Cookie Catering Launches!  Cookie has joined forces with John Shields the award winning chef to give Cookie Catering real flavour, passion and the professional ability to deliver.

John has been catering for many years for the private jets that go through Glasgow Airport. Whether it be for Bruce Springsteen, Prince or a Captain of industry his culinary output needs to be on time and of the highest quality. This kind of work keeps him on his toes and makes him flexible. Qualities we were looking for in developing a new Catering business. We share a common interest for great Scottish products and a desire to make food tell its story.

Cookie now has the dimension to cater for large events with a dedicated team under John’s command. The culinary quality and interest that Cookie has brought to the Southside is now on the road and ready to be brought to you.

The strength of our cuisine is based on the quality ingredients that we use, whether these be from Scotland or Italy. Unpretentious classic British food meets Europe with a twist.

We are constrained by space at Cookie and our link up with John and his team gives us a whole new dimension. We are working with an already proven Head Chef and Caterer which means we enter this business with eyes wide open and a strong knowledge base.

John began his career as a chef at The Buttery. During his time at the Townhouse Hotel he gained two AA rosette awards for its outstanding cuisine. He then moved East to further develop his culinary expertise at the Michelin Bib accredited Pompadour restaurant in the Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh. John was nominated in 2009 for New Restaurant Chef of the Year.

Cookie Catering tel 0141 423 1411

Thanks to everyone who has helped make Cookie become….”More than just a café”

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

Cookie..”On Glasgow’s Southside has been shaking up the local eating scene all year with good food, unusual events, a few provocative stunts and huge amounts of energy”

It is a learning curve but we are going to keep going and will revisit some of our ideas from 2010 to make them even better.

Watch out for the all new Cooking Club on Sunday evenings
Live music
Promotion of great Scottish produce in season
Cooking Classes for the next generation
Grow for us and barter with us
Chef Wars

We are always looking for ideas and people who would like to help make Cookie a great resource for its community.

if you are interested in helping email us on info@cookiescotland.com

We are organising our Christmas supply of wines, cheeses, shipping our new olive oil and bringing in pulses and cereals for the New Year. All these will be in just in time for Christmas.

I’m just off the phone one of our suppliers Franco Santucci. Franco is the manager for Le Poggette, one of our wine suppliers. He is also the commissionaire for agriculture in this part of Italy. He helps me source some of the greatest products from this part of Italy.

This year Franco picked up for the second time The Veronelli Prize for the best wine in Category with their Torre Maggiore. That is like winning an Oscar in the wine business of Italy. It is a Montepulciano grape which they have turned into an amazing experience.

We will also bring in their Colli Amerino which is based on the central Italian grape Sangiovese and the third wine we stock from Franco is Canaiolo, a less well know grape but you will probably have drunk it in the blend of a good Chianti.

http://www.fattorialepoggette.it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaiolo

Our House wine has from day one developed a big following. It is by Alessandro at Sandonna. It is simply great drinking red, the perfect “vino rosso”. One of the reasons this has been so successful is the fact that it is unfiltered. It is an honest farm wine, created by someone who is skilled in modern for winemaking techniques. This gives you a taste that is almost lost today’s offer of low and mid range wines which are more than not doctored in one way or another. Here is something truly natural and of quality.

The wine business is tough and Alessandro like many people in this industry need a second job to keep the show on the road.  So when he is not in the cantina or the field he works for the National Railways. We are the first people to have exported his wines, helping him to deal with customs arrangements and transportation documentation. He has rebottled his Merlot under the name Selve di Giove and we import from him another less well know grape Ciliegiolo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciliegiolo

Lentils are eaten in Italy at New year as a symbol of prosperity
http://www.bettinibio.com/

Have you ever had lentils and sausage at Cookie? Or tried our farro soup.
Umbria has a long history of pulses and cereals. We import these from the Bettini farm who are certified organic producers.

From here we import ancient grains like Farro (spelt) and the famous lentils from Castelluccio “lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia IGP” which compete on the world stage with the green lentils from le Puy en Velay

We want to here from you! let us know your thoughts, share your recipes, comment on our blog. We will run a monthly prize draw with dinner for two for the best comments.  So get blogging, only 11 days left in May.

Chef war kicks off at the end of the month on Sunday 30th. Book now to avoid missing out on a great night of food and fun all compared by our special guest MC. 3 mains, 3 puddings and 3 chefs fight it out.

Fresh Pasta making kicks off on Tuesday mornings. Come and see how it is done. from 10-11.30 every Tuesday morning at Cookie. …read more…

Cookie now holds the veg bags for the Southside Foodshare. We also have a selection of Organic veg for sale on our new stand. Join the Foodshare and find the benefits of fresh organic produce at a fair price.