There's plenty of local chefs who can inspire you in the kitchen, as Ailsa Sheldon finds out

Over the last six and a half years Roberta Hall-McCarron and her husband Shaun have brought energy and vitality to the Edinburgh dining scene with their restaurants The Little Chartroom, Eleanore and Ardfern. A wider UK audience were introduced to her talents on the BBC’s Great British Menu. This winter, Roberta allows readers into her kitchen, in her first cookbook, The Changing Tides.

“The book is very much from my heart,” Roberta says, “it's very special.” Running restaurants is “a very minute by minute world with decisions made on a day to day basis,” says Roberta, so working on such a long project was a very different experience, but a rewarding one. The reception has already been overwhelmingly positive, with busy launch events across the country.

The cookbook traverses Roberta’s career and restaurants, and includes dishes she cooks at home, childhood favourites, and many new recipes, all written with the home cook in mind. “It was fun thinking in a new way,” Roberta says, “still in a cheffy way, but trying to simplify pans and processes and resisting the temptation to add extra elements.” For example: “There is a pie, but it’s not the one that I did for Great British Menu, that wouldn’t have got past the recipe testers for simplicity, it’s a bit of a faff. But there is a beautiful beef pie in the winter menu section.”

(Image: Roberta Hall-McCarron) “Most recipes are pretty straightforward,” Roberta says. “The dinner party menus will take a bit more work, but the whole design of the party menus is in the prep. Then on the night you don’t have much to do and can actually enjoy yourself.”

At The Little Chartroom micro-seasons are celebrated and this is reflected in Roberta’s recipes. “I'm not saying you must eat only these things at these times. Is just showcasing when these ingredients are really at their best, bursting with flavour, ripe and ready to go. So this is the best time to eat them, and this is what you can do with them.”

Roberta hopes to enable the home cook to embrace ingredients that may seem intimidating: “Lots of people think cooking partridge is too tricky, but people cook chickens all the time. There's a skills section where it shows you how to prepare a partridge”. As well as preparing game, Roberta explains how to fillet mackerel, break down lobsters, and shuck scallops and oysters. It’s all optional though, as Roberta explains. “I love having those skills, and I can’t wait to teach my daughter. These are skills you can learn if you want to, but you can also buy these things prepared.”

It’s a gorgeous book, with photography by Rebecca Dickson skillfully capturing the changing light and the culinary aesthetic of Hall-McCarron’s food. The recipes are clearly written and enticing, and feel like a real celebration of Scotland’s larder. “We do live in this wonderful little country that has so much to offer, and it’s really lovely to be able to sing its praises,” says Roberta.

Four more 2024 Scottish cookbooks for Christmas

The Contini Cookbook by Carina Contini

Carina and Victor Contini celebrated 20 years of their George Street restaurant Contini earlier this year, a place that is synonymous with a warm Scots-Italian welcome, aperitivo hour, and a brilliant plate of pasta. This beautiful new book honours the family ties to Italy, the bountiful produce that arrives direct from Italy, and the recipes that have sustained and delighted diners for decades. Recipes are simply written and achievable, and Carina’s stories and recollections woven throughout are a joy.

(Birlinn Ltd., November 2024)

Café Canna Recipes from a Hebridean Island by Gareth Cole

A seaweed-strewn love letter to the ingredients, people and landscape of the Isle of Canna. With helpful how-to guides from foraging to filleting mackerel, you'll soon be scouring the shoreline and fishmongers, and recreating Cafe Canna favourites like crab and crowdie ravioli, langoustine and smoked haddock pie, and mackerel tacos. This Hebridean cookbook is seasonal and sustainable, and imbued with sea spray and island craic.

(Birlinn Ltd., March 2024)

Hebridean Baker: The Scottish Cookbook By Coinneach MacLeod

The fourth cookbook from the Hebridean celebrity chef Coinneach MacLeod is a treat, packed with recipes for puddings, pies, cakes and biscuit tin favourites.  Between the recipes, stories are woven of kings and cailleachs, fishermen and ministers, which imbue the book with McLeod’s Hebridean heritage -  and give the cook something to read while the biscuits are in the oven.

(Black & White Publishing, October 2024)

KITH Scottish Seasonal Food for Family and Friends by Sarah Rankin

Private chef and BBC Masterchef contestant Sarah Rankin’s first book is a homage to Scottish produce and traditional recipes, with plenty of interesting updates and ideas. There’s lots of inspiration for year round cooking, with a strong party section. Rankin clearly loves to entertain and the cocktails and bar snacks in this book might make you feel the same. Lobster beignet anyone?

(Birlinn Ltd., April 2024)

(Image: Roberta Hall-McCarron)

Recipe : White beans and black pudding

From: The Changing Tides by Roberta Hall-McCarron

This is a real hearty dish. Breakfasty, but also appropriate at dinner time. The beans can be cooked on the day from dry but are better if they are soaked in cold water for 12 hours prior.

serves 4

  • 300g dried cannellini beans
  • 2 bulbs of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half
  • sunflower oil
  • ham stock
  • 4 eggs
  • 200g black pudding, cut into 1cm slices
  • Salt

If you haven’t managed to soak the beans, place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat and let them sit for an hour. Place the halved garlic bulbs in a pot with a little oil, flesh-side down. Cook until they are lightly caramelised, then add the beans and the ham stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, until the beans are soft. Season and taste.

Strain the beans through a sieve, keeping the liquid. Take about a third of the beans and put them in a blender with the squeezed-out garlic cloves. Blitz with enough cooking liquid to give you a loose, smooth purée – add it gradually so you get the perfect consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning and fold the remaining beans through the purée. Bring a small pot of water to the boil and carefully place the eggs in. Boil for 5½ minutes, then cool under cold water. Gently crack the shells and peel the skin away. Pan fry the black pudding in a little oil for 2 minutes on each side, then break it up a bit with a spoon. If you need to, warm the eggs through in a little warm water. Serve the white beans in a bowl with a whole soft-boiled egg on top and scatter the black pudding around the edges.