15/01/2007

Two Scottish hotels will be among the first in the UK to offer an only local and homegrown menu.

The Malmasion group, which has hotels in Leith and Glasgow’s West George Street, is about to become the first hotel chain in the UK to offer only local food in a new table d'hote menu. The new menus will then be rolled out across the chain on Thursday.

The Edinburgh menu will offer sausages and bacon from Crombies, locally caught fish from George Campbell & Sons and game from Braehead Foods while the Glasgow menu will feature smoked produce from Marrbury Smokery, fish from Andy Bell at The Fish People and beef from Ormsary Farms. Head chefs at the chain’s other hotels will create their own individual regional menus, which will feature the name and contact details of each supplier.

Although the sourcing policy is likely to be costly for the chain, the menu will remain one of their cheapest for diners at £12.50 for two courses.

Keith Shearer, group executive chef for Malmaison, told allfoodscotland.com: “I don’t come to work to be average – I want to be proud of what I’m doing. There’s been a real revolution in the demand for fully traceable and locally-sourced food and this menu will answer that demand. Though it’s a new concept for diners it won’t make a lot of difference operationally as local sourcing comes as second nature to our chefs – we’ve just not been shouting about it. We’ve always taken food very seriously here and it’s not a gimmick. We want to be quality not price driven and help build relationships with producers.”