This year sees Edinburgh restaurateur and chef Fred Berkmiller turning 50 years old and he admits reaching this milestone has caused him to pause and take stock.
“What do I want? Do I want to be in catering? Big questions.”
It's therefore, the perfect time to reflect on what he and his partner Betty have achieved over the years, here in Scotland.
They first opened Petit Paris in the Grassmarket in 1998 then a second west-end restaurant in 2004 which morphed into what is now L'escargot blanc and L'escargot bleu on Broughton Street in 2009.
So how does he intend to celebrate his big day?
“The same as every year, socializing cooking and drinking. We have an old school house, at our home in France with a huge oven but no electricity, so candles for lights. We cook on a barbecue or in the oven, that is all we do.”
A constant theme for Fred is his ethos that good food is central to our society, and should be accessible to all.
“We all need to learn where our food comes from, we are gradually coming to this way of thinking again,” he explains.
“I cook for 800-900 people a week but in principle, it is the same for buying for a family of four, nose to tail.”
Fred explains that when you sit around a table and eat “you open minds onto the world".
He said: "It is where your children have their first taste of pancake or chocolate tarte. A place where you can discuss homework, boundaries with your kids, exchange ideas.”
Interior at L'Escargot blanc, Edinburgh
Fred was born and brought up in Tours, France, he recalls: “I am one of five kids, where food was at the heart of the family, we were surrounded by foraging or neighbours swapping vegetables, yeah I guess a happy childhood.
“My grandmother making jelly in autumn and holidays meant shellfish found on the beach; cockles and winkles.”
However, he explains: “I didn't get on at school I was a bad boy, expelled 3 or 4 times.”
Exasperated, his mum came up with a plan, that he should work instead. She found a chef who would take him on and dropped him off mid-week to collect him again on Sunday.
“I was 14, I hated it. There were four or five apprentices we slept in a room above the restaurant. The food was very traditional, and the boss was a bully. I washed up, peeled, chopped and cut up all sorts of vegetables, plus basic mise en place.
"I was taken to the garden to pick vegetables, and I learned how to slaughter and butcher animals like chickens, ducks and rabbits as well as preparing snails and game. In those days everything, including putting wine into bottles or curing ham, was done in house.
"It was one of toughest jobs I’ve ever had, but I recognise the value of it today. Now I would love it.”
After two years, it was decided it would probably be best if he didn't come back.
Butchery was one of the many skills he learned as an apprentice.
Again his mum found him another job, this time in a Michelin starred restaurant, closer to home.
“It was supposed to be two weeks at work, then one-week college. There were two chefs, the old one was really something, he would call out two names from the apprentices and tell us to follow his instruction.
He spoke quietly, no stress, no anxiety, I made things I had never made before froie gras, scallops, lobster. Things I had never seen before.
“I was meant to be learning English, but I never went, one day my tutor arrived and introduced herself, somehow she let me earn my qualification. I think she understood.”
Fred Berkmiller
“We have built a good team here, that we trust, Bertrand has worked with me for 20 years and Adam for the past six years, he wants to stay and that is his challenge, he came from Mal Maison and has worked his way up, so I'm not always having to be in the kitchen.”
Grown this season by Fred at Newton the Walled Garden
Copper pans bought in 2004 “will still be going strong when I'm under the ground” says Fred
Fred then finds a copper pan and places two rabbit legs, some cooking liquor and pre-cooked heritage potatoes, pink fir apple and a purple variety. He brings this up to temperature before adding a good handful of chopped parsley. At this point Fred explains, is where the creativity and emotion of the chef is added to the dish.
He decides this time to add preserved prunes to increase the intensity of the dish. Again more butter is added - as Fred says, “you can never have too much butter.”
The preserve is pre-made from, sugar, tea, Armagnac socked with dried prunes and vanilla pods. Plate up, and serve on a simple white dish.
Le coq served with l'escargot sauce
Le coq served with mashed heritage potatoes
“Being French-born and bred, and having been trained from an early age in France, I definitely received a classical influence and a reflects the era from the 70 and 80s.
"So long hours making basic stocks to enhance flavours using a slow cooking style, and using mainly terroir provenance ingredients.”
“I started at the early age of 14 as a pre-apprentice in a Routier restaurant in St Maure de Touraine where I worked for two years and learned all the basics of cooking. I then moved on to the second part of my training at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tours, and graduated as a chef two years later. This was more of a fine-dining place, or Nouveau Cuisine as it was called.
"Making foie gras and turning vegetables, including mushrooms, was a daily task. I then had a trip to Monaco with Roger Verger, and a few months working in Paris before heading to London in late 1988. I never went back to France.”
“Definitely, we call then the four epices (4 mixed spices). It’s a must in classic French cooking made of ground nutmeg, black pepper, ginger and cinnamon.”
“I am neither sweet nor sour. Knowledge and willingness are compulsory in our kitchens. No violence or shouting is allowed, and flying pans are banned! These types of attitudes usually reflect lack of experience or the super-inflated ego of the head chef.
"A dirty pass is very annoying, so clear communication skills are needed.”
“I don't really have a flavour of the moment. I tend to follow the seasons and I am always communicating with my suppliers who are also good friends.
"This dictates what is happening on the menu and what I will buy and cook, but my mood and the weather also has a strong influence on my cooking.”
“Breakfast tea for me all day, two sugars and milk. I used to be a heavy coffee drinker, but that all stopped when the smoking ban came in. I realised I was drinking coffee so I could have a fag.”
“Bread and butter and a tin of Buitoni beef ravioli. The worst thing anyone should eat really, but once in a while it's needed!”
“I cannot possibly come up with a favourite chef. In today's world, the terms humility and modesty seem to disappear, which sadly disintegrates the meaning of cooking from the heart. I could mention a hundred chefs and food heroes.”
“I don't really do fantasy. Life is too short and I try my hardest to take any opportunity to cook and socialise as much as I can in a realistic way. Therefore I live my dream on a daily basis! ”
“Bananas definitely and even just the smell of melon makes me run away, my brain brings back unwanted memories!”
In the Kitchen: Andy Keir from Damm27 restaurant, Causewayside, Edinburgh
In the Kitchen: Phil White from LeftField restaurant, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh
