Foraging for girolles and wild raspberries with Andrew Fairlie

Andrew Fairlie takes time out to pick amazing girolles and wild raspberries close to Gleneagles. Back in the kitchen he and head chef Stevie McLaughlin conjure a couple of dishes worthy of the wild harvest.

There was something about Andrew Fairlie's restaurant at Gleneagles that made me want to return for a second helping. Whilst I was there I learnt that Andrew has a brother, Jim, who is a shepherd and who has supplied him with lamb since he first arrived at Gleneagles ten years ago. I thought it would be great to go and see Jim at work with his sheep and follow a lamb dish on the menu from start to finish.

Andrew Fairlie is a chef who takes all aspects of his cooking very seriously and that includes the origins of his ingredients and the methods he employs to finish them in the kitchen. So, whilst back at Gleneagles, I followed Andrew on a hunt for some girolles, ceps and wild raspberries. This was fascinating as were the results. Simple ingredients used in a very modern way as you can see in the foraging film.

However, the lamb dish took a different direction making use of modern technology like the water bath to pre-cook the loin and the addition of kombu (Japanese seaweed) in the slow braising of the shoulder. Both these methods were unheard of a few years ago but today are common place in top kitchens.

What makes Andrew Fairlie such an interesting chef to follow and learn from is the way he approaches the ingredients he uses. He is not afraid of technological advances like the water bath – a subject he has studied intricately for the last three years to the degree where he has strict temperatures now for specific ingredients like lamb loin. But also he is not afraid to leave an ingredient alone as he did with wild raspberries preferring to just serve them on their own with a little basil sorbet.

The girolles were served as a veloute with a soft poached egg with the best looking smaller girolles sauteed and served alongside. The ceps were sliced and served pan fried with turbot as a special for a lucky customer who just happened to be in the right place at the right time for the first of the season.

This film shows the modernism and tradition at work in one of the best restaurants in the UK. Food at the moment in restaurants is going two ways – backwards to the point where ingredients are left to shine on their own and at the same time others are manipulated by technology to achieve something completely different.

There aere few chefs who have the ability to judge which ingredients need which treatment. Andrew Fairlie is one of them.