It’s Spam Appreciation Week. Yes, it actually exists! In the days before Spam was a term for annoying emails, it was more synonymous as a brand name for canned cooked meat. Keeping the troops marching through the Second World War, Spam (or to give its correct styling, SPAM), was a name everyone knew.

It may only be the start of the 2018 Chinese New Year (the year of the dog) but here in the SK development kitchen, we’re already planning for 2019 – the year of the pig. You will be very pleased to know that we are skipping ahead this year and providing a pork-based recipe. Dog […]

A friend of mine, Nick Grieves, runs The Patricia, a small 25-seat restaurant located off the beaten track in Jesmond, Newcastle. During the recent Newcastle Restaurant Week, I took Chef Sean, and our partners, to eat there. The space is dark with low lighting, lots of candles and very atmospheric. A quiet spot where the food […]

Next Thursday, Scotland will celebrate Burns Night and a large proportion of the population will sit down to a Burns Night supper to celebrate the birth of the country’s favourite poet, Robert (Rabbie) Burns. Given our propensity to piggyback on other country’s celebrations (I give you St Patrick’s Day as the perfect example) no doubt […]

The organisers of Veganuary were very clever when they set up this awareness month a few years ago. Granted, the only other option, if it was about fitting in with the name of the month, was to have it in February (Veganuly just doesn’t right does it?) but January really is the perfect time. After […]

No doubt, even though Christmas is a still a few days away, many of you will have already sat down to eat a Christmas lunch. Whether it was a work’s party or just a trip to the pub, you may already be sick of the sight of turkey, roast potatoes and brussel sprouts, although if […]

Christmas is just over a week away so we’re once again including sprouts in our recipe. This one uses these little small green gems (we will wear you down until you love them as much as we do) in an Asian style salad served with pork belly. It is an ideal dish to make after […]

Sprouts have traditionally been the most controversial element of Christmas dinner, but I am pleased to see that they are finally shaking off their totally undeserved reputation. Not only is one supermarket selling a festive wreath adorned with real sprouts, yes you heard me correctly, stores are also reporting a boom in the sale of […]

As were are creatures of habit (with a little bit of OCD thrown in) we like to blog on Fridays, so this comes 24 hours after St Andrew’s Day, but I am sure when you see the recipe you will forgive us. Scottish food often comes in for a bit of stick, mainly because if […]