August 5, 2023 • 39 mins
In this conversation, we chat with culinary master, Gary Maclean, National Chef of Scotland. Gary is one of the most celebrated chefs in Scotland, and his unique cuisine has earned him a host of awards and accolades. In this video, we'll explore his culinary history and explore the influences that have shaped his unique style of cooking. If you're curious about the culinary mastery of Gary Maclean, then this video is for you!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What I found interesting when I waslooking at your book. And I don't
know if you want to bring yourbook up onto the screen here, because
that'd be a great little stegue forthat. But you actually had the forward
of your recipe book done by SamHewan from Outlander. Yes, there,
it is amazing, And I don'tlike My wife is a huge Outlander fan,
(00:20):
so I haven't actually told her thatpart yet. What should be really
excited what I tell her? Solike, I'm assuming you must know Sam
or you met him at some pointand then he was able to do that
forward for you or Talent Talk issponsored by Company of Rogues Actors Studio,
New York style training for actors atall stages of their journey. With our
(00:42):
part time classes and full time masterclassprogram, Rogues provides a unique post secondary
option under the guidance of working professionals, mentoring and developing professional film and theater
artists. Since nineteen ninety three,Calgary's longest running independent studio offers practical,
hands on classes in a positive,supportive environments. Check us out at co
rogues dot com. Company of Roguespassionate about the art of acting. Hey
(01:33):
everybody, I'm Gary McClane. You'rewatching Talent Talk. Thanks for tuning in.
If you haven't done so already,please do you go to the Talent
Talk YouTube channel and subscribe today.As always, the supports appreciated, and
also just let you know that thissome previous episodes are available on podcast mediums
such as Spotify, iHeartRadio, GooglePodcast, Apple Podcast, just to name
a few. Honestly, basically,wherever you probably listen to your podcast,
(01:56):
it's probably there. Check it out. And finally, I got to give
a quick shout out to our sponsorsthis season. It's our fifth season,
but the first year we've had sponsors, and I'm very excited about that.
We start off with Company of Rogues, which is a Calgary local acting studio
in school, we have six DegreesSound in Music who does our sound recording
and editing for our in person instudio sessions. Now this is a remote
(02:20):
interview, so I'm not really applicablefor those folks, but they've been on
board since the beginning, so thankyou to them. We have Workflow Film
who does the video side of thingsfor our in person in studio sessions where
they do the recording and editing aswell. We have heard of one media,
counting Coup, Indigenous Film Academy,r J Talent, and finally we
have actor Alberta. So thank youto those fine folks for helping us out
(02:40):
the seasons. You've definitely helped elevateus a little bit, so thank you.
Now today's guest. He's a littlebit different than our standard guest lineup,
but what a couple of things Ifound interesting about this fella is that
A we share the same name.B we share the same heritage. But
he's probably more famous than I am, and probably even a little bit more
(03:01):
cool. So you know, I'mjust very curious to see you see where
this all goes. He has beencrowned the official Chef of Scotland, which
I think is fantastic. He's traveledall around the world and loves to share
the traditional recipes of Scotland too whoeverhe can. So let's find out more
about this Chef Royalty and welcome GaryMcLean to the show. Hi, Gutty,
(03:25):
how are you doing? Thanks forhaving us. I'm not sure if
I'm cooler, I'll be honest.Well, you've done a lot of things
which I think are cool. Sothat's that's where I put that up there.
Well, thank you. I've neverbeen called killed before, so yeah,
no, thanks for showing me.You're you're actually in Glasgow today,
(03:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'min the Glasgow, Scotland. Yeah,
and a rainy a rainy summer's night. Unfortunately, so stormy or just rainy.
It's just that it's just the usualset of West Coast. However,
you know, it's actually quite hot, but we're getting kind of torrential rain
every hour, so that is whereit is. Yeah, we just got
(04:08):
the heat today. We tend toget a dry heat here in Calgary.
So we're speaking of Have you beento the Calgary in Scotland. I'm assuming
you probably have. No, Idon't think so. I don't think I
have. It's oh I should knowthis. I was gonna say, I
think it's on the island mall,but I've been sneaking on that. No,
(04:30):
never, I've never been. Ithink we've visited their last time in
the family and our there just becausewe're from Calgary, so we had to
check it out and I think weactually missed it. I think we literally
drove by it and we're like,was that it? It's probably about four
five houses and a beadog. Yeah, there's a lot of places like that,
you know, the place that they'vetaken the name from almost like four
(04:54):
thousand times bigger. Yes, yeah, yeah, no doubt. So yeah,
thanks for joining us today. LikeI said, you are a little
bit of a different guest. However, I think you've you've you've had a
lot of interesting experiences with what youdo. So first off, official Chef
of Scotland, when did that comeabout? It came about in two thousand
(05:16):
seventeen, if I remember. Theofficial sort of title is National Chef of
Scotland and it's part of a kindof wider initiative called the Good Food Nation
Act. And the idea behind thatact that that you know, health and
well being starts with food. Soit's involves really sort of every aspect of
(05:40):
food in Scotland, whether it's youknow, food poverty or food education or
things like school dinners or the NHS. They're trying to make food the heart
of all of that. So it'sa build that's going through stage by stage
in Scotland. It's a voluntary roleand I was asked, I was asked
what my thought. I did aninterview for a newspaper and that I was
(06:04):
asked my thoughts on the role,and you know, I was very complimentary
and thought it was a great idea. And then a few weeks later I
got contacted with the High Hygens ofthe government to see if I'd be interested
in volunteering. So two thousands weresix sort six years in. So it's
been it's been interesting. The kindof role has two different hats. I
(06:28):
would definitely say in Scotland I doa lot with underprivileged kids. I'd do
some stuff in prisons and child's children'shomes and things like that, and also
work with food insecurity. So it'sall it's all about using food as a
kind of vehicle to try and getkids a different viewpoint in life. You
(06:51):
know, these are these are theso called bad kids that are kind of
that are needing that little push,and sometimes food can just give them an
escape, you know, and givethem something that they maybe didn't know they
were good at. And then theother hat is when I travel I stand
there on my chest out telling thewhole world how brilliant Scotland is for food.
(07:13):
So there's definitely two different kind ofhats. So my role abroad is
kind of food and culture, sowe're sharing Scotland's kind of start of food
and culture and tradition at Highland Games. And I do quite a lot with
this Scottish government in North America anddo kind of sort a special dinner.
(07:39):
So I've even I've even done afew in Canada as well, where I
go over and do a kind ofVIP dinner and basically sell Scotland to people
who import whiskey and and food.So it's two two very different hats.
Well, I mean, I'm biased, but I don't think it would take
much to sell us on Scotland soas to be fair as an easy sell
(08:03):
sometimes depending where it is really doesI think Canada dislike and easier if truth
be told in terms of what youcan actually export to Canada. From a
food point of view, We've gota much wider scope to get different types
of food in, including things likered meat, whereas the US it's mostly
(08:26):
sort of fish and shellfish because theydon't import red meat from the UK.
So so it's different. It's differentthings, but you know, it's just
an understanding your market and where weare. You know, scott Scottish food
has always been or Scottish food anddrink has always been at the sort of
Rolls Royce level, so you haveto sort of sell it as the best.
(08:50):
No one's buying Scottish to save money, let's put it that way,
right, Yeah, a little fairenough. Yeah, and you know I
mentioned you before the show. Youknow, I've been to Scotland a few
times, especially with the family andstuff like that, and yeah, we
always try to find the kind oftraditional Scottish pubs and stuff like that to
kind of eat at and things likethat. So yeah, yeah, you
(09:13):
won't you won't be hard. Theydon't have to find. No, definitely
not right there, pretty much everywhere, and in some of these pubs you
know in Glasgow and Edinburgh and placeslike that, you know they could be
three or four hundred years old.Yes, some real institutions, so there
is, Yeah, particularly Glasgow,you know, places like the pot Still.
