Ranald Macdonald- Boisdale Founder

I’ve always been interested in food. I always cooked at home and hung around my mother in the kitchen as a child.

When I used to go sailing, I always dealt with everything to do with food and snacks. I ended up paying for myself to go through university by working in a restaurant, first washing up and then in a kitchen. I never thought that I was going to have a career there, but then I got into the wine business and from there into a restaurant.

My first restaurant was Boisdale, which I opened in 1988. We’re a Scottish restaurant and source many of our ingredients from Scotland, where possible, and particularly from the West Highlands and Islands. Boisdale itself is a port on the southern tip of the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, and we get a lot of our langoustine, crab, scallops, lobster, mushrooms and salmon from the island.

Sourcing food in this way is something we’ve been doing for 20-odd years. We used to buy our beef from Highland farms before we started getting through too much for them, so we now buy our beef from Aberdeenshire, all properly dry-aged. Everybody’s making quite a big thing about beef at the moment, but we’ve always done it the right way. We’re pretty eclectic, but most of what we do is cooking good ingredients fairly simply. We don’t do anything extraordinary, but I don’t think anything’s sacred – it’s fun to do different things. As it happens, this focus on sourcing, provenance and seasonality is currently very fashionable.

Personally, I think the greatest enemies of food are also the greatest purveyors of food and the people who brought food to a much wider market: the supermarkets. The supermarkets provide this magnificent opportunity for people to try a different product, but at the same time, they end up controlling what we eat. More importantly, they also control the price at which farmers are able to make a living or not make a living.

I think the problem of the supermarket is a fascinating element in how we buy and consume food today. For example, 15 per cent of the money spent on the high street is spent at Tesco. The supermarkets buy ruthlessly and they squeeze profit margins all the time.

On the other hand, there is an increasing opportunity for the public to bypass the supermarkets by buying direct from producers. While some of them are more real than others, the farmers’ markets and farmers’ shops are giving a great opportunity to buy more direct and cut out the middleman or the supermarket.

If you’re online, you can have everything delivered in the post. There’s no harm in it, either. Despite what some people would have you believe, human beings did exist before refrigeration, and there’s no danger to health from sending food out in this way. Hopefully it won’t be attacked by anyone, be it the big supermarkets or some government department, trying to make it illegal.

(That kind of interference wouldn’t surprise me, though. I do think there are too many rules and regulations about everything. For me, the public sector thinks very differently from the private sector. These rules and regulations help to keep them people in the public sector employed.)

I think maybe the greatest opportunity is connecting the actual producers direct with the public, which could open up to fascinating possibilities in terms of variety and price. For example, if we could relax some of our onerous abattoir laws that would enable farmers to go really ‘boutique’.

Another area where there is room for innovation is in frozen produce. Consumers haven’t fully understood that if products are frozen very well and then defrosted correctly, like fish in water in the fridge, you have a very good product. I doubt many farm shops in England have the ability to blast-freeze, but it is a process that hardly alters the food. It could open up another range of products that farm shops could sell directly to the public.

I think inevitably as people get more education, they will cook more at home and consume less processed food. People say that they don’t have time, but there’s only so much you can do in your leisure time. Instead of worrying about convenience, we should see that cooking is a pleasure, it tastes better and it’s cheaper. Cooking a meal from scratch really doesn’t take a lot of time. When I walk into my kitchen, the first thing I do is put on a pan of water and in the time it takes to boil, I take out and prepare the ingredients. I can easily cook for 4-6 people in no time – and very cheaply. I think people will, in time, learn how much fun cooking is. A good meal shouldn’t cost more than £2 a head and it’s very easy to create good food for less than £2.

In general, I think we’re paying far too much for our food. I can see how much I pay for ingredients and what the public is paying and the mark-ups charged by the supermarkets are huge. That’s not a problem that can be solved easily, but maybe consumers going direct to producers is part of the answer.

Dear Zoe,

 

I just wanted to drop you a quick email to say thank you very much for the organisation of the Ralph Lauren dinner on Saturday night.Everyone had nothing but praise, especially for the food, and our guests were thoroughly entertained by a wonderful whiskey tasting.

Thanks again.

 Kind regards,

Antonia (POLO RALPH LAUREN)

Making a lasting impression on clientele is crucial to every business. Many businesses simply do not have the facilities available to host gatherings of important clients. A first impression can be critical to the success of a business venture. Without doubt, one of the most efficient ways to take that step above and beyond for any business is to utilize a private dining room at a local restaurant. While a business person might have the flair and style necessary to make the gathering a success in another venue such as the company lunch room or a board room, the time and expense to create the atmosphere that accompanies the intimate setting of a private dining room is hard to capture in a corporate environment. Many successful business moguls have long standing relationships with favorite local eateries and regularly conduct significant meetings in the tranquil settings available through private dining areas in area restaurants. Establishing a rapport with the owner or manager of the restaurant is essential to being given such perks as favored seating, special menus available only to a particular party of guests, the latest culinary creations of the chef and other unique touches that make private dining rooms particularly attractive to anyone conducting a business conference.

A private dining area offers many options to a firm, whether it is a small business entrepreneur, large conglomerate, or a multinational corporation. The ambiance of a private dining room can vary from restaurant to restaurant and different settings can be utilized for different functions. The creative business owner could utilize one type location for signing important contracts, such as a very formal setting that impresses upon the participants the magnitude of the event. Yet the same business owner could take another customer to a very different atmosphere where they could be very relaxed during a critical negotiation. The same owner might even operate within the same restaurant if they have formal and informal settings in different private areas. Either option presents a degree of intimacy and atmosphere that a corporate environment simply cannot provide.

