Turning Tables We talk to chef-of-the-moment The Little Chartroom’s Roberta Hall-McCarron

Turning tables

We caught up with Edinburgh chef Roberta Hall-McCarron as she prepares to move her restaurant into an exciting new home

Photography by Amelia Claudia

If you haven’t heard of Roberta Hall or her restaurant The Little Chartroom, where have you even been? Before lockdown hit, the Leith Walk dining room had become a must-visit and they weren’t about to be held back by a mere global pandemic, quickly launching athome meals and beachside takeaway concept The Little Chatroom on the Prom in Portobello. While her team kept the bellies of local fans satisfied, the head chef went onto battle it out on the BBC’s Great British Menu, even reaching the finals before returning home to Edinburgh and reopening the restaurant in June.

Now, with demand for tables reaching another peak, The Little Chartroom is moving to bigger and better premises in the former Martin Wishart Cook School on Bonnington Road and the chefs running the Portobello offshoot are moving into the original premises as new restaurant Eleanore. We caught up with Roberta to find out more… How did it affect you when the pandemic hit last year? It was a really scary time and also pretty disheartening as we were just getting into our stride and had lots of fun pop-ups and events on the cards which all got shelved. The most important thing for us was to stay in people’s minds so that the public didn’t just forget about us. That’s why we started the at home meals so quickly, we wanted to keep interacting with our guests. The Little Chartroom on the Prom has proved a huge success – did you anticipate this? We didn’t really know what to expect from the prom, we just wanted to keep all of the team working and this actually created extra jobs which could only be a positive thing. It was a great way to communicate with old and new customers in a different part of Edinburgh. We will be closing the prom in October and are aiming to open in Eleanore in November. You’re about to open your new premises in Leith. What prompted the move? When we originally visited the new site, it was actually with the intention of opening Eleanore in there but, when we got into the space, it just all started to make sense. The Little Chartroom is already established and people are booking to come and dine with us. We envisioned Eleanore to be a lot more casual where people could just drop in for a quick glass of wine and a bite to eat. Leith Walk has fantastic footfall and will suit the Eleanore concept really well. I am super excited about the move, the new Little Chartroom has a completely open kitchen so it should be quite an immersive experience for all of our guests. We have more kitchen space and better equipment so I hope this will allow us to take the food to the next level. We have also just hired a restaurant manager and sommelier so all of this should only improve the overall experience. In a nutshell, it’s going to be a more grown-up version of the original but it’s so important that we keep the intimate, warm, friendly vibe that we are known for. We loved watching you on Great British Menu. Did you enjoy the experience? It was the hardest, most stressful thing I have ever done but yes, I enjoyed it too. I met so many great people and it has given me a lot of confidence. I don’t have any more

THE NEW LITTLE CHARTROOM IS GOING TO BE A MORE GROWN UP VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL BUT IT’S SO IMPORTANT THAT WE KEEP THE INTIMATE, WARM, FRIENDLY VIBE THAT WE ARE KNOWN FOR”

TV works in the pipeline though, I plan to fully focus on the restaurants for now. Where are your favourite places to eat in Edinburgh? I love Spry for some nice food, washed down with great wine. I also really enjoy going to Ondine and sitting at the bar. What do you like to cook at home for family and friends? A big pie with braised meat or roasted venison saddle, with lots of veggies on the side and a chocolate dessert for after. And what do you eat when you’re just feeding yourself? Bagels! Or something easy that can last a few days like a big pot of chicken and rice soup. What’s always in your fridge? Milk, I drink it by the bucketload!

The Little Chartroom is now open at 14 Bonnington Road. To book a table, visit www.thelittlechartroom.com

BUY THE BOOK

Roberta Hall-McCarron has contributed a favourite dessert recipe to new book Around the Table by Great British Chefs. It’s the ultimate cookbook for ambitious home cooks looking to impress friends and family with dishes designed by some of the most exciting culinary talent across the UK. To order your copy of the hardback book, visit www.shop.greatbritishchefs.com or to see Roberta’s recipe, visit www.ionedinburgh.com/living/ food-recipes/

Lockdown triumphs

Ailidh Forlan, aka @plateexpectations, has been wowed by these Edinburgh food businesses who took the plunge during lockdown and have never looked back

SABZI

When you walk into this new Indian restaurant on Ferry Road, it’s crazy to think that months ago it was the Coffee & Cream cafe. During the pandemic the family business rapidly came to a halt and son Stevie Singh convinced his parents to return to their routes in selling Punjabi and North Indian street food from the cafe doorway. I’m so glad he did. The space has now been creatively transformed into a vibrant sit-in eatery with a short weekly changing menu. That’s my excuse to go most weeks. SALT CAFÉ

According to Liv and Steve Connolly-Bastock, brunch is the best meal of the day. That’s why they soak their house-made brioche in vanilla custard for two hours before frying it to serve up the city’s most indulgent French toast. It’s also why their popular Butcher’s Breakfast includes Steve’s homemade sausage, Fruit Pig white and black pudding, Corrie Mains Farm free-range eggs and toast fried in beef fat. Salt being an acronym for seasonal, artisanal, local and thoughtful, is no coincidence. When Liv, a former events director, lost 18 months worth of contracts within the first 24 hours of lockdown, and Steve lost his job as chef de partie at The Scran & Scallie days later, the husband and wife team took the biggest risk of all and sold their home to fund Salt Café. Now at full capacity six days a week and rated Edinburgh’s #1 cafe on TripAdvisor, that risk has certainly paid off. I’d recommend booking a table in advance.

