What would you order for your last meal? It would have to be a dozen native oysters with a bottle of Ken Forrester Roussanne. Bliss.
What is your favourite restaurant and why? A lovely speciality seafood restaurant in Nice, in the Italian quarter called Café de Turin. It’s a bustling establishment with a lot of attitude. It has a fantastic selection of shellfish and seafood with an incredible wine list to match.
What is your favourite bar and why? The Canny Man’s in Morningside in Edinburgh. It’s so atmospheric with a very professional standard of service. They do an excellent Bloody Mary – it’s so good that Rick Stein even travelled up to film here and put the Bloody Mary on his TV series.
Who would you most like to go out to dinner with and why? I would have to say my wife, Karin because we do love going out together and trying new places in and around Edinburgh or going to one of our favourite restaurants. We don’t do it nearly often enough.
Who would you most like to go drinking with and why? I really enjoy going out with my team from the restaurant when we get the time; you get to hear about what the team are up to outside of work. A cold one with the crew, after a busy service, is the best, you can’t beat it. It doesn’t always have to be alcohol though.
What foods do you most remember from your childhood? Steak pie always! Every Sunday for about 16 years we sat down together as a family to enjoy a homemade steak pie and that’s the one meal that we always got together and enjoyed each week as a family.
What is your ‘go-to’ quick supper? It would have to be Serrano ham with some flatbread, olive oil and a little bit of salt to finish!
What is your top food hack? Cooking fish at the correct temperature.
If you weren’t a chef, what would you be? A bad joiner! However, being a chef was always my passion growing up. I knew from a very young age that was what I really wanted to do, and I followed the dream.
Who is your food hero(ine)and why? The late Andrew Fairlie. He was always and still is such an inspiration to me. Following all the accolades that he received over the years, he always stayed humble, and he was the exact same guy that I met 30 years before. It was a friendship that I cherished and will always hold on to.
What is your favourite Edinburgh restaurant and/or bar and why? I really like Paolozzi – an Italian Scottish restaurant and bar in Edinburgh. Gino, one of my good friends runs it and he does a really great job, he is a fantastic restaurateur and a real character. Every second Saturday we buy pizza for the team and it’s just along the road from the restaurant. The pizza is very good, I highly recommend you try it.
What is your comfort food? It would have to be Sourdough with olive oil.
Ondine Oyster & Grill specialising in seafood and shellfish, opened in 2009 by renowned Owner and Chef Roy Brett in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town and has become an institution within the Scottish capital. Roy Brett is one of the leading figures in the Scottish food scene - www.ondinerestaurant.co.uk