(09:35):
You know people people travel to Glasgowjust to go to that pub,
so they do. Yeah. Absolutely, So where where's this kind of taking
you in in terms of your travel? I mean obviously worldwide, we're somewhere
notable places I've done wherever I've been. I spent a week in the Jungles
(09:56):
of Columbia. I go to Indiaa couple of times a year. I
did. I did a dinner inBarbados just before Christmas. Where was this
year I've been as it was inChicago a couple of weeks ago doing the
Chicago Games. I've done the Gamesin Alaska, which was very very interesting.
(10:22):
My next games is in New Hampshire, so I'm doing the New Hampshire
Scots Highland Games in September. Whatelse being in Malaysia, Indonesia else a
lot. I'm mostly this side ofthe side of the world. I did
Cuba, but it's the places I'min when I travel which I find really
(10:45):
interesting. Some men I'm in theambassadors, you know, residents, or
I'm in the the British embassies andthings like that. I've also cooked at
you know, Number ten down thestreet, Bucky and Palace, Saint James's
Palace, be At House, andprobably my proudest moment, just harkening back
to us being McLean's, was cookingat d Castle on the Isle of Mall
(11:11):
for the clan Chief McClean, whichwas really really for all the places I've
been in the world, sitting havingbreakfast with the clan chief of a morning
with his family was and I tookmy son with us, which was really
special, and we did we dida fundraise and dinner to help the McLean
Castle. So it was always anambition of mine as a young kid,
(11:33):
even living in Glasgow to go toMaull, you know, and it's it's
maybe three hours in the car andthen an hour on the ferry, but
it just seems so distant. Andwhen I started doing things like TV shows
and stuff, and I had Ihad, I had a say and where
I went. I used to doa kind of TV show where I could
I could investigate my favorite foods andwhere they come from in Scotland. And
(11:56):
I did three episodes on Mall,so I did. So there was so
much on MO and it was justan excuse to get out there and so
I share the love of MO beinga being McClean absolutely, no, that's
that's amazing. Yeah. I lasttime we were there, which I think
was twenty eighteen, we we hada quick conversation with Sir Lackland there.
Yeah, fine, gentlemen. Igotta say it's a pleasure chat with him.
(12:20):
And he's like I noticed because youknow, you obviously wandered around the
castle and such, and I sawhe was like that with absolutely everybody,
which was great. Just anybody whostopped and talking to you talked to them,
right, Yeah, it's incredible.He's I mean, I think he's
eighty two and he is he is. He is the man who's driving that
ship over there. I've got tospend some time with his held his son,
(12:43):
who's the heir, and I think, you know the future of Jerk
Castle and the McLean's on Moll isgood. It really is. You know.
I was really really impressed. Butthe whole, the whole ethoughts of
the family and what it meant tothem, And you know, because you
can keep you kind of think thatyou know, you're born into that,
(13:03):
and there's a responsibility, I supposea wee bit. They've been a royal
and a sort of smaller scale,but there's the same responsibility and the same
time and effort energy I think neededto to keep it going to have that,
you know, so I kind ofI kind of felt and I think
he works in London. I don'tknow what I can't remember what it does.
He's ex military, but he's gota big business in London. But
(13:26):
you know, he's very fond ofhe's he's very fond of his future.
I think in looking after the castleand things like that, definitely. And
you know, my wife and Iactually followed the Door Castle on Facebook,
so we do get the notices everyonce in a while, and I've often
thought, I'm like, man,what happens if he passes on? Like,
(13:46):
what happens? I'm asking you fromyour perspective, good hands, it
seems strong. So that's good,excellent. It's good to know for sure,
because we're planning on going again intwenty twenty five for our twenty fifth
anniversary. So amazing. Don't giveus a shout in your Obuket trip.
So you mentioned the portion that youyou've you know, done some set stuff
(14:07):
as well and things like that.What I found interesting when I was looking
at your book and I don't knowif you want to bring your book up
onto the screen here because that'd bea great little segue for that, but
you you actually had the forward ofyour your recipe book done by Sam Hewan
from Outlander. Yes, there,it is amazing and I know, like
(14:28):
my wife is a huge Outlander fan, so I haven't actually told her that
part yet, which he really ascidedwhat I tell her, So like,
I'm assuming you must know Sam,or you met him at some point and
then he was able to do thatforward for you, or well, actually
(14:48):
I don't know, and we've actuallynever met. I. I was working
in South Carolina at the time,and when the when the book was coming
together, and I had a celebritychef in the UK who was going to
be doing the forward, and Igot the cover sent to me from the
publisher and there was no forward namecelebrity chef on the front. So I
(15:13):
emailed them back and I says,look, where's my where's my celebrity chef
forward that I had organized? Andfor whatever reason, there was a loss
in the communications and the forward nevergot done. We had basically a week
before printing that I needed to findanother forward, another writer of the forward.
(15:33):
And I don't know if it's becauseI was working in South Carolina or
whatever, but I just thought veryI kind of wrote the book for the
North American market, so I kindof thought, who's who's Scottish, and
who's huge in scott who's huge inAmerican TV? And I thought Outlander and
obviously Sam's the style Breyer. SoI messaged everyone I knew in the States
(15:56):
that we're running all the kind ofAmerican Scottish societies, and no one get
back to make you know. Everyminute counted. And I was having a
flick through Twitter, and I noticedthat Sam followed me on Twitter. And
if someone follows you and you followthem, you can private message them,
and that's what I did. SoI sent them the longest Twitter message ever
(16:18):
and he came back to his andsaid, sure, so my little note
to um must have must have musthave helped it. I must have met
He was amazing the kind of toldhim the timeline and I could say that
he was busy because it was launchingthe next season of Outlander, but he
still managed to get it written andprough thread and everything else they need to
(16:41):
do for these things and back tohis within the time frame. So's a
He's a lovely guy and I'm reallylooking forward to meeting them. I'm doing
an Outlander a conference in Glasgow Universityin a couple of weeks time, so
we've got a thing about seven hundredOutlander fans coming, and the writer of
(17:02):
Outlander's going to be there as well, So I'm hoping that Sam makes an
appearance so i can thank them.Yeah, no, they'd be amazing for
sure. Yeah, and again,of course, you know, my wife
was a fan of the books wellbefore the show, so she's she'd be
excited to know that you might meetDiana Gabaldin as well. So that's that's
(17:25):
that's amazing that he was able todo that though. And I know I've
been able to get a couple ofguests on the show through the same route
you just did with Sam as well. Right, if you happen to have
that same celebrity following you, thenyou can message and yeah, it's a
little bit a lot of people werepeople are amazing. Yeah, I mean,
people are amazing, and sometimes youknow, you know, all you
can do is ask, you know, everyone, everyone's trying to accomplish the
(17:48):
same stuff in life, and youknow, and obviously Sam's had great success,
but it seems to be the typeof guy who's happy to kind of
share that success. And you know, the hands about Lander are going to
absolutely love the book and the forwardthere's really quite witty as well. Even
even if you just buy the bookfor Sam's forward it's a it's a nice
(18:08):
little windsight to him and his foodphilosophy, and obviously he's he's amazing.
Sassanac Whiskey gets a mention in thereas well, which which is which is
lovely? Yeah? Absolutely absolutely sowhen it comes to the book that I
don't know if you want to throwthat up there again, but it's coming
out August first in North America,I believe, he said, right,
(18:30):
yeah, it's it's the books outand yeah, the first the August,
so it's out just shortly, okay, And do you know where it's going
to be A Villa was assuming likeit's going to be. It's going to
be absolutely everywhere. If you lookon my socials on Instagram and stuff like
that, there's a link to linktree and there's a there's a Canadians link
(18:56):
and a North American link where youcan pee order the book. That will
be in all good bookstores, Bandsand Noble, will be on Amazon.
