any bad reviews since we started in August, but one customer did leave a review complaining about the napkins.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?<\/strong>
\nFind a place where you can learn, bring a pen and notepad, and be a sponge for knowledge. Push yourself hard, but remember to take downtime as I’ve seen too many people burn out.<\/p>\n

Which single item of kitchen equipment could you not live without?<\/strong>
\nProbably our Konro Grill; we cook a lot of our meat and fish on it, and it imparts a great flavor.<\/p>\n

What would you choose to eat for your last meal?<\/strong>
\nSpaghetti carbonara; I practically lived on it while working in Italy, and my co-worker Andre made the best. That would be my choice for sure.<\/p>\n

\u00c0 la carte or tasting menu?<\/strong>
\nTasting menu, hands down. In the right hands, it\u2019s a fantastic way to experience a restaurant’s full capabilities and showcase seasonal, local ingredients.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best meal you\u2019ve ever had in a restaurant?<\/strong>
\nAn impromptu visit to Osteria Tre Gobbi in Bergamo, Italy, a few years ago. I went for the chef’s choice tasting menu and was absolutely blown away. If it weren\u2019t so far away, I’d visit regularly.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite fast food joint?<\/strong>
\nA bargain bucket from KFC… with a tin of caviar, bliss! Unfortunately, there are no fast food joints on the island here.<\/p>\n

MasterChef or Great British Menu?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d prefer MasterChef; it\u2019s always nice to see new, lesser-known talent coming through and pushing themselves.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most overrated food?<\/strong>
\nI can’t give a definitive answer, but I do find it frustrating when people garnish dishes purely for aesthetics without adding any flavor.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re restaurant dictator for a day \u2013 what would you ban?<\/strong>
\nCustomers snapping their fingers at the front-of-house staff.<\/p>\n

Who would your dream dinner party guests be?<\/strong>
\nGareth Ward from Ynyshir, Mark Donald from the Glenturret Lalique, and Rasmus Munk from the Alchemist. I admire what these chefs are doing and would love to pick their brains over dinner.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your earliest food memory?<\/strong>
\nSunday dinners at my gran and granddad\u2019s house \u2013 proper homemade steak pie with stewed butcher’s sausages. It was hearty, and I often think about it.<\/p>\n

Twitter or Instagram?<\/strong>
\nInstagram. I never really got into Twitter, but Instagram has become a great platform for chefs of all levels to connect and share ideas.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the closest you\u2019ve ever come to death?<\/strong>
\nI was hit by the side of a bus once in London. I don\u2019t remember much afterward, but I had several fractures and stitches. Thankfully, it could have been much worse, though I’m a bit wary of buses now.<\/p>\n

Where do you go when you want to let your hair down?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m fortunate to have so much open space on the Isle of Mull. I enjoy walks along the coastal paths or through the fields at the Glengorm estate, where we source a lot of our produce. Long walks often end with a well-deserved dram at one of the local bars.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your tipple of choice?<\/strong>
\nLedaig 10 year old. It\u2019s a fantastic local dram from the distillery at the end of the street.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite food and drink pairing?<\/strong>
\nCharcuterie and a negroni; I could have that for lunch any day of the week.<\/p>\n

What do you consider to be your signature dish?<\/strong>
\nAlthough we frequently change our menu, one dish keeps reappearing: hand-dived scallop cooked over the BBQ, accompanied by fennel jam, chili emulsion, vermouth, and white chocolate espuma, finished with smoked dehydrated scallop roe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was your first industry job? A bistro in the east end of Glasgow called Tibo – a great place that gave me the opportunity to kickstart my career. If you weren\u2019t in kitchens, what would you do? Probably manufacturing; I worked in a few factories, including a Michelin tire one, before entering the culinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-restaurant-news-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}