Here at The Staff Canteen, we felt it would be a great idea to show our appreciation to our loyal users, so to honour this we will be featuring a different member every month who we think deserves to be celebrated - this month’s winner is Owen Morrice.
As a member who regularly contributes to our site via the app Chef+, Owen will receive a copy of Kaukasis by Olia Hercules, a goodie bag from our app sponsors Essential Cuisine and The Staff Canteen mug.
Current place of work, position and a brief overview of where you have worked before.
Just over a year ago, two of my good friends from school took over a well-known pub in Edinburgh called No1 The Grange. They asked me to run the kitchen and we have built up a great reputation for the food in that time. I have a great team and it’s been fun. Before this, I spent my first six years training/cooking in another well-known pub, the Kings Wark. I had a very successful time here - winning awards and making some tasty food with a great head chef. I also spent some time at Mums - who serve great comfort food - and their American restaurant, Frontier, which was really fast paced and great fun.
Sea bass, seared scallop,
octopus, butternut squash,
roast onions, dill and hazelnuts
What is your cooking style and what can people expect from the food on your menu?
The best way to describe the food we have on is ‘restaurant quality pub food’. Our menu has classic pub dishes on it from burgers and fish and chips, to curried cauliflower Dahl and homemade sour dough naans, to pie, mash and gravy. We have a daily specials menu where we like to have fun, I love to work with the seasons and we are really lucky in Scotland to get some of the best produce going - it makes it quite easy to be creative when you have great stuff to work with.
What do you like about The Staff Canteen app and website?
It’s an amazing stage to promote and showcase what you do. It’s also great for inspiration and keeping up to date with what’s going on in the industry. It’s made me up my game and experiment a bit more presentation wise as well.
In the time that I’ve been using the Chef Plus app, I’ve been in contact with and met some really amazing chefs. That would have never come about if it wasn’t for The Staff Canteen, online and at their live events.
What is your favourite dish to cook?
I love to cook fresh fish! I get real satisfaction out of a perfectly pan-roasted bit of cod or hake. That being said, we have a pork belly dish on which I’m enjoying at the moment. It’s really simple but has a couple of elements that have taken a bit of work to get right. With rolled charred leeks and the best pork skin crackers ever, it’s a joy to plate and all tastes amazing.
No. 1 The Grange
Guilty pleasure: list food item / dish / ingredient that aren’t considered ‘cheffy’ but you love to eat
It’s pretty old school but I like to have chopped curly parsley on my section. I like to finish my vegetables and some sauces with it as well as garnish, on occasion. I get a hard time for how old fashioned it is, but I just like it! …. Also, I eat too many chips.
What are your plans for the future?
My wife and children are vegan so I would quite like to do a real sustainable vegan pub/hotel down the line. In the meantime, I’d just like to keep producing lovely plates of food that people enjoy. I’d love to win some local awards at No1 the Grange. An AA Rosette is the real aim at some point, but for now, we’ll keep upping our game and pushing ourselves as far as we can.
Do you want to be the next Member of the Month? Download the app now for free and start sharing your images, videos and recipes and interacting with other members to be in with a chance of winning!
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