So it's getting a film, afilm nationwide release. Okay, And let's
actually talk about it the book alittle bit. Now. You've always mentioned
(19:17):
in the book a couple of timestraditional Scottish recipes where do a lot of
your ideas or concepts come from.Like I know, there's some history behind
a lot of it, and obviouslywe can't go through all the recipes,
but that's notable ones you'd like tomention that great, Yeah, there's there's
you know, it's like most countries, we have our traditional or traditional dishes
(19:37):
in Scotland are very regional between north, southeast and west. So there's dishes
specifically specific to little villages throughout Scotland. And I'll be I'll be honest that
I wrote the book for the NorthAmerican market. I know it was.
It was first published in the UK, but it was written for the North
American market for sure. And thereason for that is this was my second
(20:03):
book. My first book was acookery course, so it was to teach
people simple dishes for home cooking,so it was. And then then I
started traveling to America. The book, the first book was on sail in
America, and everyone just presumed thatit was full the Scottish ingredients and it
(20:26):
actually wasn't. There was no Scottishfood in it at all. Because when
I wrote that book, I hadjust came off a massive TV show in
the UK and I got a bookdeal, and I wanted to write a
book that would suit the whole ofthe UK, and my only rule was
no Scottish, so I never putany Scottish in it at all in that
first book. So I then startedtraveling, taking the book around the world,
(20:48):
and everyone just presumed it was Scottish, you know. I remember I
actually met a woman in New Yorkin April and she said to me,
oh, I just love your firstbook. Your scott Each Tarimasu was amazing,
and she she couldn't get her headaround the fact that it wasn't Scottish
Taramisu. It was actually Italian writtenby a Scotsman. So but I kind
(21:10):
of felt guilty that I hadn't writtenanything about Scotland. And during lockdown,
I was kind of working on abook project and pitching some ideas, and
I started buying Scottish cookbooks on Amazon, so I would get, you know,
three or four a week, andI was just rifling through them,
and I just thought there wasn't abook written that sort. I told the
(21:33):
story of Scottish food that you canactually cook a lot of it was kind
of cutting pasted recipes from really oldcookbooks, you know, and really old
language and not very descriptive. Andall my recipes I write are full of
detail because obviously I am a workin education, so my whole thing is
describing stuff well and being able toteach people. So I wanted to write
(21:56):
a recipe that kind of saved ourtraditional recipes, but in a modern style
for a modern kitchen. So therewas things that I never thought in a
million years I could put in acookboo, because I would never put anything
in a cook book that you couldn'tmake yourself. You know, I didn't
want and I didn't want people searchingthe whole, you know, the ends
of the earth trying to find ingredients. But I managed to get things in
(22:18):
there like black pudding, homemade blackpudding. And the reason I could do
that is because you can buy everythingonline for it, So you know,
it's about twenty dollars. You cango online, you can buy the skins,
you can buy the little gun thatpushes the mixture the skins, and
you can buy the blood online.So my recipe uses dried blood and you
(22:41):
can buy that online for a coupleof dollars. So I was so excited
when I saw you could you couldget all of that online and then when
you write the recipe you can directpeople. This is how I did it,
you know, you know, youknow, just get on Amazon and
buy it, buy the ink.So the world is two or three years
ago. I don't think I'd beable to put that recipe in it.
(23:03):
And even things like Scotch pies.You must have had a Scotch pie in
your time when you were over,you know, the little round meat pies.
So you can buy the molds online, you can, you know.
So so everything that's in there isdoable. Everything in there is something that
you can make at home, youknow, things like tati scones and Clary
dumplings, and you know, they'reall there. And it's amazing when you
(23:26):
hand the book to someone you know, and you know, an American scott
Or or a scott living in Canada, and have you got such and such,
and you turn the page and goand behold the recipes there I was.
I had lunch with a restaurant tour, a Scottish guy who has a
really famous Scottish restaurant in Chicago,and I was chatting away him. They
(23:48):
were flicking through the book almost forensically, you know, page by page,
and it was almost by magic.He would ask if you got the recipe
for slovies, and the next pagewould stovies. You know, so if
you can think it, if you'vehad it in Scotland, it's in that
book. So that's amazing. Yeah, and you know, yeah, you've
(24:12):
got a section there for haggas,which, by the way, I didn't
realize there were so many variations forthings, well haggis for me, I've
got a whole chapter on haggis.So haggis isn't just hagger sneaks and tatties.
Haggis is a really versatile ingredient inits own right, you know.
(24:33):
So there's things in there like pacora, you know, and coughed is that
again aren't Scottish, but they workedreally well with haggers because the haggest seasons
everything. You know. I thinkI've got sliders in there as well,
so you know, haggiest sliders,So fifty percent ground fifty percent haggis,
and it makes the most amazing burgers. And if you were to make those
(24:55):
burgers and then give them to someoneat a barbecue, they wouldn't even know
there was haggis that they would justknow it was a really well seasoned,
you know, moist burger, soI had a bad fun with it as
well. Yeah. Absolutely, soamong your travels and sharing your well I
(25:15):
actually you know another question before weget to that, because you teach as
well, right like you you actuallyteach cooking, and I know some of
that's with the the underprivileged youths ifyou will, But do you do a
more general teaching for folks there?Yeah, But my day jobs as I'm
(25:37):
executive chef at the City of GlasgowCollege. So I've been working in education
for twenty six years, so spentmost of that or half of that.
I spent half part time as aas a culinary instructor, and then I
spent about eight years full time culinaryinstructor, and then I've moved moved upstairs
(26:00):
as they say, where I'm justnow, so I work on international and
commercial projects at the moment. Soyeah, I mean education has been I've
fundamentally been at college since I wassixteen. You know. Between learning,
I was part time for eight yearsand then I think at the gap of
(26:21):
about a year then I started parttime part time teaching. So something is
something I've always done that's something I'mreally proud to be part of, and
I feel really privileged that I canshare my knowledge and my john there with
the future of the industry. Okay, And do you do Do you do
(26:42):
all the cooking at home or doyou take a break at home? Yes,
I do all. I do allthe cooking at home. Yeah,
I've got five kids, and Imarried a chef. My wife's a chef.
Okay, but but she married achef as well, and she won.
So I do I do? Ido mostly cooking at home. I
(27:04):
do travel a lot, which whichmeans my wife does it when I'm not
obviously when I'm not here. Butbut no, I do, I do
a lot. They're cooking. ButI do, I'll be honest. I
do enjoy it, you know.And it's probably the only thing I do
around the house, so you know, it's my wife. There's everything else.
So I do enjoy cooking. Ido enjoy sort of feeding the family.
(27:26):
And and but again, havn't havinghaving five kids. I mean,
my kids are no different from anyoneelse's kids. It's not like they you
know, they elete anything that wemake. You know, I've got the
same troubles and getting youngster's tea.And my kids are a big gage range
as well. So my oldest istwenty seven and my youngest is nine,
(27:47):
and I've got everything in between,so they're all, they're all. There's
a lot of It's a busy house, you know. I've got kids at
UNI, kids working, and kidsin primary school, so there's there's a
lot going on in the house.And I have any of them taking on
the interest of cooking or no.My youngest likes to cook. My nine
(28:08):
year old likes to cook and likesto get involved, and they can make
a pot of soup and things likethat, which is good. My three
I've got three older kids and I'llget two younger kids who are still in
school. But my three older kidsare. Matt Melderson's doing a PhD.
Next one down is he's going intomilitaries and Royal Marines, and my daughter
(28:34):
is a graduate of TV and film. So they've all kind of taken a
different route. Okay, well,and that's definitely nothing wrong with that.
I think they've seen how hard I'veworked. They probably want to avoid it.