BUTTA BURGER

Butta Burger’s branding is bold but since they’re serving up what have rapidly become Edinburgh’s best fried chicken burgers, I would have to agree that ‘everything is better with Butta’. Graham Atkinson and Simon Bays owned an events business when the pandemic hit and have since catapulted their decadent burger business, complete with truffle mayonnaise, from a rented dark kitchen to a prime position restaurant on Edinburgh’s George Street in just two months. There are few culinary delights better than their buttermilk fried chicken wings dunked in chicken gravy mayonnaise but their new weekend brunch menu boasting fried chicken and maple syrup smothered waffles comes incredibly close.

FUZE

With each monthly menu, chef Dylan Smith, previously at Six By Nico, proves that fusion food by no means translates to confusion food. When you realise that each vegetarian spread in this Edinburgh meal delivery service, such as Greece meets Mexico or India meets Italy, is concocted in Dylan’s own domestic kitchen it’s all rather impressive indeed. It was the insurgence of meal kits in the first lockdown that originally gave Dylan the impulse to launch his solo delivery venture and, six months on, the chef now has his sights set on a street food truck. Fuze is definitely one to watch, and with a website launching soon, Fuze is definitely one to order from too.

BABY FACED BAKER

Rhiain Gordon’s one-woman bakery business had far from a romantic start. She started a recipe blog to maintain her sanity during the pandemic and turned to wholesale baking as a way to stay afloat when she struggled to pay her rent. Little did Rhiain know that, six months later, her brownies, stuffed cookies, and buns - flavoured with the likes of Pimms, berry cheesecake and pistachio cardamon - would be the talk of the town for every sweet tooth in the know. They’re stocked in renowned cafes across Edinburgh, including The Pantry, and Rhiain’s new Leith Walk Shop sets her apart with a 7:30am opening time. Those biscoff cruffins will change your life.

ÆMILIA

If, like me, you often crave traditional fresh pasta - the kind that’ll transport you to Emilia Romagna in one bite - then a visit to Æmilia’s Portobelllo shop is essential. In true Italian hospitality Giada Betti and Kip Preidys even serve espressos whilst customers admire the intricacies of fresh pasta making from out of their open plan kitchen. Last year the couple, who boast over 10 years in the hospitality industry, started crafting their pasta on a 2 meters table in their home kitchen, intermittently hopping in the car to deliver it throughout East Lothian. Fast forward to today and even with 4:30am starts, their dishes of beef shin lasagne and Uovo in raviolo which bursts with a golden yolk, sell out most days. I suggest pre-ordering via phone by 10am to ensure you don’t miss out.

QUICKFIRE QUIZ

Gas or electric? Electric (induction) – it’s better for the environment, easier to clean and faster. No brainer. Caf or decaf? Caf definitely. Although I was surprised at how many people asked us to launch a decaf. So, we have. Poached or scrambled? Scrambled. Lots of butter, no milk. Skinny fries or chunky chips? Skinny fries – Kenji has a great recipe for homemade quintuple cooked fries… they’re a bit of a faff though.

Meet the Maker

Introducing the faces behind our favourite local foods

WHO: Dave Law, Founder of FAFF Coffee.

WHAT: Our mission is to make outstanding speciality coffee more accessible to everyone. Speciality coffee is amazing – but it’s a faff. So, we launched our Single Origin Coffee Bags with enough good quality coffee in to brew an outstanding mug of coffee every time, anywhere.

WHY: It really began as we were developing the idea for my previous business Brew Lab. Initially we just wanted to open a ‘Starbucks but better’, but over the two years we spent developing the idea for Brew Lab we began to appreciate coffee as a speciality beverage akin to wine or fine tea.

HOW: I’ve always been interested in coffee innovation and had done a lot of work on cold brew coffee at Brewlab and in my role as Head of Innovation at Union Hand-Roasted Coffee. When I was made redundant from Union, I spent some time thinking about how to make brewing coffee easier and came to the idea of improving the coffee bag. I spent most of the latter half of 2020 developing the idea (while chasing after a toddler), and we launched on Boxing Day 2020.

CULINARY ICONS: I’m a bit of a Kenji Lopez Alt fanboy – his book The Food Lab is a bible to me. I’ve never really been into fine dining and much prefer the simpler café thing, or down and dirty street food. Locally I’m pretty inspired by what Lara at Bross Bagels is doing and @saltbyjames on Instagram who will make your home cooking seem woefully inadequate.

FRIDGE FAVOURITES: Chiu Chow Chilli Oil for anything with rice or noodles. Nduja for anything on bread and anchovies for anything pasta. Also Lucky Saint to drink.

SIGNATURE DISH: Since getting our Ooni pizza oven, every Saturday is pizza night.

EATING OUT: Usually a takeaway from Mother India, or Imperial Palace in Longstone who do brilliant Dim Sum.

To find out more or order yourself coffee bags, visit www.faff.coffee