Public Holiday but not for the Restaurant Business....

Highland Cattle - yeh they look cute but by goodness they taste even better. (Sorry Coo)

Yes two whole days off. The1st and the 2nd then bang! The 3rd January it's back into the frey.
Closing Howies for 2 days sounds like heaven but in reality it means the second the doors open again we all hit the ground running.
Phone messages, emails and texts for bookings are taken as deliveries start piling in from 10am sharp.
We have no freezers in Howies so we get deliveries every day except Sunday and if we've been shut for a couple of days that means we start from scratch again. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes yes of course this adds pressure on the chefs but vitally it gives us the ability to be seasonal and change the menu every day. Yes we have our stalwart favourites but at this time of year in Scotland there is a plethora of game available.  Lordy it's tasty stuff. Venison, pheasant, rabbit, hare, partridge and the like gathered from the Glens and cooked fresh. Wonderful. This January we have a great supply of Scottish pheasants so there are lots of tweaking on  a variety of pheasant recipes  to decide which ones cut the mustard and are on the list.

So as you read this the chefs are getting all their delicious ingredients together and preparing for the cook off. Yeah!

This is a joy.

The head chef cooks everything on the menu. Every starter, every main course and every pud and then we all get together to taste and give feedback as to what's good, great and an absolute beezer.

There are 3 Howies Restaurants but we are not a formulaic set up on any level so the chefs design their own menus and with tasting, testing and talking we end up with 3 cracking and unique menus.
Head chef at Howies Victoria Street is Chris.....Waterloo Place is Stevie and in Aberdeen we have a new head chef starting on the 6th....more of which later....

I intend to try everything. EVERYTHING. Of course there will be salad on the menu this month - well there has to be for me or I may combust.

Menu highlights here in next post....but right now....I'm off to pluck a pheasant......please fill in your own joke here........oh and here are some highland coos in action on the Isle of Mull on the West Coast - cute !