But my second oldest son, youand he's much as I'm saying that
he's not showing an interest in it. He does help me a lot if
(28:55):
I have private dinners or charity eventsand things like that, you know,
like them all dinner. I tookmy son mew and and he's he's an
immense hand. When I'm out doingthese things, I'm normally on mon so
he he basically he's created just organizingstuff and packing and making sure I've get
everything, you know, everything thatI should have and things like that.
(29:18):
So but again his his futures inthe in the military, that's fair.
Yeah, absolutely, do you doyou and your wife? Do you create
together? Like you We couldn't makeno, never, We couldn't make toasts
together. No, even even yearsago, even years ago when we first
(29:41):
met, before we had kids.You know, we would get roped into
doing family family functions and things likethat and so, but we would never
we would decide to who's doing itand that would do that. We would
never really cross over. We're bothcompletely complete opposites, I think in the
pitching that's fair. So did shehave any hand in any of the recipes
(30:04):
in the book itself or is itall? Maybe not so much for the
recipes, but certainly with the productionof the book see things that photography and
things like that. You know,basically what happens is we do two weeks
of photography for the book, andmy dining room that I'm in right now
gets time down, the studio photographermoves in and I'll be honest, it's
(30:30):
twenty year days when you're doing photography, so you're you're working the whole day
on the actual photographs and the food, and then as since the photographs away,
you've got a few hours of cleaningup and then you start the preparation
for the next day and that runsfor a fortnight. So it does take
a lot of support, you knowat home, especially in this you know,
(30:51):
five kids running about and everyone else. People need fed and everything else.
So it's definitely a team game atthat stage. But writing a book,
sorry, no, you go ahead, you finished. You Writing a
book's quite a solitary job, youknow, in front of a laptop.
(31:11):
You occasionally phone a friend, youknow who maybe lives in an area of
Scotland that I don't know as well. I just need to or I'll take
I'll phone someone from one of myfriends, mat Adeane. I'll talk to
him about the food that I've gotin the book from that area, and
they'll keep me right if I've missedanything. So that's only really time that
(31:33):
you're kind of you're kind of gettingideas or you're speaking to you know.
I speak to my wife about foodgrown up. What did you have a
New Year? What kind of whatkind of what was your food experience?
What did your mum make and allthat, And it was all that sort
of stuff I wanted to keep inAnd my wife's mum was a schooled dinner
cook as well, so I havefun memories of going there, you know,
(31:53):
when when I first met my wife, because we always went there for
Sunday dinner. So there's a lotof tradition and a lot of family when
it comes to food. And Idon't think it that that differs anywhere in
the world, but it's great thatyou know food, So does that for
people? You know? I doa little experiment and it's worth trying.
(32:15):
I'll often ask people what is thewhat's the most memorable meal, what's the
best meal they've ever had in theirlife? And they'll ponder for a wee
bit and they'll they'll look at youand they'll answer you by saying that they
were in a location with someone,and then it's the food. The food
stud in that line of importance.So food, Food's a whole sensory occasion.
(32:43):
And if you can get the elementsright, if you can get the
atmosphere right, if you can getthe occasion right, the food, the
food is elevated. You know.So if you were if you were sitting
at your desk at lunchtime and somebodybrought you up a Mecheln styf, a
three Micheland style main course, itain't going to be a three Micheland style
(33:04):
main course because you don't have allthe other elements, Whereas you could have
a family dinner which is quite simpleand it just raises everything and it's because
of the other elements. So it'sa feel, I feel experience to play
a food so as and family andand tradition and memories and things like that
really add to that. And that'sthat's really what the books about. You
(33:27):
know, there's recipes in there frommc granny and stories from that I remember
grown up about you know, youknow, what my family had at Christmas
time or or or you know,when time to up half way did they
have and all that sort of stuff. So it was good in that way,
you know, bringing back all ofthese kind of stories. Yeah.
Absolutely, And that's kind of whatI liked about is because you could tell
(33:51):
just by reading a lot of theinformation that you had in the book there
was there's some history to some ofthat, right. So I was going
to ask earlier, is from startto finish, from concept to completion,
how long did you fear it tookfor the book get made? And I
think I think it's about a year. There's there's certainly there's probably about five
(34:14):
months writing, and there's the there'stwo weeks photography, but there's probably a
few weeks work just organizing the food, you know, sorting out where the
food's coming from, getting all thatsort of stuff done, and then there's
a fair bit on edits, andthen when the book comes out, you've
got book tours and signings and allthat sort of stuff. So and I
(34:40):
kind of they kind of they kindof last for it a while, you
know, a book, and particularlysomething like this, you know, we'll
have a long legs, as theysay, because it's it's not within a
time frame, it's not kind ofultra modern cuisine, you know, it's
family, it's it's you know,and in the States, I think I
(35:02):
think we've got I'm sorry. InNorth America, I think there's a bit
twenty twenty odd million people who seethemselves as Scott's or Scott's origin. So
when you think there's only five millionScots in Scotland, so the market's a
lot bigger and it's a great,you know, a great gift. And
(35:22):
I'm sure if you know is youknow, if someone's got that Scottish heritage,
it'd be a nice surprise for themto see it. Or even an
ex part who's been out there awhile, we'll see food they've probably not
seen since they were a kid.Yeah, yeah, absolutely So how much
time do you figure you spend onthe actual way promotion and books hangings that
(35:43):
kind of thing, are you Yep, we're a bit or between, which
yes, pretty constant. This willbe interesting because this is my first publishing
deally in North America, so it'llbe interesting to see their response because all
my books, you know, I'venormally remote in the UK, so you
can you know, when they firstcame out, you do a couple of
(36:04):
weeks that's pretty full on, andmost of it's evenings. So most of
it is straight after work you're drivingto some dark corner of Scotland or the
UK to go do some book signingsor to do a demo. But I'll
be interesting to see how how theAmerican market works. And the reality is
I'm in America probably do more eventsin North America than I do in Scotland,
(36:25):
you know, with the Highland Gamesand and the you know, the
different the different awards, ceremonies andstuff that I normally do and then you
know, you get tartaned weeks,so there's there's much bigger opportunities I think
to promote alongside other events that areScottish, whereas in Scotland we don't have
(36:47):
too many Scottish events where you cansign a book, if that makes sense.
So, you know, if youthink that, you know, the
hundreds of Highland Games in North America, some of the biggest Highland games the
world are and and Ida in theUS. You know, So it's it's
quite incredible that you've got, youknow, thirty forty thousand people in one
(37:07):
space that are talking and living Scotlandin a completely different country. You know.
My first sort of working trip toNorth America. I've been in I've
been in the US a lot ison holidays and stuff like that in Disneyland
and you know the tourist day bitin New York. And I remember in
(37:28):
two thousand I went to Chicago andit was my first trip to support Scotland
and I fell in love with NorthAmerica on that trip. But I also
fell in love with Scotland because Isaw Scotland through different eyes. I've seen
Scotland through someone else's viewpoint and whatScotland has done. And I think you
(37:51):
don't appreciate your own country until youget out it, until you get away
from it, you know. AndI was a raised at the I was
amazed that the passion that North Americanshad for Scotland. And I've always said
if Scottish people had the same passionfor Scotland as North American Scott's had,
(38:14):
we would be a superpower. Doyou know what You're Some of your US
tour looks like as well. NowI think my next trip is I've got
possible trip in August, which isn'tfully confirmed, but my next trip in
the diary is September at the NewHampshire Highland Games. So I'll be there
(38:36):
and there. It's a three daygame. So I'm down culinary demonstrations and
book signings okay, but I dothat every September. I have done for
seven years out with the COVID years. I want to thank you again so
much for taking the time to talkwith me today. I definitely appreciate your
(38:57):
time on this and thank to anybodywho ends up watching this and hopefully we
can sell some books for you.No brilliant, I appreciate it, and
thanks thanks for having us, Thanksfor having us. It's nice to see
another another Gary McClean doing well well. Thank you so much. Thanks for
folks for watching and we will seeyou next week. And if you don't
(39:19):
mind hanging around for a couple ofminutes, I'd be great. By Yell
What I found interesting when I waslooking at your book. And I don't
know if you want to bring yourbook up onto the screen here, because
that'd be a great little stegue forthat. But you actually had the forward
of your recipe book done by SamHewan from Outlander. Yes, there,
it is amazing, And I don'tlike My wife is a huge Outlander fan,
(00:20):
so I haven't actually told her thatpart yet. What should be really
excited what I tell her? Solike, I'm assuming you must know Sam
or you met him at some pointand then he was able to do that
forward for you or Talent Talk issponsored by Company of Rogues Actors Studio,
New York style training for actors atall stages of their journey. With our
(00:42):
part time classes and full time masterclassprogram, Rogues provides a unique post secondary
option under the guidance of working professionals, mentoring and developing professional film and theater
artists. Since nineteen ninety three,Calgary's longest running independent studio offers practical,
hands on classes in a positive,supportive environments. Check us out at co
rogues dot com. Company of Roguespassionate about the art of acting. Hey
(01:33):
everybody, I'm Gary McClane. You'rewatching Talent Talk. Thanks for tuning in.
