A Hairy Bikers Guide to Scotland, where the duo first became best friends

2024-03-23 -

LAST week’s column about Scotland’s food and drink scene’s starring role in a new Netflix series has turned our focus to a duo of celebrity chefs who have over the years championed the country on the small screen.

Having both lived and cooked together in Scotland before any thoughts of a TV programme began to form, Si King and Dave Myers, better known as the Hairy Bikers, knew all too well the incredible produce we have to offer and often made a point of heading north of the border to film.

Following the sad news of Dave

Myers passing this month, we’ve rounded up just 10 of the many restaurants, cafes and food producers visited by the duo over the years.

1 THE HARBOUR CAFE

The Harbour Café in the East Neuk of Fife is owned by former Great British Menu contestant Amy Elles and her husband, Jack, who were tasked with preparing a feast that showed off the area’s talented local producers.

They did just that with an incredible selection including smoked fish from St Monans, organic beef from Balcaskie Estate and a Kinbgsbarns Distillery whisky-infused sticky toffee pudding.

The restaurant later released a special ‘Hairy Bikers Box’, giving customers to sample the same range of goodies for themselves.

2 HELMI’S CAFÉ

While Helmi’s café also operates branches in Bearsden and Glasgow, it was their Rothesay location which featured in an episode of the Hairy Bikers Go West as baker Majd showed them around the kitchen.

The Syrian-Scots family team who run the business have since said they ‘couldn’t be prouder’ of their TV debut.

After the final outing of the Hairy Bikers aired this week, Sarah Campbell takes a look back at their time in Scotland and businesses they showcased along the way

3 GALLOWAY SCOTTISH PASTA

This truly innovative creation puts a Scots twist on an Italian classic as discovered by the bikers in their Go West series.

An artisanal, slow-dried pasta is made with wheat flour milled in Kirkcaldy, Organic Scottish oat flour from Aberdeenshire and a pinch of Ayrshire sea salt.

Speaking of their Bucatini dish, King said: “[It] is a great product and it’s really tasty and it’s Scottish, it was beautifully done

4 JULIE’S KOPITIAM

Although the Kopitiam closed up shop not long after its star feature on The

Hairy Bikers Go Local, chef Julie Lin remains a prominent figure in the city’s food and drink community.

She said of meeting her TV idols: “These are two of the biggest names

I’ve worked with to date and they were the most down-to-earth, kind, humble, supportive souls. The whole week was a pleasure.”

5 BLACKTHORN SALT

It was their meeting with chef Julie

Lin which inspired the Hairy Bikers to search for a punchy, flavourful seasoning that would enhance her Malaysian fusion dishes.

Upon arrival in Ayrshire, the pair were hugely impressed with the family company’s ancient salt-producing techniques, which sees seawater trickle down through Blackthorn before transforming into a brine liquid.

Myers said: “This has to be one of the purest products you can possibly put on your plate. In awe of the imagination but the product just tastes amazing, it is a great flavour enhancer.”

6 POTTERLAND FARM AND SMOKERY

James and Katherine Baird use a handbuilt smoker at Potterland for a ‘long, slow and gentle process’ that allows us them to add the ‘final levels of flavour’ to their homebred animals.

After appearing on the Go West series, the husband and wife team said of the Bikers: “Yes, they are as nice in person as they are on the telly.”

7 BAVARIAN BAKEHOUSE

The Bavarian Bakehouse was founded

by Scottish-German family, the Wichmann’s, in 1984 and passed into the safe hands of the Mcshane’s after their retirement in 2011.

Under their management, artisan products including breads, viennoiserie and cakes are hand-crafted every morning before being delivered to businesses across the country.

The Hairy Bikers paid the Cumber-nauld based team a visit while filming their Go Local series last year. one of the founding members of the Scottish Honeyberries co-operative and a champion for the ‘exciting new superfood’ which is grown in Fife.

Honeyberries are native to Japan, Russia and Canada and are said to contain four times the vitamin C of blueberries.

Trying them out for himself in Go Local, King claimed them to be ‘ridiculously’ good before going on to prepare them in a sauce to accompany haggis beef olives.

9 SPES BONA SUPERIOR SEAFOOD

Testing out their sea legs for the Go Local series, the Hairy Bikers joined Troon’s Spes Bona Superior Seafood for a spot of trawler fishing in an episode which aired in 2023.

A member of the Gibson family, which runs the business, led tributes to Si King after hearing news of his death, describing him as ‘a genuinely lovely guy with great sense of humour and no airs and graces who was actually interested in what you had to

say.”

10 WHITEHILL FARM COYLTON

After years of city living, Suryaveer and Bonita Rathore swapped Dubai and India for the Ayrshire countryside, where they now specialise in the sustainable farming of red deer. While discovering the farm in a Go Local episode, The Bikers sampled a pickled venison cooked with spices including curry leaf and ginger which they reportedly described as ‘the best they had ever eaten’.