Newport on Tay is about to become home to MasterChef: The Professionals 2014 winner, Jamie Scott’s first solo adventure, The Newport.

Overlooking the river Tay, it will offer modern Scottish dishes using local ingredients. We spoke to Jamie about his passion for supporting local producers, what we can expect to see on the menu and about how winning MasterChef: The Professionals has changed his career. 

Career to date

Jamie has been perfecting his skills for over 12 years, four of which were spent at the three AA rosette restaurant, Rocca Bar & Grill, St Andrews. But it was time to move on to his own project in Newport on Tay, a stone’s throw away from where he was born and raised in Arbroath, opened on Tuesday, March 1.

From a young age, Jamie was introduced to the workings of the kitchen. His mother, Winnie, was the personal chef to the British Ambassador of Berlin, and the first female sous chef in Britain. Helping out in his parent’s pub, The Colliston Inn, was where his interest sparked, albeit unintentional, “I used to play golf, but I had to earn money so I could buy the equipment! My mum started me with a little weekend job, just helping to make breakfast and bacon rolls, and it stemmed from there. They went on to buy a restaurant, where I started to work full time. I really built my way up in my mum’s kitchen.

"She was the one who showed me how to fry an egg, she showed me how to confit duck, she bought me my first cookbook. It’s my mum that took me on this path,” Jamie said.

Jamie worked at the restaurant alongside learning his trade at Angus Catering Collage. During that time Jamie’s mum used her industry contacts to send him on stages around the area to develop his training. 

“I definitely learnt more working, explained Jamie. "The problem with college is that they try to make it realistic but it’s really not. I definitely learnt more in an actual restaurant, being under pressure. I remember once, I was working in Dundee, and this 18 year old boy came up to me and asks ‘have you got any jobs going?’ I told him we were looking for a couple of commis, and he said ‘well I have just finished college and I’m a sous chef now’… that was quite an interesting conversation!”

Food Style

Throughout his experiences in different restaurants, Jamie was able to perfect his own style, but often found it difficult when working under different chefs.

He said: “Obviously when you are cooking for a head chef or an executive chef, you cook to suit that style. At my mum’s pub, she wanted to cook using very traditional Scottish techniques; roasting, confiting, braising, and learning the basics there was really fun. The next restaurant was a Mediterranean restaurant with a Scottish influence. My first head chef job at Rocca saw me cooking Scottish dishes with an Italian twist, and it was nice to get those different aspects of cooking.”

His personal preference is to cook what makes him happy, using flavours that represent his Scottish heritage. he explained: “When you are happy eating and cooking something, then it makes sense to bring that into your restaurant, because it’s going to be just as good.”

Menu and ingredients

The menu at The Newport will have dishes that use techniques Jamie is passionate about. The kitchen will contain a barbeque, where the chefs can create dishes such as barbeque lamb shoulder with chickpeas.