If you haven't done so already,please do you go to the Talent
Talk YouTube channel and subscribe today.As always, the supports appreciated, and
also just let you know that thissome previous episodes are available on podcast mediums
such as Spotify, iHeartRadio, GooglePodcast, Apple Podcast, just to name
a few. Honestly, basically,wherever you probably listen to your podcast,
(01:56):
it's probably there. Check it out. And finally, I got to give
a quick shout out to our sponsorsthis season. It's our fifth season,
but the first year we've had sponsors, and I'm very excited about that.
We start off with Company of Rogues, which is a Calgary local acting studio
in school, we have six DegreesSound in Music who does our sound recording
and editing for our in person instudio sessions. Now this is a remote
(02:20):
interview, so I'm not really applicablefor those folks, but they've been on
board since the beginning, so thankyou to them. We have Workflow Film
who does the video side of thingsfor our in person in studio sessions where
they do the recording and editing aswell. We have heard of one media,
counting Coup, Indigenous Film Academy,r J Talent, and finally we
have actor Alberta. So thank youto those fine folks for helping us out
(02:40):
the seasons. You've definitely helped elevateus a little bit, so thank you.
Now today's guest. He's a littlebit different than our standard guest lineup,
but what a couple of things Ifound interesting about this fella is that
A we share the same name.B we share the same heritage. But
he's probably more famous than I am, and probably even a little bit more
(03:01):
cool. So you know, I'mjust very curious to see you see where
this all goes. He has beencrowned the official Chef of Scotland, which
I think is fantastic. He's traveledall around the world and loves to share
the traditional recipes of Scotland too whoeverhe can. So let's find out more
about this Chef Royalty and welcome GaryMcLean to the show. Hi, Gutty,
(03:25):
how are you doing? Thanks forhaving us. I'm not sure if
I'm cooler, I'll be honest.Well, you've done a lot of things
which I think are cool. Sothat's that's where I put that up there.
Well, thank you. I've neverbeen called killed before, so yeah,
no, thanks for showing me.You're you're actually in Glasgow today,
(03:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'min the Glasgow, Scotland. Yeah,
and a rainy a rainy summer's night. Unfortunately, so stormy or just rainy.
It's just that it's just the usualset of West Coast. However,
you know, it's actually quite hot, but we're getting kind of torrential rain
every hour, so that is whereit is. Yeah, we just got
(04:08):
the heat today. We tend toget a dry heat here in Calgary.
So we're speaking of Have you beento the Calgary in Scotland. I'm assuming
you probably have. No, Idon't think so. I don't think I
have. It's oh I should knowthis. I was gonna say, I
think it's on the island mall,but I've been sneaking on that. No,
(04:30):
never, I've never been. Ithink we've visited their last time in
the family and our there just becausewe're from Calgary, so we had to
check it out and I think weactually missed it. I think we literally
drove by it and we're like,was that it? It's probably about four
five houses and a beadog. Yeah, there's a lot of places like that,
you know, the place that they'vetaken the name from almost like four
(04:54):
thousand times bigger. Yes, yeah, yeah, no doubt. So yeah,
thanks for joining us today. LikeI said, you are a little
bit of a different guest. However, I think you've you've you've had a
lot of interesting experiences with what youdo. So first off, official Chef
of Scotland, when did that comeabout? It came about in two thousand
(05:16):
seventeen, if I remember. Theofficial sort of title is National Chef of
Scotland and it's part of a kindof wider initiative called the Good Food Nation
Act. And the idea behind thatact that that you know, health and
well being starts with food. Soit's involves really sort of every aspect of
(05:40):
food in Scotland, whether it's youknow, food poverty or food education or
things like school dinners or the NHS. They're trying to make food the heart
of all of that. So it'sa build that's going through stage by stage
in Scotland. It's a voluntary roleand I was asked, I was asked
what my thought. I did aninterview for a newspaper and that I was
(06:04):
asked my thoughts on the role,and you know, I was very complimentary
and thought it was a great idea. And then a few weeks later I
got contacted with the High Hygens ofthe government to see if I'd be interested
in volunteering. So two thousands weresix sort six years in. So it's
been it's been interesting. The kindof role has two different hats. I
(06:28):
would definitely say in Scotland I doa lot with underprivileged kids. I'd do
some stuff in prisons and child's children'shomes and things like that, and also
work with food insecurity. So it'sall it's all about using food as a
kind of vehicle to try and getkids a different viewpoint in life. You
(06:51):
know, these are these are theso called bad kids that are kind of
that are needing that little push,and sometimes food can just give them an
escape, you know, and givethem something that they maybe didn't know they
were good at. And then theother hat is when I travel I stand
there on my chest out telling thewhole world how brilliant Scotland is for food.
(07:13):
So there's definitely two different kind ofhats. So my role abroad is
kind of food and culture, sowe're sharing Scotland's kind of start of food
and culture and tradition at Highland Games. And I do quite a lot with
this Scottish government in North America anddo kind of sort a special dinner.
(07:39):
So I've even I've even done afew in Canada as well, where I
go over and do a kind ofVIP dinner and basically sell Scotland to people
who import whiskey and and food.So it's two two very different hats.
Well, I mean, I'm biased, but I don't think it would take
much to sell us on Scotland soas to be fair as an easy sell
(08:03):
sometimes depending where it is really doesI think Canada dislike and easier if truth
be told in terms of what youcan actually export to Canada. From a
food point of view, We've gota much wider scope to get different types
of food in, including things likered meat, whereas the US it's mostly
(08:26):
sort of fish and shellfish because theydon't import red meat from the UK.
So so it's different. It's differentthings, but you know, it's just
an understanding your market and where weare. You know, scott Scottish food
has always been or Scottish food anddrink has always been at the sort of
Rolls Royce level, so you haveto sort of sell it as the best.
(08:50):
No one's buying Scottish to save money, let's put it that way,
right, Yeah, a little fairenough. Yeah, and you know I
mentioned you before the show. Youknow, I've been to Scotland a few
times, especially with the family andstuff like that, and yeah, we
always try to find the kind oftraditional Scottish pubs and stuff like that to
kind of eat at and things likethat. So yeah, yeah, you
(09:13):
won't you won't be hard. Theydon't have to find. No, definitely
not right there, pretty much everywhere, and in some of these pubs you
know in Glasgow and Edinburgh and placeslike that, you know they could be
three or four hundred years old.Yes, some real institutions, so there
is, Yeah, particularly Glasgow,you know, places like the pot Still.
