Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Chippy finds plaice on TV
An award-winning Coatbridge chippy flew the flag for Scotland on a major new BBC programme.
Tony’s chip shop owner Hugh Innes and manager William Limerick took on the challenge of competing in Britain’s Top Takeaways, and featured in the first episode of the series on Monday.
Viewers saw them take on four other teams as each raced to complete orders from their own specially developed “funky menu”and impress customers who received a home delivery and then ate and rated the food.
The Tony’s team were first approached last year about taking part in the programme, which is presented by Sara Cox and Darren Harriot with each episode focusing on a different type of takeaway treat.
With each being asked to serve up a classic dish, chef’s special, vegetarian option and sides, the Coatbridge duo cooked up a storm including the Shawhead shop’s popular “one and one”supper, consisting of one battered and one breaded fish.
Their menu to tempt the tastebuds also featured a fish fritter, featuring haddock sandwiched between potato; a pea fritter; homemade coleslaw and tartar sauces – and an eye-catching roll with chips and curry sauce, all then battered and deep fried.
Hugh told the Advertiser:“they’re things we’ve sometimes done on and off but aren’t things we normally serve in the shop; we worked on some special creations as we needed to make a combination of traditional and other things.
“It was a great day when we were all cooking in the kitchen unit for the show and it was really hectic as there were orders coming through every 20 minutes or so and we were constant with cooking, preparing, hand-cutting the chips, so it was really busy.
“We were doing everything live and it was a great challenge being out of our comfort zone; being able to cook on primetime national TV is incredible and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do for 40 years in the industry.
“Sara Cox is a lovely person and Darren Harriot is a really funny guy; they were amazing, really welcoming and were doing their best to talk to us and keep us calm when there were 20 cameras all round about!
“It was an amazing experience – we met some great people who are very passionate about the industry and what they do, and we loved every minute of being around such positive people.”