through these terms we indulge and express the principles of gastronomy, the relationships between food and culture, embracing regionality and simple good eating that nurtures. Let us celebrate the values of food and drink customs and rituals.
SNEAP and RUTABAGA are conceptions of hospitality experience, involvement & participation, with a solid ethos of inclusion, collaboration & community. Always striving to support local and embrace local cultural values, through the mediums of food, drink & cordiality.
Something of, from or relating to Scotland.
In accordance with affordability and freshness, the time of year in which a harvest or flavour of a particular food is at its peak.
Built on principles that further the ecological and socio-economic values of a community and region, and in turn enhancing a community’s environmental, economic and social well-being.
Food that is produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions, typically using high-quality locally sourced ingredients.
An ideal focused towards creating a society where resources are valued and nothing is wasted.
As Chefs’ we are lucky. Lucky to make a living from a commodity that is a basic need for our existence. Now more than ever, it is our duty to engage ourselves towards extending our thoughts, to include the notion that food is indispensable. If we continue to ignore the excessive and the extravagant consumption of food, the economical will become the uneconomical.
While accepting that food is controlled by the demands of the market, we must recognise that we are the market. We must also recognise that biodiversity helps to sustain life of all sorts and species. Our ethos around biodiversity respects seasonality and regionality, it is these principles that provide a natural support strategy to sustain our environment, community and culture, therefore, theoretically controlling the market.
It is no secret that food tastes better when it grows organically and consumed when it is in season. It is also no secret that taste, smell and sensory awareness evoke memories and experiences. Be exited to look forward to seasonal eating and old world traditions….In Scotland we may think…..when the spring onions sprout, when the new “tatties” come through, when the small window of the hazy days of summer gives us asparagus.
Warmth brings berries and bounty, wild garlic and flowering herbs. Autumn turns its attention to game birds, mushroom foraging, stocking up the larder with jam and pickles, winter brings us the opportunity to sit by the open fire and have a dram. In every country and region around the world this changes, with climate, with culture and with tradition, and not least with accessibility.
Give us the perfect platform to shout “Scottish (insert nation/ region as applicable!), Seasonal, Sustainable, Slow and Zero Waste”.
Eat Local
Eat Seasonal
Eat Sustainable
Eat Slow
Practice Zero Waste
With a lifelong passion for locally sourced produce and products, a founding committee member of the Slow Food Aberdeen City and Shire Symposium, the One Seed Forward project and wider community.
Coming soon… a recent project in my native Ness, now returning to a crofthouse on the Isle of Lewis thewhitehouselewis.co.uk. A property recently made famous in the Peter May Lewis Trilogy as Fin’s Aunt’s House in fictional “Crobost”.
Having trained and worked in Aberdeen for over twenty years, now “Popping Up” with SNEAP’s message of Seasonal, Sustainable, Scottish, Slow Food with Zero Waste all over Scotland with a range of events, projects, training, development and consultancy. Some recent projects include a Harris and Lewis Smokehouse Restaurant and Vovem Meat & Liquor with an underlying SNEAP ethos.
As RUTABAGA creating Sommelier, Whisky Ambassador Packages and lists with Wholesale Wines, Craft Beers and Spirits. Now offering an online non contact door step delivery service in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and potentially beyond. A recent conception during these extraordinary times a Virtual Wine Club, which can also include Whisky, Gin and even Mezcal!
When time allows you can find me at my allotment share @plot20project, enjoying some fine produce, whisky and wine, sometimes all together!
SNEAP & RUTABAGA are in my DNA
As a proud native of Aberdeen and Scotland, I see promoting local as promoting my identity. To do that we require good agreements, on which all markets depend. The motto of our city ‘Bon Accord’ has taught me just that, and I see it as the product of procuring needs; food, water and shelter.
It is truly a pleasure, through out my continuing career as a chef, to have worked and continued to work, associate and socialise with some of the best produce, producers and colleagues on our island(s). I believe everything is a collective effort from the farm to the table, and always endeavour to let the product do the talking for itself, Think of me as a person that puts things together.
An eternal student of the craft of the culinary arts, food and drink, cultures, rituals & social science……and an advocate of the Slow Food movement.
Where it comes from? How it gets here? Where it goes?
I know more than some and less than others.
Craig, Food Director SNEAP.