(09:35):
You know people people travel to Glasgowjust to go to that pub,
so they do. Yeah. Absolutely, So where where's this kind of taking
you in in terms of your travel? I mean obviously worldwide, we're somewhere
notable places I've done wherever I've been. I spent a week in the Jungles
(09:56):
of Columbia. I go to Indiaa couple of times a year. I
did. I did a dinner inBarbados just before Christmas. Where was this
year I've been as it was inChicago a couple of weeks ago doing the
Chicago Games. I've done the Gamesin Alaska, which was very very interesting.
(10:22):
My next games is in New Hampshire, so I'm doing the New Hampshire
Scots Highland Games in September. Whatelse being in Malaysia, Indonesia else a
lot. I'm mostly this side ofthe side of the world. I did
Cuba, but it's the places I'min when I travel which I find really
(10:45):
interesting. Some men I'm in theambassadors, you know, residents, or
I'm in the the British embassies andthings like that. I've also cooked at
you know, Number ten down thestreet, Bucky and Palace, Saint James's
Palace, be At House, andprobably my proudest moment, just harkening back
to us being McLean's, was cookingat d Castle on the Isle of Mall
(11:11):
for the clan Chief McClean, whichwas really really for all the places I've
been in the world, sitting havingbreakfast with the clan chief of a morning
with his family was and I tookmy son with us, which was really
special, and we did we dida fundraise and dinner to help the McLean
Castle. So it was always anambition of mine as a young kid,
(11:33):
even living in Glasgow to go toMaull, you know, and it's it's
maybe three hours in the car andthen an hour on the ferry, but
it just seems so distant. Andwhen I started doing things like TV shows
and stuff, and I had Ihad, I had a say and where
I went. I used to doa kind of TV show where I could
I could investigate my favorite foods andwhere they come from in Scotland. And
(11:56):
I did three episodes on Mall,so I did. So there was so
much on MO and it was justan excuse to get out there and so
I share the love of MO beinga being McClean absolutely, no, that's
that's amazing. Yeah. I lasttime we were there, which I think
was twenty eighteen, we we hada quick conversation with Sir Lackland there.
Yeah, fine, gentlemen. Igotta say it's a pleasure chat with him.
(12:20):
And he's like I noticed because youknow, you obviously wandered around the
castle and such, and I sawhe was like that with absolutely everybody,
which was great. Just anybody whostopped and talking to you talked to them,
right, Yeah, it's incredible.He's I mean, I think he's
eighty two and he is he is. He is the man who's driving that
ship over there. I've got tospend some time with his held his son,
(12:43):
who's the heir, and I think, you know the future of Jerk
Castle and the McLean's on Moll isgood. It really is. You know.
I was really really impressed. Butthe whole, the whole ethoughts of
the family and what it meant tothem, And you know, because you
can keep you kind of think thatyou know, you're born into that,
(13:03):
and there's a responsibility, I supposea wee bit. They've been a royal
and a sort of smaller scale,but there's the same responsibility and the same
time and effort energy I think neededto to keep it going to have that,
you know, so I kind ofI kind of felt and I think
he works in London. I don'tknow what I can't remember what it does.
He's ex military, but he's gota big business in London. But
(13:26):
you know, he's very fond ofhe's he's very fond of his future.
I think in looking after the castleand things like that, definitely. And
you know, my wife and Iactually followed the Door Castle on Facebook,
so we do get the notices everyonce in a while, and I've often
thought, I'm like, man,what happens if he passes on? Like,
(13:46):
what happens? I'm asking you fromyour perspective, good hands, it
seems strong. So that's good,excellent. It's good to know for sure,
because we're planning on going again intwenty twenty five for our twenty fifth
anniversary. So amazing. Don't giveus a shout in your Obuket trip.
So you mentioned the portion that youyou've you know, done some set stuff
(14:07):
as well and things like that.What I found interesting when I was looking
at your book and I don't knowif you want to bring your book up
onto the screen here because that'd bea great little segue for that, but
you you actually had the forward ofyour your recipe book done by Sam Hewan
from Outlander. Yes, there,it is amazing and I know, like
(14:28):
my wife is a huge Outlander fan, so I haven't actually told her that
part yet, which he really ascidedwhat I tell her, So like,
I'm assuming you must know Sam,or you met him at some point and
then he was able to do thatforward for you, or well, actually
(14:48):
I don't know, and we've actuallynever met. I. I was working
in South Carolina at the time,and when the when the book was coming
together, and I had a celebritychef in the UK who was going to
be doing the forward, and Igot the cover sent to me from the
publisher and there was no forward namecelebrity chef on the front. So I
(15:13):
emailed them back and I says,look, where's my where's my celebrity chef
forward that I had organized? Andfor whatever reason, there was a loss
in the communications and the forward nevergot done. We had basically a week
before printing that I needed to findanother forward, another writer of the forward.
(15:33):
And I don't know if it's becauseI was working in South Carolina or
whatever, but I just thought veryI kind of wrote the book for the
North American market, so I kindof thought, who's who's Scottish, and
who's huge in scott who's huge inAmerican TV? And I thought Outlander and
obviously Sam's the style Breyer. SoI messaged everyone I knew in the States
(15:56):
that we're running all the kind ofAmerican Scottish societies, and no one get
back to make you know. Everyminute counted. And I was having a
flick through Twitter, and I noticedthat Sam followed me on Twitter. And
if someone follows you and you followthem, you can private message them,
and that's what I did. SoI sent them the longest Twitter message ever
(16:18):
and he came back to his andsaid, sure, so my little note
to um must have must have musthave helped it. I must have met
He was amazing the kind of toldhim the timeline and I could say that
he was busy because it was launchingthe next season of Outlander, but he
still managed to get it written andprough thread and everything else they need to
(16:41):
do for these things and back tohis within the time frame. So's a
He's a lovely guy and I'm reallylooking forward to meeting them. I'm doing
an Outlander a conference in Glasgow Universityin a couple of weeks time, so
we've got a thing about seven hundredOutlander fans coming, and the writer of
(17:02):
Outlander's going to be there as well, So I'm hoping that Sam makes an
appearance so i can thank them.Yeah, no, they'd be amazing for
sure. Yeah, and again,of course, you know, my wife
was a fan of the books wellbefore the show, so she's she'd be
excited to know that you might meetDiana Gabaldin as well. So that's that's
(17:25):
that's amazing that he was able todo that though. And I know I've
been able to get a couple ofguests on the show through the same route
you just did with Sam as well. Right, if you happen to have
that same celebrity following you, thenyou can message and yeah, it's a
little bit a lot of people werepeople are amazing. Yeah, I mean,
people are amazing, and sometimes youknow, you know, all you
can do is ask, you know, everyone, everyone's trying to accomplish the
(17:48):
same stuff in life, and youknow, and obviously Sam's had great success,
but it seems to be the typeof guy who's happy to kind of
share that success. And you know, the hands about Lander are going to
absolutely love the book and the forwardthere's really quite witty as well. Even
even if you just buy the bookfor Sam's forward it's a it's a nice
(18:08):
little windsight to him and his foodphilosophy, and obviously he's he's amazing.
Sassanac Whiskey gets a mention in thereas well, which which is which is
lovely? Yeah? Absolutely absolutely sowhen it comes to the book that I
don't know if you want to throwthat up there again, but it's coming
out August first in North America,I believe, he said, right,
(18:30):
yeah, it's it's the books outand yeah, the first the August,
so it's out just shortly, okay, And do you know where it's going
to be A Villa was assuming likeit's going to be. It's going to
be absolutely everywhere. If you lookon my socials on Instagram and stuff like
that, there's a link to linktree and there's a there's a Canadians link
(18:56):
and a North American link where youcan pee order the book. That will
be in all good bookstores, Bandsand Noble, will be on Amazon.
