Having been brought up on a farm and with generations of my family on both sides all having farmed, food production has always been part of my heritage.
I fondly remember Granny’s dairy parlour full of shelves of interesting & some scary looking kitchen equipment (aga griddles, cake moulds, jam pans, cleavers &meat mincers) & lots of different ingredients laid out for the taking.My grandmother herself having been taught at Atholl Crescent Do School (The Edinburgh College of Domestic Science), where in the 1930’s she learnt recipes that “should be of value to every housewife…the dishes will provide simple, nourishing food.’
Further childhood memories on the farm include pet lambs & calves, collecting eggs, roast Sunday lunches, freshly made jam sandwich picnics in the harvest field, picking vegetables like potatoes, peas & turnips straight from the ground to rides on the combine watching it cut the crops which would end up on our table in foods such as bread, porridge, breakfast cereals, soups, frozen peas, oil, beer& whisky.
Then came the teenage years where, asa shy schoolgirl I took comfort and pleasure in Sunday baking following recipes in my Delia Smith or Be-ro cookbooks, often entering local Baking Industrial shows at the village/country fairs. Or cooking the puddings for the daily two course lunches my father & grandfather would enjoy at midday when coming in from the farm like something out of one of my favourite TV programmes at the time, The Waltons. I alsoworked at the village pub & local cafés on weekends/holidaysthen best of all, as a pizza chefin Aberdeen when a student.
It’s no wonder with this start my life’s work has been foodorientated and is the career path I have followed.
Meeting William in 1990 as first year students in the Kepplestone college kitchens at the former Aberdeen Do School (then RGIT & now RGU) under the watchful eye of toque wearing Geoff the Chef or Chilli Don Carney, our relationship began over melba toast & julienne vegetables and has developed and matured over the many years that have followed, like the many fine wines we have served (& enjoyed) since.
William grew up too surrounded by good food & drink.I was so impressed with the meals & exotic looking foods we shared with his family when our relationship was in its the early days. Food such as langoustines, artichoke, aubergines, olives, salami & squid were regular favourites at their table. With his dad doing a lot of the cooking too (influenced greatly by the off-the-beaten-track travels his parents took before starting a family). A far cry from traditional farmhouse meat & two veg meals I was used too cooked by the women.My family still talk about how quickly my tastes changed after meeting William.
Hearing stories of cider making as a young boy in the garage, histeenage summer jobs in an Edinburgh wine merchant & then his student jobs in numerous bars & wine shops in Aberdeen, William’s background wascertainly more liquid than mine.
Sourcing wonderful ingredients & produce, producing delicious tasting food, enjoying a shared experience, seeing the pleasure & the memories good food & drink can create is a passion William & I have always shared. Together & separately, we have travelled, lived, and worked in many countries & places and food & drink are always the experiences we look for & enjoy the most. It is a pleasure we have nurtured in our own family as they have grown up; some would say by the size of our boys, we have nurtured them too well!
Living & working in hospitality in London in the late 90’s was influential and perfectly timed to us. The restaurant scene seemed to explode, thanks to Terence Conran, Marco Pierre White & Peter Gordon to name but a few. The introduction of various Asian influences was not just about the style of food but the way we ate – communal eating like in Wagamamas (& Belgo), robot drinks trolleys & conveyor belt food like in Yo Sushi. Having both travelled in Asia, we loved seeing it all arrive in London.
I’d like to remember our time in London quaffing Champagne darling, like Edwina & Patsy but sadly it wasn’t quite like that. My early starts opening a cafe/restaurant on Piccadilly at 5am & William’s late-night finishes closing bars in Mayfair at 2am didn’t lend themselves to the Ab Fab lifestyle. However, we did spend our days off eating out & living in west London. It was a brilliant place & time to feed our minds as well as our bellies. It was here we finally started to plan our future together, and yes, no surprise, it was food & drink based.
Our dream to run our first business together was achieved in 2000 when we opened Iso-bar in Leith, Edinburgh, serving food & coffees through the day and a late-night drinking hole by night, very much a locals hang out place, much like Central Perk in Friends, which was in its peak at the time or the eighties Cheers bar. We refined our skills for making guests feel welcome, valued & at home while enjoying good food & drink.
Borderland Tours is our fourth business, still true to our passions, serving guests food & drink, feeding the soul & the senses as well as creating memorableexperiences. We are still living (& eating) the dream together.
