It’s my name above the front door but that certainly won’t stop me knocking my pan in
TV chef is back doing 14-hour shifts in new restaurant – and he’s loving every minute
With the collapse of Jamie’s Italian, the rise in Just Eat and a move away from eating meat, there’s never been a more dangerous time for a celebrity chef to open their own place.
But Nick Nairn doesn’t care.
The 60-year-old superchef is about to open his first new restaurant for more than a decade.
While he admits there are plenty of challenges, the move has already taken him back into the grind of 14-hour shifts at the coalface.
And he’s loving it.
His new place, the former Jam Jar in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, will next month be recast in his name – probably as Nick Nairn’s on Henderson Street.
Unlike certain other celebrity chefs who appeared overstretched with massive chains bearing their name, Nick intends to keep it simple.
His new venture is a short walk from the house, a labour of love with his nearest and dearest taking hands-on roles.
That’s the way he wants it to stay. He said: “Last year we bought a house in Bridge of Allan and got chatting to the restaurateur Simon Littlejohn.
“He was talking about selling his local place, Jam Jar, which he’d had for about four years and one thing led to another.
“We ended up owning the place by the end of 2019. The deal was done just before Christmas so we are now the owners of a new 70- seat cafe/ bar/restaurant.
“It’s very close to where we live and eventually it will be called either Nick’s on Henderson Street or Nick Nairn’s on Henderson Street.
“It will be a family restaurant doing breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week.
“We don’t intend to change that but what we do want to do i s make ever y thing remarkable.
“We want to exceed people’s expectations and make it somewhere people will be dying to tell their friends about.
“We’ve hired a new head chef and my wife Jul ia is also hands- on with the new business.”
The oft-repeated criticism about such projects is that the well- known name is above the door but rarely in the kitchen. Chefs such as
Jamie Oliver and Gordon
Ramsay have fallen victim with restaurants going under so frequently it must, at times, have felt like a curse.
Stirling-born Nick, though, says his homegrown venture will be different.
He said: “The restaurant is mine and we are working on a new menu as we speak.
“Over Christmas, I was in working. I cooked on Hogmanay and I will be way more hands- on with this than with anything I’ve done since opening my first restaurant.
“Partly because it’s here, just round from where I live. And partly because I feel I need to have a presence here, to be round the place and in the kitchen. We have actually been short staffed so yesterday was my first day off for a while.
“I came home the other night, absolutely knackered and Julia said: ‘How was it?’ I said. ‘Oh, I was in 14 hours, I’m so tired’ and Julia said, ‘ You loved it’. I had to admit it, yes I did.
“It is an amazing buzz and we have been really busy so we have that constant f lat out thing and I discovered that I really missed it.
“I haven’t had it for a long time. I think you have to be hands-on and part of everything you put your name to. I also have a tie-in with Hilton at Dunblane Hydro. This is our 10th year together but I am there a fair bit as well.
“Both of those are local to me. It’s not like being in Aberdeen where you struggle with the distance.
“Now it’s easy for me to just come in the back door, nobody can see me coming in but I know exactly what’s going on.
“I think there were a lot of factors which played into Jamie’s Italian and the other chains that have been in trouble. The exchange rate has not been kind, some have found the
minimum wage a difficulty. The same things that have happened to the retail sector have happened to High Street restaurants.
“So when you have a high-turnover low-margins business, it doesn’t take an awful lot to make that business model vulnerable.
“I would hope that won’t affect me because I’m more of a wee restaurant guy.”
As well as these ventures, Nick continues to operate two popular and successful cookery schools.
He is one of the most trusted names in the business, having famously become the youngest Scottish chef to win a Michelin star.
He went on to open Nairns in Glasgow, has been a regular on TV and written a string of books.
He admits that the landscape has changed beyond recognition since the good people at Michelin helped make his reputation.
He said: “The way we consume food is changing. The idea that you can have an app and press a button and wait for a delivery.
“Those are challenges to us. There’s a Domino’s in Bridge Of Allan so our guys do a pizza where we make our own dough and try to offer something different.
“Competition’s good for the market place. It keeps us on our toes.”
And what about vegan food? Like fellow chef Ramsay, he’s been less than glowing about vegetarianism in the past.
He added: “We do have vegan options. It’s kind of a new thing for me. I’ve maybe in the past not been entirely complimentary about vegetarians, however, we charge the same price for vegetarian and vegan food.
“It’s forced us to be a bit more innovative – we have a thing called a Buddha bowl with rice, falafel, roast vegetables and seeds and nuts.
“That kind of food, which perhaps in the past I would not have been associated with, I have now embraced. What I don’t like is vegan imitations of other foods like vegan burgers or sausages.
“Vegan food should be just that, it doesn’t need to be something else – you never know what’s in that stuff.
“I ’ d draw the l ine at a watermelon steak, though. These things can go wrong...”