So it's getting a film, afilm nationwide release. Okay, And let's
actually talk about it the book alittle bit. Now. You've always mentioned
(19:17):
in the book a couple of timestraditional Scottish recipes where do a lot of
your ideas or concepts come from.Like I know, there's some history behind
a lot of it, and obviouslywe can't go through all the recipes,
but that's notable ones you'd like tomention that great, Yeah, there's there's
you know, it's like most countries, we have our traditional or traditional dishes
(19:37):
in Scotland are very regional between north, southeast and west. So there's dishes
specifically specific to little villages throughout Scotland. And I'll be I'll be honest that
I wrote the book for the NorthAmerican market. I know it was.
It was first published in the UK, but it was written for the North
American market for sure. And thereason for that is this was my second
(20:03):
book. My first book was acookery course, so it was to teach
people simple dishes for home cooking,so it was. And then then I
started traveling to America. The book, the first book was on sail in
America, and everyone just presumed thatit was full the Scottish ingredients and it
(20:26):
actually wasn't. There was no Scottishfood in it at all. Because when
I wrote that book, I hadjust came off a massive TV show in
the UK and I got a bookdeal, and I wanted to write a
book that would suit the whole ofthe UK, and my only rule was
no Scottish, so I never putany Scottish in it at all in that
first book. So I then startedtraveling, taking the book around the world,
(20:48):
and everyone just presumed it was Scottish, you know. I remember I
actually met a woman in New Yorkin April and she said to me,
oh, I just love your firstbook. Your scott Each Tarimasu was amazing,
and she she couldn't get her headaround the fact that it wasn't Scottish
Taramisu. It was actually Italian writtenby a Scotsman. So but I kind
(21:10):
of felt guilty that I hadn't writtenanything about Scotland. And during lockdown,
I was kind of working on abook project and pitching some ideas, and
I started buying Scottish cookbooks on Amazon, so I would get, you know,
three or four a week, andI was just rifling through them,
and I just thought there wasn't abook written that sort. I told the
(21:33):
story of Scottish food that you canactually cook a lot of it was kind
of cutting pasted recipes from really oldcookbooks, you know, and really old
language and not very descriptive. Andall my recipes I write are full of
detail because obviously I am a workin education, so my whole thing is
describing stuff well and being able toteach people. So I wanted to write
(21:56):
a recipe that kind of saved ourtraditional recipes, but in a modern style
for a modern kitchen. So therewas things that I never thought in a
million years I could put in acookboo, because I would never put anything
in a cook book that you couldn'tmake yourself. You know, I didn't
want and I didn't want people searchingthe whole, you know, the ends
of the earth trying to find ingredients. But I managed to get things in
(22:18):
there like black pudding, homemade blackpudding. And the reason I could do
that is because you can buy everythingonline for it, So you know,
it's about twenty dollars. You cango online, you can buy the skins,
you can buy the little gun thatpushes the mixture the skins, and
you can buy the blood online.So my recipe uses dried blood and you
(22:41):
can buy that online for a coupleof dollars. So I was so excited
when I saw you could you couldget all of that online and then when
you write the recipe you can directpeople. This is how I did it,
you know, you know, youknow, just get on Amazon and
buy it, buy the ink.So the world is two or three years
ago. I don't think I'd beable to put that recipe in it.
(23:03):
And even things like Scotch pies.You must have had a Scotch pie in
your time when you were over,you know, the little round meat pies.
So you can buy the molds online, you can, you know.
So so everything that's in there isdoable. Everything in there is something that
you can make at home, youknow, things like tati scones and Clary
dumplings, and you know, they'reall there. And it's amazing when you
(23:26):
hand the book to someone you know, and you know, an American scott
Or or a scott living in Canada, and have you got such and such,
and you turn the page and goand behold the recipes there I was.
I had lunch with a restaurant tour, a Scottish guy who has a
really famous Scottish restaurant in Chicago,and I was chatting away him. They
(23:48):
were flicking through the book almost forensically, you know, page by page,
and it was almost by magic.He would ask if you got the recipe
for slovies, and the next pagewould stovies. You know, so if
you can think it, if you'vehad it in Scotland, it's in that
book. So that's amazing. Yeah, and you know, yeah, you've
(24:12):
got a section there for haggas,which, by the way, I didn't
realize there were so many variations forthings, well haggis for me, I've
got a whole chapter on haggis.So haggis isn't just hagger sneaks and tatties.
Haggis is a really versatile ingredient inits own right, you know.
(24:33):
So there's things in there like pacora, you know, and coughed is that
again aren't Scottish, but they workedreally well with haggers because the haggest seasons
everything. You know. I thinkI've got sliders in there as well,
so you know, haggiest sliders,So fifty percent ground fifty percent haggis,
and it makes the most amazing burgers. And if you were to make those
(24:55):
burgers and then give them to someoneat a barbecue, they wouldn't even know
there was haggis that they would justknow it was a really well seasoned,
you know, moist burger, soI had a bad fun with it as
well. Yeah. Absolutely, soamong your travels and sharing your well I
(25:15):
actually you know another question before weget to that, because you teach as
well, right like you you actuallyteach cooking, and I know some of
that's with the the underprivileged youths ifyou will, But do you do a
more general teaching for folks there?Yeah, But my day jobs as I'm
(25:37):
executive chef at the City of GlasgowCollege. So I've been working in education
for twenty six years, so spentmost of that or half of that.
I spent half part time as aas a culinary instructor, and then I
spent about eight years full time culinaryinstructor, and then I've moved moved upstairs
(26:00):
as they say, where I'm justnow, so I work on international and
commercial projects at the moment. Soyeah, I mean education has been I've
fundamentally been at college since I wassixteen. You know. Between learning,
I was part time for eight yearsand then I think at the gap of
(26:21):
about a year then I started parttime part time teaching. So something is
something I've always done that's something I'mreally proud to be part of, and
I feel really privileged that I canshare my knowledge and my john there with
the future of the industry. Okay, And do you do Do you do
(26:42):
all the cooking at home or doyou take a break at home? Yes,
I do all. I do allthe cooking at home. Yeah,
I've got five kids, and Imarried a chef. My wife's a chef.
Okay, but but she married achef as well, and she won.
So I do I do? Ido mostly cooking at home. I
(27:04):
do travel a lot, which whichmeans my wife does it when I'm not
obviously when I'm not here. Butbut no, I do, I do
a lot. They're cooking. ButI do, I'll be honest. I
do enjoy it, you know.And it's probably the only thing I do
around the house, so you know, it's my wife. There's everything else.
So I do enjoy cooking. Ido enjoy sort of feeding the family.
(27:26):
And and but again, havn't havinghaving five kids. I mean,
my kids are no different from anyoneelse's kids. It's not like they you
know, they elete anything that wemake. You know, I've got the
same troubles and getting youngster's tea.And my kids are a big gage range
as well. So my oldest istwenty seven and my youngest is nine,
(27:47):
and I've got everything in between,so they're all, they're all. There's
a lot of It's a busy house, you know. I've got kids at
UNI, kids working, and kidsin primary school, so there's there's a
lot going on in the house.And I have any of them taking on
the interest of cooking or no.My youngest likes to cook. My nine
(28:08):
year old likes to cook and likesto get involved, and they can make
a pot of soup and things likethat, which is good. My three
I've got three older kids and I'llget two younger kids who are still in
school. But my three older kidsare. Matt Melderson's doing a PhD.
Next one down is he's going intomilitaries and Royal Marines, and my daughter
(28:34):
is a graduate of TV and film. So they've all kind of taken a
different route. Okay, well,and that's definitely nothing wrong with that.
I think they've seen how hard I'veworked. They probably want to avoid it.
But my second oldest son, youand he's much as I'm saying that
he's not showing an interest in it. He does help me a lot if
(28:55):
I have private dinners or charity eventsand things like that, you know,
like them all dinner. I tookmy son mew and and he's he's an
immense hand. When I'm out doingthese things, I'm normally on mon so
he he basically he's created just organizingstuff and packing and making sure I've get
everything, you know, everything thatI should have and things like that.
