Highland Cuisine: The Hebrides

Highland cuisine:
Scotland has experienced a cooking renaissance over the past decade, and the Hebrides are drawing diners from London and beyond
DEANNA MACDONALD
Montreal Gazette
Saturday, July 14, 2007

Scotland's Hebrides Islands are famed for their spectacular scenery, world-class hiking, and a surplus of sheep. Today there is another draw to these beautiful remote isles: food. In the world of European stereotypes, Scottish cuisine was once spoken of in the same terms as Italian efficiency and Swiss lovemaking. Sure the oatcakes might be good, the haggis ... haggisy, and the whisky highly drinkable, but fine cuisine? Ach, nooo.
However, Scotland has experienced a cooking renaissance over the past decade, and the Hebrides are no exception. These distant islands are now home to several restaurants whose outstanding cuisine draws diners from Edinburgh, London and beyond, sometimes just for a gastronomic weekend.

I discovered why: After a day of wandering in unspoiled natural beauty, I dined on things like Loch Dunvegan langoustines with organic Glendale greens, savoured local cheeses from cheddars to blues, and desperately tried to leave room for next morning's breakfast of light-as-air scones and Skye smoked haddock. The only stereotypical part of the experience was the abundance of welcoming hospitality. (Some things should stay the same).

Part of the Hebrides' new culinary lure is the trend toward local, organic produce. The demand from restaurateurs for quality local produce is making a difference, changing the way local farmers, fishermen and artisan food makers work. And the locals are very particular about how "local" their "local" food is. When I asked Arlene Macphie, proprietor of a B&B on the Isle of Skye if my fabulous breakfast kippers were local, she hesitated: "No. Well, yes ... sort of: It comes from Mallig (the mainland port village that is a three-minute ferry ride from Skye). It's smoked there, but the fish comes from Skye waters." Clearly local on Skye means local.

The following are three restaurants that have helped to make the Hebrides a foodie destination. Remember: Advance reservations are a must.

CROFTER-COTTAGE CHIC
The signs for the Three Chimneys restaurants had pointed this way, but I was quite sure we were lost as we drove along a one-track road on the Isle of Skye through rolling hills dotted with not much more than grazing sheep. Sure enough, though, as we reached the shore of Loch Dunvegan, a whitewashed, stylishly refurbished crofters cottage with "three chimneys" came into view. As we pulled into the parking area - filled with a dozen or so cars from all over Britain, plus a few European plates - we agreed that if the food was half as good as the breathtaking natural setting, we were in the right place.

It was this same beauty that attracted Eddie and Shirley Spear to Skye and led them in 1985 to open the Three Chimneys. They soon began to garner restaurant awards - it is touted as one of Scotland's best restaurants - and to draw visitors to the west coast of Skye. Shirley Spear, the chef, has always focused on fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and updated twists on traditional recipes. Although she recently handed over the cooking reigns to Michael Smith, the Spears and their family still oversee operations. That night, Eddie Spear showed us to our table in the cosy dinning room with its low ceiling, stone walls and handmade wood furniture. We savoured carpaccio of Skye smoked haddock and smoky roast salmon, Highland venison with Jerusalem artichoke mash & chips and local blue on crunchy oatcakes. We had definitely found the right place.

The Three Chimneys: Colbost, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye; 011-44-1470-511258; www.threechimneys.co.uk. Lunch menu around $44; three-course dinners from around $105. The Spears have added six five-star rooms in a neighbouring building, The House Over-By, which book up quickly: doubles with full breakfast $540. If the restaurant's rooms are booked, try the nearby Balmeanach House B&B, which offers drives to and from the Three Chimneys. Details: 011-44-1470-572320, www.skye-holiday.com; $50 to $65 per person.

"LAIRD" FOR A DAY
Perhaps it was the BBC series Monarch of the Glen, or maybe it was Sir Walter Scott, but for many there is something wildly romantic about the idea of a Scottish laird. And a laird who opens his ancestral home in southern Skye as a hotel and has a wife who happens to be an eminent celebrity chef is doubly intriguing. So it is no surprise that family-run hotel and restaurant Kinloch Lodge, home of Godfrey Macdonald, high chief of Clan Donald, and his wife, Claire MacDonald, is considered one of the world's top 100 small hotels, according to Conde Nast Traveler.

Found on the Sleat Peninsula - an area known as the "garden of Skye" - Kinloch Lodge dates to the 1600s when it was a hunting lodge and is set on the edge of Loch Na Dal. Claire MacDonald draws most visitors with her inventive, no-nonsense update of gracious country house cooking. A best-selling cookbook author and host of Seasonally Scottish, a TV cooking series, she also offers weekend cooking demonstrations that fill up months in advance, as do the Lodge's luxurious rooms.
I soon understood why. In the lodge's elegant dining room, distractingly filled with ancestral portraits of Georgian ladies and gentleman in kilts, we dined on seared Skye scallops in sweet-chilli sauce and panfried Scotch beef with port, ginger and green peppercorn sauce and in the morning, enjoyed a lordly breakfast that included Stornoway black pudding, South Uist hot smoked salmon, and fresh baked croissants and scones. Claire MacDonald makes a popular line of jams, chutneys, sauces and an addictively good vanilla fudge that let you bring a taste of the lairdly life home with you.

Kinloch Lodge, Sleat, Isle of Skye; 011-44-1471-833214, www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk. Double rooms with full breakfast $450 to $580 (April 1-Sept. 30 high season); multi-course dinner $90 per person; two-day cooking classes, $845 to $1,160, including classes, three-nights accommodation and all meals.

TWEEDY LUXURY
In the Outer Herbrides, luxuries are few; this is a hardy place where a buttery scone seems downright indulgent. So on the Isle of Harris (of tweed fame), Scarista House stands out as a bastion of genteel comfort. One of few buildings on the British Heritage list in the Outer Hebrides, this refurbished 1827 former manse is not grand, but rather graciously comfortable and, like Harris itself, feels a bit lost in time. Set in heather-covered hills overlooking the often blustery Atlantic Ocean and a five-kilometre long, shell sand beach - where you are more likely to see an otter or dolphin than another person - this is a place for peace, solitude and jaw-dropping scenery ... and, of course, food.

Scarista House is run by an English couple, Tim and Patricia Martin, who, like many Hebrides transplants, fell in love with the region's secluded beauty. They have created a cosy retreat with guest rooms and public areas filled with comfy chairs, antiques, plentiful bookshelves and a dining room overlooking the sea. In the kitchen, they focus on local ingredients and natural home cooking: They grow much of their own salads, herbs and vegetables and make their cakes, breads, yogurts, ice cream and marmalades. I loved their bread - dark and mealy, it was perfect with local cheeses from the Orkneys, Highlands and Ireland, and our dinner - local crab soufflE and Lewis (Harris's neighbour) lamb - had that true feel of "terroir."
The Martins, encouraging the easy bonhomie of the Highlands, invited the guests for drawing-room drinks before dinner. We all agreed on one thing: that, luckily, a day in the wild and blustery Hebrides builds an appetite.

Scarista House, Isle of Harris; 011-44-1859-550238, www.scaristahouse.com. Dinner $83 (three courses) and $105 (four courses); accommodations include guest rooms (doubles $360 to $410, including breakfast) and self-catering cottages available by the week.