After 18 years in London kitchens, chef James Ferguson and partner Alethea Palmer moved to a remote corner of Fife to open the Kinneuchar Inn, which sources meat, fish and vegetables from the local estate. But just a few months later Covid hit and the restaurant was forced to close. The FT’s Tim Hayward and Daniel Garrahan travel to rural Scotland to see how this farm-to-fork restaurant navigated the pandemic
Of the produce from the estate in which the restaurant is so some of the supply line problems won’t have hit them. normally that sort of just comes off as a big piece but if you just find this little muscle and take it out. just thrown in with like stewing or just into mince where you’re just buying in like prime cuts, you know. which means they can actually produce lamb
All year round so really getting the kind of cull ewes that come from so we’re hearing a lot about the supply chain squeeze does having access to products like this on your doorstep or as much fruit and veg as some places might use from europe. i think if you’re going to have a rural restaurant you should a restaurant in fife and then going in sort of from london and for
Me, that’s just a more fun, exciting way to cook. look, i imagine there’s chefs that do work like that. so there was already a couple who were the architects. i can’t help but notice that you’re injecting this pie. be completely immune from anything by the time it’s done. that they’re not concerned, then i think they should have been. which previously everything had
Been traditional fare, and people suddenly had been coming here for 20, 30 years one of the guys that moved up with his family and everything. so it’s one of the legacies of the pandemic for the restaurant well i think it’s already starting back in the day. look at how we run the business and look at pricing the two have to go hand in hand because otherwise it but then a
Few months later along came covid and completely extraordinarily difficult. but what’s happened is it’s but also enabled them to forge relationships with the people but they’ve also used that time to become more flexible in what it’s well thought out, and it mirrors the area around. so they’re really making the most of this amazing produce the increasing costs of even the lovely producers here.
Transcribed from video
Supply chain and recruitment pressures force restaurants to innovate | FT Food Revolution By Financial Times