(29:18):
So but again his his futures inthe in the military, that's fair.
Yeah, absolutely, do you doyou and your wife? Do you create
together? Like you We couldn't makeno, never, We couldn't make toasts
together. No, even even yearsago, even years ago when we first
(29:41):
met, before we had kids.You know, we would get roped into
doing family family functions and things likethat and so, but we would never
we would decide to who's doing itand that would do that. We would
never really cross over. We're bothcompletely complete opposites, I think in the
pitching that's fair. So did shehave any hand in any of the recipes
(30:04):
in the book itself or is itall? Maybe not so much for the
recipes, but certainly with the productionof the book see things that photography and
things like that. You know,basically what happens is we do two weeks
of photography for the book, andmy dining room that I'm in right now
gets time down, the studio photographermoves in and I'll be honest, it's
(30:30):
twenty year days when you're doing photography, so you're you're working the whole day
on the actual photographs and the food, and then as since the photographs away,
you've got a few hours of cleaningup and then you start the preparation
for the next day and that runsfor a fortnight. So it does take
a lot of support, you knowat home, especially in this you know,
(30:51):
five kids running about and everyone else. People need fed and everything else.
So it's definitely a team game atthat stage. But writing a book,
sorry, no, you go ahead, you finished. You Writing a
book's quite a solitary job, youknow, in front of a laptop.
(31:11):
You occasionally phone a friend, youknow who maybe lives in an area of
Scotland that I don't know as well. I just need to or I'll take
I'll phone someone from one of myfriends, mat Adeane. I'll talk to
him about the food that I've gotin the book from that area, and
they'll keep me right if I've missedanything. So that's only really time that
(31:33):
you're kind of you're kind of gettingideas or you're speaking to you know.
I speak to my wife about foodgrown up. What did you have a
New Year? What kind of whatkind of what was your food experience?
What did your mum make and allthat, And it was all that sort
of stuff I wanted to keep inAnd my wife's mum was a schooled dinner
cook as well, so I havefun memories of going there, you know,
(31:53):
when when I first met my wife, because we always went there for
Sunday dinner. So there's a lotof tradition and a lot of family when
it comes to food. And Idon't think it that that differs anywhere in
the world, but it's great thatyou know food, So does that for
people? You know? I doa little experiment and it's worth trying.
(32:15):
I'll often ask people what is thewhat's the most memorable meal, what's the
best meal they've ever had in theirlife? And they'll ponder for a wee
bit and they'll they'll look at youand they'll answer you by saying that they
were in a location with someone,and then it's the food. The food
stud in that line of importance.So food, Food's a whole sensory occasion.
(32:43):
And if you can get the elementsright, if you can get the
atmosphere right, if you can getthe occasion right, the food, the
food is elevated. You know.So if you were if you were sitting
at your desk at lunchtime and somebodybrought you up a Mecheln styf, a
three Micheland style main course, itain't going to be a three Micheland style
(33:04):
main course because you don't have allthe other elements, Whereas you could have
a family dinner which is quite simpleand it just raises everything and it's because
of the other elements. So it'sa feel, I feel experience to play
a food so as and family andand tradition and memories and things like that
really add to that. And that'sthat's really what the books about. You
(33:27):
know, there's recipes in there frommc granny and stories from that I remember
grown up about you know, youknow, what my family had at Christmas
time or or or you know,when time to up half way did they
have and all that sort of stuff. So it was good in that way,
you know, bringing back all ofthese kind of stories. Yeah.
Absolutely, And that's kind of whatI liked about is because you could tell
(33:51):
just by reading a lot of theinformation that you had in the book there
was there's some history to some ofthat, right. So I was going
to ask earlier, is from startto finish, from concept to completion,
how long did you fear it tookfor the book get made? And I
think I think it's about a year. There's there's certainly there's probably about five
(34:14):
months writing, and there's the there'stwo weeks photography, but there's probably a
few weeks work just organizing the food, you know, sorting out where the
food's coming from, getting all thatsort of stuff done, and then there's
a fair bit on edits, andthen when the book comes out, you've
got book tours and signings and allthat sort of stuff. So and I
(34:40):
kind of they kind of they kindof last for it a while, you
know, a book, and particularlysomething like this, you know, we'll
have a long legs, as theysay, because it's it's not within a
time frame, it's not kind ofultra modern cuisine, you know, it's
family, it's it's you know,and in the States, I think I
(35:02):
think we've got I'm sorry. InNorth America, I think there's a bit
twenty twenty odd million people who seethemselves as Scott's or Scott's origin. So
when you think there's only five millionScots in Scotland, so the market's a
lot bigger and it's a great,you know, a great gift. And
(35:22):
I'm sure if you know is youknow, if someone's got that Scottish heritage,
it'd be a nice surprise for themto see it. Or even an
ex part who's been out there awhile, we'll see food they've probably not
seen since they were a kid.Yeah, yeah, absolutely So how much
time do you figure you spend onthe actual way promotion and books hangings that
(35:43):
kind of thing, are you Yep, we're a bit or between, which
yes, pretty constant. This willbe interesting because this is my first publishing
deally in North America, so it'llbe interesting to see their response because all
my books, you know, I'venormally remote in the UK, so you
can you know, when they firstcame out, you do a couple of
(36:04):
weeks that's pretty full on, andmost of it's evenings. So most of
it is straight after work you're drivingto some dark corner of Scotland or the
UK to go do some book signingsor to do a demo. But I'll
be interesting to see how how theAmerican market works. And the reality is
I'm in America probably do more eventsin North America than I do in Scotland,
(36:25):
you know, with the Highland Gamesand and the you know, the
different the different awards, ceremonies andstuff that I normally do and then you
know, you get tartaned weeks,so there's there's much bigger opportunities I think
to promote alongside other events that areScottish, whereas in Scotland we don't have
(36:47):
too many Scottish events where you cansign a book, if that makes sense.
So, you know, if youthink that, you know, the
hundreds of Highland Games in North America, some of the biggest Highland games the
world are and and Ida in theUS. You know, So it's it's
quite incredible that you've got, youknow, thirty forty thousand people in one
(37:07):
space that are talking and living Scotlandin a completely different country. You know.
My first sort of working trip toNorth America. I've been in I've
been in the US a lot ison holidays and stuff like that in Disneyland
and you know the tourist day bitin New York. And I remember in
(37:28):
two thousand I went to Chicago andit was my first trip to support Scotland
and I fell in love with NorthAmerica on that trip. But I also
fell in love with Scotland because Isaw Scotland through different eyes. I've seen
Scotland through someone else's viewpoint and whatScotland has done. And I think you
(37:51):
don't appreciate your own country until youget out it, until you get away
from it, you know. AndI was a raised at the I was
amazed that the passion that North Americanshad for Scotland. And I've always said
if Scottish people had the same passionfor Scotland as North American Scott's had,
(38:14):
we would be a superpower. Doyou know what You're Some of your US
tour looks like as well. NowI think my next trip is I've got
possible trip in August, which isn'tfully confirmed, but my next trip in
the diary is September at the NewHampshire Highland Games. So I'll be there
(38:36):
and there. It's a three daygame. So I'm down culinary demonstrations and
book signings okay, but I dothat every September. I have done for
seven years out with the COVID years. I want to thank you again so
much for taking the time to talkwith me today. I definitely appreciate your
(38:57):
time on this and thank to anybodywho ends up watching this and hopefully we
can sell some books for you.No brilliant, I appreciate it, and
thanks thanks for having us, Thanksfor having us. It's nice to see
another another Gary McClean doing well well. Thank you so much. Thanks for
folks for watching and we will seeyou next week. And if you don't
(39:19):
mind hanging around for a couple ofminutes, I'd be great. By Yell
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.