St Andrews Links Blog

Serving up local cuisine to ‘Savour’

On Sunday 5^th November, the Savour St Andrews month of culinary events kicked off with the ‘Chefs Taster Lunch’ at the Old Course Hotel. Each year a kitchen team from the Links is involved along with 15 other teams from hotels, suppliers and restaurants from around St Andrews.

Representing the Links this year were Head Chef, Sharon Munro and Sous Chef, Pauline McIvor. Both have been integral in serving up the Links’ menus for eight years now and have been heavily involved in growing the Savour St Andrews initiative. The third member of the Links team was James Thomson, our Chef de Partie. All three combining to make a formidable culinary trio.

The taster dish they prepared was ‘Surf and Turf’; crispy fried pork belly with Pittenweem langoustine. This went down a treat with the 200 plus customers who attended.

Savour St Andrews is unique in bringing chefs together to support one and other. The month’s worth of events culminates with a gourmet dinner on St Andrews Day for 120 people. Myself along with four other leading chefs share responsibility preparing the menu using each other’s facilities and skills to put on the best food offering possible.

It’s been five years since the Savour St Andrews initiative started and it’s grown from four participating chefs (myself included) to 15. With this success, the opportunity arose to make money that could benefit future chefs. As of 2016, two students from SRUC and Fife College receive a bursary funded by money raised from the likes of the taster lunch and other similar events put on by the project. It’s great to see this financial help being put towards young chefs in the making and hopefully one day see them join the accomplished local culinary talent in making their mark on the hospitality industry.

Words by Ian MacDonald, Executive Chef

Images credit: Alan Richardson