BITING INTO EDINBURGH

Like a lion stalking a gazelle, Paul Wedgwood took his time before he pounced. Twelve years, in fact, before he finally threw open the doors to his own Scottish European fusion restaurant in the heart of that city of festivals, Edinburgh. And it was worth the wait. Picking up rave review after rave review, Wedgwood the Restaurant is now gearing up to celebrate its second birthday on August 1st and Essential Cuisine is proud to be part of this success...

Winning ‘em round in Edinburgh
Wedgwood’s popularity has exploded in the past two years, winning a place in next year’s Michelin Guide, hailed Best Newcomer of the Year by Edinburgh’s holy bible of local haunts, The List, and ranked the city’s number one restaurant on tourism website Trip Advisor.

Situated on Edinburgh’s prestigious Royal Mile, it’s advisable to book a table as much as two weeks in advance and, as for its pigeon, haggis, neaps and tatties, it is simply the best American TV show host and food guru Rick Steves has ever tried. Arlyn Blake, cookbook author and ambassador for the James Beard Foundation, meanwhile, can’t get enough of Wedgwood’s lobster sensation.

It’s these types of testimonials that count, according to owner and chef Paul Wedgwood, who believes great words from customers are the spoils of hard work, not “paid for” industry accolades. It is this unpretentious outlook, especially with such exalted neighbours, that has made such an impression and applies to the atmosphere, how food is served and the price.

“We have the locally sourced food, designer crockery and crystal wear, but our service is laidback, not regimented, a kind of a bistro crossed with informal dining,” said Paul, a self taught chef who studied hotel management but found he was more at home in the kitchen.

“We are also the only city restaurant that doesn’t turn the tables, we let customers take their time, which is a unique selling point. We have also built up such a great relationship with local hotels; we almost act as their own restaurants, which is great.”

Wedgwood the Restaurant was born as a living, breathing homage to Paul and partner Lisa Channon’s ‘perfect night out’, with years of ‘research’ scrawled on scraps of paper eventually turning into a fully fledged business plan. While the ideas were formulating, Paul who recently picked up silver in the Scottish Chef of the Year Awards, launched himself into bagging a sack full of diverse skills from an eclectic mix of catering operations.

“Over 12 years, I worked across the Lake District, doing work experience at Miller Howe in Windermere under the first celebrity chef, John Tovey, then fine dining, hotels, bistros, pubs, and leisure parks,” said Paul. “You name it, I did it, to get as much experience as possible. Nothing phased me. I picked out the best parts of mass catering and fine dining, pulled the two together, and discovered how to combine high end dining with speed and informality.

“In 1999, we opened the stylish but laid back Georgian House bar in Kendal, which created a big buzz, despite the fact it was a working class, market town. Its popularity went through the roof and I got another real taste for owning my own venture. I went up to see my parents in Edinburgh and fell in love with it, which is when we found this restaurant for sale.

Small kitchen, big success
Wedgwood the Restaurant seats 48 and serves in excess of 400 covers a week from a menu of 13 starters and 14 mains, not bad when you only have a six metre square kitchen to work with. “We have a brigade of 12, but it gets a bit cosy if there are more than four in at a time,” he said.

Because of its popularity, Wedgwood is also hard pressed for time and with growing success, there came a need to call on a select few, pre-prepared products to complement its scratch-made dishes. Essential Cuisine, expert producer of kitchen made stocks, jus, glace and gravy for the professional chef, is one producer which met the mark.

Essential Cuisine’s Premier Jus, in particular, has gone down a storm. “As a fall back, I use the lamb jus as a base for the sauce of my fillet of lamb, encrusted in cous cous, ground pistachio nut and onion seed, with ginger sweet potato and cardamoms in a cream sauce. It has a beautiful sheen and is the perfect finishing product. Similarly, the veal jus we can use in the finishing sauce for my pigeon, haggis, neeps and tatties, which Rick Steves says is the best he has ever tried.

“We also use the glace range and particularly like the lobster glace, which is excellent and can give extra depth to our own shell oil dressing. Arlyn Blake came in once, in fact, and said our lobster dish was fantastic.

“With such a small kitchen and our backs to the wall, we also sometimes use Essential Cuisine’s stocks, which have just the right amount of seasoning. I even take the chicken stock home with me as it is great with floury potatoes; par boiled, thrown in a colander with some goose fat and stock, and roasted.”

“The point about using pre-prepared products is, at this level, they have to be restaurant standard. I met Nigel Crane from Essential at the Restaurant Show in 2003 when I first looked into setting up, got a few samples and took them home to try out. I was very impressed and every nine months or so, they called me to see how I was getting on. They weren’t badgering me; it was just good customer support. Since then, we have built up a really good relationship.

“To my mind, the products have been developed by Nigel, a well respected chef, who knows what we are looking for and that we are not going to accept mass produced, over seasoned rubbish. They are, therefore, superb products and I would happily recommend them as a standby to any professional chef.”

Wedgwood the Restaurant, located on the Royal Mile, 267 Canongate, Edinburgh, is open seven days a week. For more information, visit www.wedgwoodtherestaurant.co.uk 
16/07/2009|