We made a right meal of Come Dine With Me
John Quigley admits he and daughter Rosie felt heat in the kitchen cooking for other Scots restaurateurs
JOHN Quigley has cooked for rock megastars, prepared food live on TV and run restaurants for the past three decades. But with the cameras rolling and his 22-year-old daughter Rosie assisting in the kitchen, a simple three-course meal went disastrously wrong.
The dad-and-daughter team were competing in Come Dine With Me: The Professionals – a spin-off of the Channel 4 reality show.
They had to cook a special meal for two other parent-and-child pairings from other Glasgow restaurants.
It all started well. John, 58, the owner of Red Onion in the city centre, said: “We made all of our signature dishes and the scallop starter was spot-on.”
Although the other diners hadn’t eaten scallops before, the Red Onion way of serving them – in a salad with chorizo and manchego – hit the spot.
However, another signature dish flopped. John has made spicy Gresingham duck breast with sweet potato hundreds of times but he wobbled under pressure.
He said: “It just wasn’t right. The film crew were in the kitchen, the extractor fan was off because of the noise and they make you stop and start. It’s an unnatural environment.
“It was under-seasoned, the duck hadn’t rendered properly and the glaze hadn’t stuck to it.”
A rival, from Persian restaurant Saffron by Paradise, was straight on his case. John added: “She said, ‘I eat a lot of duck and this could be crispier.’ She nailed me.” The other diners were also alarmed that the meat wasn’t properly cooked.
John said: “They had never eaten rare meat before and were
freaked out. They saw it was pink and thought it was raw.”
With everything hanging on the dessert, they had everything to do. But Rosie, a
finance and
accountancy graduate, normally sticks to spreadsheets, not searing hot pans.
She said: “Even if I work in the restaurant, I’m front of house – not in the kitchen.”
But there was no one else to help so John had to rely on Rosie.
She said: “Dad set everything out and made it as easy as possible but it still went horribly wrong.
“I was trying to grate the lemons into the cheesecake. I dropped the lemons and the grater in the mixture. There was oil all over the surface.”
John added: “We were so nervous before the dessert. It had to work but it wasn’t quite set. Then the blowtorch ran out. It was as if we were being sabotaged. It was reality TV at its best.”
However, the Quigleys have no regrets about taking part in the show, which airs on Tuesday.
They thought they would be up against other upmarket restaurants. Instead, their rivals were from Glasgow’s diverse communities.
As well as taking on Paradise by Saffron’s tagine, they had to compete with a giant pan-African spread prepared by a mother-and-son team from Calabash in Union Street.
While the film crew were at work, Calabash stayed open and the shoot turned into a party.
John said: “By 5.30pm, it was full with all their pals. It was getting busier and hotter, then they stuck the whole menu down on the table.”
After eating mounds of mashed yams, sweet potatoes and lamb so tough Rosie was worried about her teeth, it was time for the fun to start.
John said: “It’s a social club, a community centre for Africans of all nationalities and has a pool hall and a dance hall. Of course, we all ended up dancing. I did my best dad dancing – the Highland Fling to soca music.”
Rosie was cringeing at John’s constant name-dropping and at one point said: “My dad is so boring, all he talks about is dead pop stars.”
The director then made her repeat it 20 times but John claims he wanted him to tell stories about working for some of rock’s most famous faces.
Before moving back to Glasgow and setting up on his own, John was private chef to Bryan Adams, toured with Guns N’Roses and cooked for some of the biggest names in the business.
And while he’s always happy reminiscing about the old days, he’s not looking forward to hearing Come Dine With Me narrator Dave Lamb ripping him to shreds. “I’m cringeing already,” he said. “I can hear that guy’s voice saying, ‘That’s Mr Quigley name-dropping again.’ But that was all they wanted, ‘Tell us about Axl Rose. What did Tina Turner like?’
“The other contestants loved it as well – they wanted to know all about Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston.
“I did try to not look like an absolute idiot but sometimes you can’t help yourself. You just know they’re going to use the nasty soundbite that you don’t want them to use.”
However, working so closely together showed John and Rosie that they make a great team. They came up with a new delivery bowl concept, Okaii Poke, during lockdown and are considering reviving it as a pop-up.
Rosie persuaded John to introduce a cocktail list and got him to make some funny TikToks. She said: “I come up with ideas and he executes them.”
● The Quigleys appear on Come Dine With Me: The Professionals on Channel 4 on Tuesday, at 5pm.
They stop and start. It’s an unnatural environment JOHN QUIGLEY ON FILMING COME DINE WITH ME