EatScotland Dining Out - A Restaurant Mini Journal

Have you ever eaten out and wished you could remember all the details?

Well now you can!

EatScotland has created its own Dining Out Journal.

It's a great gift idea for anyone who loves to eat out.

Keep a record of your dining out experiences so you can return to restaurants where you had a great meal with excellent service and, occassionally, avoid the ones where you didn't.

Remember the details of your first visit and use the information to make the next visit even better.

Available to purchase now from the EatScotland office - £6.00 per journal

If you wish to purchase please call +44 (0) 131 335 6608 with your credit/debit card details. Alternatively, send an email with your details to eatscotland@sfqc.co.uk plus details of a postal address.

A 10% discount is available on purchases of 10 journals or over in any one transaction.

Dimensions : 3" x 5" inchesPage Count : 120

Hi and Welcome

Hi and welcome,

Firstly congratulations goes out to all our Gold, Silver & Individual award winners who have worked so hard to receive one of our first round of EatScotland awards> These awards are not given out easily, so well done.

Apologies if I did not speak to you personally on the day.

For those of you who did not receive these awards time round please keep working hard and your hard work will be rewarded. We all need to keep raising the standards.

Looking forward, we have in Edinburgh the Taste of Event which will show case Scotland’s pride in its food and drink. Featuring Edinburgh’s finest, Martin Wishart & Tom Kitchin will both be there plus other top chefs and food producers. It’s an event not to be missed so get your tickets now.

See you there!

Kevin

Dine Around Aberdeen - Fixed price dining for £15!

Are you going to be in Aberdeenshire during the month of June?

If so, you should be aware of VisitScotland's Dine Around festival, taking place at various restaurants from 2nd June to the 1st July. Dine Around offers £15 fixed price meals at some fantastic restaurants. It's a great excuse to sample the great restaurant scene in Aberdeen city and shire...as if you needed an excuse!

For more information, check out EatScotland.com's dedicated Dinearound section: Dine Around Aberdeen.

We will, for the first time, be running a dine around blog. Please drop us a line and let us know about the best venues.

M.

The List Awards

I had the pleasure of attending The List Food and Drink awards last night, a pleasurable experience where wine and good conversation flowed. Now in its 14th edition, The List eating and drinking guide has become a popular guide for eating out in the Central Belt of Scotland.

Over 800 restaurants, cafes and bars are represented by The List and it is really pleasing to see the diversity and quality in Glasgow and Edinburgh's dining scene.

And so to the awards!

Edinburgh's restaurant of the year was named as The Kitchin. Well, who would be surprised at that? Carefully sourced, seasonal Scottish ingredients find their way onto a very pleasurable menu. Tom Kitchin managed to bag himself a Michelin star in double quick time and his restaurant and staff are a credit to him.

Glasgow's restaurant of the year is Bistro at One Devonshire Gardens. Again, wonderful ingredients, inventive dishes, attentive staff and Paul Tamburrini.

The Edinburgh newcomer of the year is Abstract. You might recognide the name, Loic Lefebvre, who appeared alongisde Gordon Ramsey in his 'kitchen nightmares' series. Well, word is that only sweet dreams will come from visiting Abstract on Castle Terrace. A wonderful addition to the fine dining club in Edinburgh.

Glasgow newcomer of the year is The Left Bank. In the words of The List, 'On Gibson Street, Hillhead, it is one of the most talked about newcomers in some time. There's often a heady buzz but it doesn't distract from a globally-influenced menu in a foodie neighbourhood that now offers no shortage of worthy places to go.'

Edinburgh budget restaurant of the year is First Coast, a great local bistro on Dalry road with great prices to match.

And Glasgow's buget restaurant of the year is 'the perennially popular Cretan taverna': Konaki, with a wide selection of Mediterranean Greek cuisine which is maredly affordable.

Thanks to everyone at The List.

Higher Awards...and welcome!

Welcome to my first ever EatScotland blog...or, in fact, my first blog ever!

I am pleased that EatScotland has recently launched its higher awards, which are to be known as the Silver and Gold Awards. These additional awards were created to recognise eateries that were achieving superior results or going that extra mile.

An official launch will be going ahead on the 14th May 2007 which all current Silver Award winners will be invited to attend. At the event Gold award winners will be announced as well as announcing individual awards.

We at EatScotland, feel that the Silver & Gold Awards marks a real step forward for the Scottish food and drink industry as a whole. The scheme will reward our most innovative and quality driven establishments with the recognition they deserve, be they a local tea room or your bistro down the road. We really feel that these awards will, in time, provide an incentive across the industry to strive to improve standards.

The guide lines for silver are discretionary but are largely guided by the grades received within the EatScotland report. However, the full guidelines are available on www.sfqc.co.uk/food if you wish to view at your leisure.

Kevin MacGillivray leaves "heat" of the kitchen for SFQC

Award winning chef Kevin Macgillivray has left the “heat” of the kitchen at Ballathie House Hotel, Perthshire and accepted a role with SFQC (Scottish Food Quality Certification), to become EatScotland Director today (Wednesday 13 September 2006) - in a move that is seen as a real step change in the development of EatScotland.

As a hugely respected professional with over 25 years of experience garnered from the British Transport Hotel, Gleddoch House and Ballathie House Hotel, Kevin throughout his career, has endeavoured to put Scotland on the map as a first class culinary destination. He has worked with the Scottish Culinary Team and its participation at competitions worldwide, demonstrated his culinary skills in the Vanderbuilt Hall in New York during Tartan Week and won several awards including Scottish Chef of the Year, the Flavour of Scotland Awards and the Macallan Taste of Scotland Country House Hotel of the Year Award to name just a few.

As a new director of EatScotland, the quality assurance “where to eat” scheme owned by VisitScotland and run by SFQC, Kevin will “develop and progress the EatScotland scheme on a truly national level”. Fiercely passionate about Scottish cuisine and produce Kevin’s impetus in accepting the role was to “to do something to improve people’s perceptions at home and abroad of the quality of Scottish food and eating establishments”

Since its launch last year SFQC and the EatScotland scheme has now over 400 participants within the scheme with the aim to secure another 1,000 members to provide consumers with “a real guide of where to eat.”

The EatScotland scheme run by the SFQC is to help Scots and visitors easily find places to eat in Scotland and to continue to raise standards. Managing director Peter Brown commented: “It’s through the process of competent, professional certification, essentially helping consumers know more about the food they ea,t and in doing so, helping the food industry illustrate the depth of skill, care and enthusiasm that goes into producing food.”

Initially Kevin will be managing the SFQC team of assessors who carry out reviews of participating businesses evaluating characteristics such as quality, service, ambiance and of course hygiene. Long term there are plans for the scheme to launch an awards scheme, a training scheme and an advice package in order to help businesses grow and develop.
SFQC directors Margaret Seaton, David Whiteford and Peter Brown are hugely enthusiastic about the arrival of such a key, credible individual joining the team to help pioneer the scheme through a time of development and innovation.

Kevin who will work closely with SFQC Managing Director, Peter Brown commented “We’ve had a great response to EatScotland in the first year and the next couple of years promises to be a hugely exciting time of us at SFQC in developing the scheme to raise standards through Scotland on a national scale as well as providing businesses with the opportunity to gain first class advice and direction from someone as highly respected and passionate about Scottish produce and cuisine as Kevin.”