Simple economics dictate that a business simply cannot create the many moods necessary to function properly throughout negotiations, training, contract signing and other business functions in the manner that a restaurant can provide with a private dining room. The expense of creating that environment as well as the time necessary is a huge obstacle to most businesses. A simple phone call to a restaurant with a private room to make a reservation is an economical solution. Many local restaurants provide unlimited access to venues the boardroom or lunchroom would never be able to emulate. The impression created by the restaurant is carefully thought out and executed with their private dining areas being a focus point. That time, effort and expense by the eatery allows the business person to create an instant mood with no effort or expense on their own part.

Many restaurants will offer their private dining areas to businesses at no expense for training functions for their employees as well. A simple catered lunch in a relaxed environment allows the employer the ability to focus on the task at hand rather than who will pick up lunch, how will they get lunch into the boardroom, who will clean up afterward, what type of lunch can be served without worry of spills on important documents and other problems that a private dining area in a restaurant with services available for all these situations alleviates. Private dining areas provide an opportunity to create an impression that every business should take advantage of.

Jazz music has a rich history full of artistic talent. The genre achieved many musical milestones and produced many phenomenal musicians in a relatively short period. From the very beginning, jazz was a groundbreaking art, one that opened doors for countless performers and composers.

Jazz music began soon after the Civil War, when, newly freed slaves in search of employment found little work available besides low-brow entertainment. Ragtime, the earliest form of jazz, was created by black musicians who were earning their rent by playing the piano in bars and vaudeville performances.

The fusion of traditional music from New Orleans with ragtime music spawned a brand new style that would remain popular in the southern states for decades: Dixie Jazz. In fact, the first known music recording of a jazz band was created in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

Although the Dixieland style of jazz music was popular down south, jazz music did not really take hold in the rest of the United States until prohibition laws of the 1920’s ushered in the famed “Jazz Age,” a true milestone in jazz history. Jazz music was most commonly listened to in the illegal speakeasies, which is why older Americans condemned it as “immoral.” During this time, however, jazz music dominated the younger scene. It was no longer only for African Americans-a large number of white musicians began to experiement with the unique rhythms and chord structure and soon, mixed race and all-white jazz ensembles began to form, bringing a little more diversity into the genre.

In the 1930s, Swing Music became the most popular type of jazz. Young couples requested songs played by popular big bands over and over again because they were perfect for carefree dancing. But by the end of the 1930’s, Dixieland music was seeing a revival. Critics largely ignored this style of jazz, but it Dixieland records continued to earn record companies huge profits all the way through the 1960’s.

The Dixieland revival helped transition live jazz music from the big band dance music of the Depression era to more artistic, but less commercially popular styles such as Bebop and Cool Jazz. Cool Jazz was distinctly different from former styles of jazz-it intentionally made use of extended melodic lines that seemed to flow together. It is the style of music that today is often labeled as “elevator music.” The style would go on to influence other types of jazz, such as bossa nova, modal jazz and other jazz styles that emerged in the 1970’s and beyond.

Unfortunately, jazz lost its place as the center of pop culture during the 1950s and 1960s. This is when early rock music emerged and was embraced by younger generations as the new music of rebellion. Jazz was, for the most part, left for the older generation. Fortunately, as many of this influential generation of jazz musicians dies out, there are newer, more experimental jazz musicians on the scene. Many of these musicians are attempting to bring jazz back into the mainstream by combining the older styles of bebop and fusion with more contemporary types of music.

Dear Zoe,

Boisdale bowled them over thank you both so much. John already loved it but his sister and her American partner could not get over it. The boys even did the whole cigar and single malt thing.
Thanks to you both and hope to see you soon.

Cheers
Helen

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Helen Peters       Â
Senior Tourism Manager UK & Ireland

Dear Ranald,
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Re : Reuben Richards Soul Train & Band
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Some friends and I were recently at Boisdale Belgravia, where we enjoyed fantastic attentive service and a truly excellent meal, however I am really writing to you to let you know just how much we enjoyed the incredible vocals and performance of Reuben Richards and his Band.
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I am extremely fortunate in that I have lived a very nomadic life and have seen a huge variety of bands and vocalists throughout my travels, but I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed a performance as much as this one ! The band was so amazing, and Reuben was such a magnetic and dynamic performer that we did quite literally find it difficult to sit still throughout our three course meal. In fact we did  have to frequently abandon our table to join in with our many dancing fellow diners on the dance floor.Â
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It was quite clear that everyone was having a phenomenal time and I think that I can speak for all of your guests when I say that we would all be absolutely delighted to see in New Years Eve 2009 in the fine company of Reuben and his musicians. I can personally guarantee a table of at least 20 friends who would gladly follow Reuben to whichever venue is lucky enough to have booked him for New Years Eve !
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I do hope that this request reaches you and would like to compliment you on your fabulous establishment, we will certainly be regulars, particularly on Friday nights when Reuben and his Soul Train are in the house. It seems one of life’s little travesties, that people are so quick to complain and so slow to praise, which is exactly why I felt that I had to write to you and sing the praises of this great man and his fellow performers.
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Best regards and many thanks,
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Ms. Kerry Muhle