Cooks' Alliance
The cooks' alliance brings together cooks and chefs from accross the country who put good, clean and fair food at the heart of their kitchen. Visit their restaurants or events for the chance to taste local, herritage and ark produce cooked in the very best way.
L'escargot Bleu - Fred Berkmiller, Edinburgh
Pop! - Steve Brown, Edinburgh
Lesley Gilespie, Aberdeen
Wendy Barrie is a cook, food writer & campaigner for regenerative food production & biodiversity. Founder Director of the award-winning Scottish Food Guide, Scottish Cheese Trail & Scottish Farm Shops, Wendy is also Leader for Slow Food Ark of Taste & Cooks Alliance in Scotland; IGCAT Global Expert, where she shares her expertise on international platforms; co-founder of the Scottish Bread Championship & co-author, with her husband, of “Meadows: The Swedish Farmer & The Scottish Cook,” on biodiversity & regenerative food production. She played a key role in East Ayrshire Council’s pioneering school lunch programme and is Chair of the Edinburgh Bakers(Baxters) Trust, supporting artisan bakers and heritage grains. Wendy runs sustainable food experiences at their Fife food studio and enjoys the rural backwaters of Småland on their small organic croft.
Neil has been a champion of local, seasonal cooking for almost four decades. His commitment to sourcing ingredients with integrity stems from his upbringing in a family of chefs. He continues this tradition by leading the way for the future generation of cooks, passing on his knowledge, skills and recipes, ensuring they aren’t lost forever.
At his Edinburgh restaurant - Cafe St Honoré - Neil combines rare breeds, organic produce and local fruit and veg in seasonally-led menus featuring many old Scots recipes.
Tim Maddams offers Private chef contracts and Industry consultancy looking specifically at how to make sustainability and seasonality core focuses of fresh food businesses within the hospitality sector. Tim also writes about food, hosts a podcast all about the word of food and how to improve it and collaborates with others to bring common sense and practical solutions to the wider industry. He has a polly tunnel and a few pigs and a passion for wild food and good cookery.
Since his move to Scotland from Devon it has become even more important to him to source produce with care, so if he's not growing it in the garden, hunting or foraging it in the wild or rearing it in the farm yard he is always looking to work with excellent local and Scottish producers - for which we are spoiled. His menu at the Cairn distillery pays testament to this and my involvement with the Scottish Venison Association will hopefully take that story even further.
Thyme Deli and Bistro is an informal daytime restaurant and farm shop/deli that lies at the heart of Errichel - a rare-breed hill-farm situated above picturesque Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire.
Chef Patron Paul Newman uses farm produce to create his own 'Alora' range of fine foods, including biltong and pastrami, which combine global flavours with local and farm-reared produce. These are showcased in the Deli amongst a range of products from Scotland and further afield. Thyme Deli & Bistro at Errichel was named Scotland's 'Food and Drink Tourism' attraction of 2022/2023 at the high-profile Scottish Thistle Awards, with the Bistro recently winning Slow Food UK's Best Restaurant award for Scotland.
The Farm, lead by Becky Newman, also boasts an 'Ark of Taste' orchard, planted in 2022 as a collabaration with Slow Food. The orchard features heritage fruit trees, adding to the biodiversity of the site.
