Dining Club
8th October 2007

Raw Talent on the Menu at Dining Club

Supporting sustainability in the seafood sector was the message at the Grampian Food Forum Dining Club which took place at the Mercure Ardoe House Hotel on Monday 8th October as part of the Seafood Week 2007 celebrations.

The guest speaker was this year’s UK Seafood Chef of the Year, the renowned Scottish chef Jim Cowie of the Captains Galley, Scrabster in Caithness.

Jim’s dishes are made from sustainable seafood, caught in season and sourced from a 50-mile radius of his restaurant. The strategy helps to ensure that none of the seafood that ends up on the table at the Captain’s Galley is from under-pressure fish stocks. In the kitchen, Jim sums up his philosophy as ‘simplicity, passion and integrity’ and has a simple rule of thumb, “If I won’t eat it raw, I won’t cook it for my customers”.

Elizabeth Mathie, co-ordinator of the Grampian Food Forum said: “Seafood is one of the natural ingredients for which our region is renowned. Our seafood is second to none, and desired all over the world. It should have pride of place on our menus and we should be promoting it as a culinary highlight for anyone visiting this area.”

The popular Dining Clubs aim to strengthen relationships between the food and tourism sectors in Aberdeen City and Shire and Moray, promoting growth in both sectors and facilitating the greater use of local produce in the menus of the region’s catering establishments. More than 40 people attended the event, which is open to restaurateurs, chefs and local producers who use the Dining Club to forge working relationships and sample the menus which are created using food from local suppliers