Scotland- home to the infamous deep fried Mars Bar- is not a country hailed for their haute cuisine; yet.
Recent years have seen a boom in the art of fine dining across the country particularly in the nation’s capital. With a host of fine local produce and traditional Scottish ingredients at their disposal, chefs around Scotland are changing the country’s cuisine landscape and none more so than Edinburgh chefs Matt Powell and Michael Neave.
Matt Powell became a head chef at the tender age of twenty-eight- a feat to be admired in the world of cookery- and established himself at the Hotel du Vin in Edinburgh two years ago. The restaurant flourished and was awarded the Bronze Award for New Scottish Restaurant of the Year in 2008. It is not just love of cookery that drives his ambition but the high pressure atmosphere of a thriving kitchen, an atmosphere he may not have ever discovered had it not been for his meddling grandfather who installed him in The Savoy Hotel, London on an apprenticeship in his teens.
“I would say you don’t get it anywhere else,” he said when asked to describe the feeling of working in the UK’s top restaurants, “But I have only worked in a kitchen. I don’t know what you get anywhere else.”
Powell has travelled and worked throughout the country with the Hotel du Vin Company and is clearly passionate about his employers and their objectives. Both believe firmly in the importance of local sourcing and supporting local farmers. Powell will often take along junior members of his fifteen strong kitchen to a local farm in Berwick to show them the importance of supporting Scotland’s suppliers and the high quality and diversity of ingredients that can be found just outside the city.
Powell is coy about revealing his favourite dish and in typical chef style insists he couldn’t possible pick one but it is clear his heart warms to the traditional fine dining fare of French cuisine prominent on his restaurant menu with French onion soup, cordon bleu and traditional cassoulet topping his favourites list.
Powell’s attitude to local produce coupled with his extraordinary talent undoubtedly contributed to the panel’s decision to award Powell in the 2008 New Scottish Restaurant awards, an achievement that Powell is observably proud of. While his heart remains firmly in the kitchen, he admits the award brought more much welcomed responsibilities as a chef. He can now often be found composing new menus for the Hotel Du Vin chain and advising other chefs while his expertly trained junior staff hold fort in the kitchen he helped put on the map.
At just sixteen years of age Michael Neave found himself working at The Bohnam restaurant in Edinburgh. Now, aged nineteen and installed at the Amber Restaurant, also in the city’s capital, he is a recent finalist in the country’s Young Chef of the Year awards. Neave never doubted that he would work in the kitchen, having been inspired by his fathers work as a chef in his childhood. But the level of his success, just three years into his career does seem to have boosted his confidence in his abilities and fuelled his ambition to succeed.
“It’s a very hard job, but it’s also extremely rewarding,” he smiles.
Never the less, the young chef is determined to keep his chef roots firmly in Scottish soil. While he admits to benefiting greatly under the teaching of a French chef during his two year apprenticeship, Scottish cuisine remains his passion. His position at The Amber restaurant is the perfect environment in which he can flourish. The restaurant boasts an impressive Scottish inspired menu with virtually all ingredients produced or sourced within the country; fresh fish from the east coast, meat reared in the borders and fresh berries and funghi grown on the outskirts of Lothian. When Neave reveals his favourite kitchen ingredients it is an insightful look into his dedication and passion for Scottish recipes; he loves to compound dishes based around prime cuts of venison from the Scottish highlands, he enjoys experimenting with wild mushrooms and the depth it can give to traditional dishes. And what ingredient can add spice and excitement to any dish?
“Scotch whisky,” he replies.
FUSION 
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