When Roberta Hall-McCarron answers the phone to discuss the inspiration behind her debut cookbook, it's noises of swooping gulls and gusts of wind that can be heard in the background rather than the clattering of pots and pans.
With three Edinburgh restaurants to her name as of this summer, it’s reassuring to know that the multi-award-winning chef and Great British Menu finalist can still find time to escape the kitchen for a morning walk.
Even if she is being pestered by a Herald journalist while doing so.
“It’s not that I assumed writing a book would be easy,” she says of The Changing Tides, ‘a recipe book for the home cook’ that’s due to be released in November, “but it was so much harder than I thought.
“I remember sending the first draft off to the publishers who are amazing and test all of the recipes as well as going over it all.
“I didn’t realise it at the time, but I’d written everything very literally and in terms that were too 'chef-y’.
“They helped me to soften it a little which has given me so much more confidence in knowing it’s been translated into something that people will actually be able to read.”
Much the same as with the menus the Little Chartroom, Eleanore and Ardfern, Hall-McCarron’s recipe book draws heavily on her experiences of sailing around the West Coast of Scotland with her family as a child.
It’s a vibrant celebration of seasonality, split into four chapters reflecting Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and the bountiful produce available throughout the country as each morphs into the next.
This means that with the flick of just a few pages, readers will journey from light dishes of asparagus and roast chicken hollandaise to summer tables laid with lamb rack, labneh and sweetheart cabbage, and finally braised beef and caramelised onion pie or chocolate fudge cake for when the nights start to draw in.
“There are a few challenging recipes, but a lot of the book is very simple, showcasing Scottish produce and telling you how to use it best at what time of the year,” Hall-McCarron continues.
“There’s also a three-course dinner party menu at the end of each season using recipes which will allow you to actually enjoy your time rather than being stuck in the kitchen.
“It’s all about sharing the little things you can do to make your food taste better.
“Something as easy as letting your tomatoes come to room temperature instead of eating them straight out the fridge can make all the difference.
“Writing the book was such an enjoyable experience and now I’m just so excited for the day I get to hold it in my hands.
“I think I might cry.”
There are a few months still to wait until the chef realises her dream of adding The Changing Tides to the bookshelf this winter.
But, having launched a new restaurant, café and bottle shop in Leith just as she submitted her final drafts in May this year, there has been plenty to keep her occupied.
The goal with Ardfern was to create a relaxed space which shared the values of critically acclaimed Little Chartroom and Eleanore while offering a more relaxed experience, open to serve breakfast rolls in the morning, bar snacks in the afternoon and heartier dinner plates as the sun sets.
As a result of this, on their menu you’ll find everything from fig, raspberry and almond crunch topped overnight oats to fish finger sandwiches served with seaweed gribiche and shoestring fries.
“Opening from 9am to 11pm is not necessarily a new concept, but it feels like new territory for us,” Hall-McCarron says.
“Things have shifted in the world recently and not everybody has the money to spend on a full meal in a restaurant.
“At the same time, they still want to be able to pick up something sweet for their friends or get a morning roll and a coffee to takeaway as a treat.
“We’ve always tried to create places that we would want to go to ourselves and I think we’ve succeeded in that.
“We were a little nervous about the organisational aspects of it all at first, but it’s a great team and two months in I think we’ve found this really nice flow and routine where everyone knows what they should be doing and when.”
Edinburgh-born and bred, Hall-McCarron owes much of her success to her home city and her time spent working at restaurants including The Kitchin and Castle Terrace by Dominic Jack.
It was during her six years at Castle Terrace that she would meet Shaun McCarron, who is now her husband and front-of-house manager at the Little Chartroom, too.
“At this point I’ve spent most of my adult life working in Leith,” she said:
“In the last 15, 10 or even five years you can really see how the area has changed.
“It’s so nice to be able to live here with my family now and walk to all three of our sites.
“The sense of community is one of the reasons we decided to move back many years ago, lay down roots and set up our first business.
“Edinburgh has so much going for it, and especially with the buzz that the Fringe creates at this time of year, it’s really exciting place to be.”
Ardfern is located at 10-12 Bonnington Road in Edinburgh.
The Changing Tides will be published on Thursday, November 7 and is available for pre-order now via ardfern.uk.
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