00:00Good morning from sunny Glasgow. We're in Glashahoo, I think I said that right.
00:06It's the landmark restaurant in Royal Exchange Square and I'm sitting here with Brian Mull.
00:13Brian, good morning. How are you doing?
00:14Nice to see you.
00:14Nice to see you.
00:17You are doing a special event here. You've already had one of these dinners.
00:23Tell me a bit about the reaction to the first dinner.
00:26Yeah, I mean obviously we did one in May, well two in May, similar to what we're doing next month.
00:34Two nights, Wednesday and Thursday night. So both nights were full, the last one, and I believe we're full again.
00:42So no, it's all good.
00:44And have you got planned for the second one?
00:47Very similar event, matching obviously champagne and arrival and then matching wines to go with the meal.
00:56I'll come out and discuss the menu and we'll have an author who will discuss the wines of why we've matched.
01:04I've actually got the tasting tomorrow. So we'll match the wines tomorrow.
01:10You were one of the chefs who were responsible for making people look at Glasgow food in a different way through the fine dining element,
01:21but also a lot of the chefs that came through your kitchen went on to kind of do their own thing and bring an added energy to Glasgow.
01:28When you look at Glasgow now, how do you think it's going to change since you returned from your time in London?
01:34Yeah, it's changed massively. I mean, obviously I'm back. I mean, we had the restaurant for 22 years.
01:41As you said a minute ago there, there's a lot of the boys who have came through me,
01:45whether they're in Glasgow or went elsewhere, all been successful, which is great to see.
01:52It's a great compliment to myself that, you know, they've listened to what was getting put in front of them,
02:01not just on a work element, but a management and a discipline level, which they've took on board.
02:08And obviously they're doing it on their own now. So that's good.
02:12And in terms of how you think people look at Glasgow now, the food scene, all the different cuisines.
02:17I mean, what was the first big restaurant that you remember coming to in Glasgow when you were growing up?
02:24Obviously Regano. I mean, I'm not from Glasgow, I'm Ayrshire.
02:28So coming to Glasgow was a day out back then because the trains and et cetera weren't the best to get here at the time.
02:37So when I left home, when I left home at 18, so coming back, I was, you know, mid-30s really, coming back to reality.
02:44So when I came back, obviously Regano was still big at the time, when I first came back.
02:51But I didn't really know anybody in Glasgow.
02:53So when we came back after I'd been away for so long, it was really just focusing on bringing quality and raising Glasgow.
03:05Not just trying them all, it was, you know, it was about bringing Glasgow to the map really and raising the name and the city.
03:13And it's not as rough a city as what everybody had always said in, you know, in those years.
03:20But I think now, as you said there, it's important that we have a lot of different cuisines.
03:28And we have casual, you know, a lot more fine dining.
03:32You know, I never really looked at myself as fine dining.
03:36It was more bringing a professional attitude, the professional cuisine.
03:41But I laid back, you know, atmosphere in the room, but making sure that the customers are looked after.
03:48Yeah.
03:49I know one of the things that you enjoyed as a chef in the kitchen was, you know, like getting really good produce and then be able to do something with it.
03:56I mean, I think it's still important to get, you know, the best produce.
04:00But obviously, you know, things are getting hard on the prices.
04:04You know, as we spoke about off camera there a second ago, you know, the price of beef, etc. is going through the roof.
04:11And it's not just beef, it's, you know, fruit, veg, fish.
04:18You know, we're surrounded with water and we're paying more for fish here than, you know, the continent.
04:23And it's, you know, Brexit's not been a great thing, especially for our industry.
04:29Yeah.
04:29You know, we can't grow fruit here.
04:32We don't have the weather.
04:33So, you know, we're having to buy for salads and, you know, we're fruit, etc. still from European markets.
04:41So, there is a, it's getting tighter and tighter on, you know, being able to make money on food.
04:50Yeah.
04:50You know, it's.
04:51Talking of Europe, did you not, as a young lad from Russia, did you not take off to France?
04:58France, yeah.
04:59I lived in France for a year and a half at the age of 19.
05:03Went there.
05:04So, it was myself and.
05:06What was that like in terms of like a.
05:08Myself and two friends left.
05:10We had, we never had a job.
05:12We just, we put money in an envelope.
05:14Three of us and then chapped doors.
05:17And fortunately, we all got into like the best three restaurants in Leone at the time.
05:21Which was mind blowing at the time.
05:24But obviously then it was six day week.
05:26It was a six day working week, which is hard enough when you're doing, you know, a normal
05:33eight hour day, but when you're doing 15, 16 hour days, it's a telling.
05:39But it's, it's what we went to do.
05:43And, you know, we wanted to learn.
05:45I wanted to learn to live and eat like a French, you know, the way the French do and give me
05:51a better understanding of their culture and why, you know, they, they were streets ahead
05:58on food and wine and probably still are to a degree.
06:01One of the interesting things over the last 10 years when I've been writing about Glasgow
06:07food and drink is you meet a lot of chefs that, they've come back to Glasgow, they go
06:11to London or they go to Southeast Asia or they go to America and they, you know, like
06:17they work hard and they earn their stripes and then they come back and they bring something
06:21really interesting to the city.
06:22Do you think that that's like one of the reasons why Glasgow's food scene has kind of developed?
06:27I think that, I think that's a massive importance to any individual, because no matter what industry
06:33you're in, I think it's important that you go away and find who you are as a person, as
06:38an individual, make your own mistakes in life, whether it's your work life or your personal
06:45life, I think that's important.
06:47And bringing that experience back to the city is massive.
06:51So, there is, you're always going to have an element of guys who are girls who are happy
06:58to stay here and work around all the places.
07:03But, you know, in the past, a lot of them were all doing the same thing, whereas now there's
07:08a big wide scope of different food, different cultures.
07:13And that, bringing that experience back with them is important.
07:16An odd thing happened last year, despite the challenges for hospitality in particular,
07:24the amount of independent places that were opening, particularly around the city centre,
07:29and it went up by about a third.
07:31Part of that's bounced back after everything we've been through over the last five years,
07:35but, you know, the fact that there's still independent places like this that only exist
07:40in Glasgow, that's important to a city, right?
07:43That you've got your own places and you've got your own people.
07:46Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, everybody's different in what they want out of their career.
07:51I always wanted to have my own place at the time.
07:55And I think that is massive.
07:56And I think, you know, bringing it to the city, individuality, you know, they're all doing
08:01their own thing, what they believe is right.
08:04Because there's no right, there's no wrong in how you look after somebody.
08:07And as long as we're getting, you know, as people are paying money, they want and looked
08:11after, as we spoke about, and they want and looked after, they want to come out, relax,
08:17you know, enjoy the food, enjoy their wine, and go home.
08:20And I think it's, you know, it doesn't matter who you are.
08:23It's important that, especially now, it's not cheap to eat out, you know, even if it's
08:28just a bowl of soup and a sandwich and a pint, it's, you know, it's not cheap anymore.
08:32And you've got to make sure that everybody's getting value for money.
08:37Yeah.
08:37What's your, when you're putting together a menu, what's your kind of ingredient essentials?
08:42What's your kind of primal staple to things that you need?
08:45I mean, obviously, when we're doing, when I do the dinners, when we did the dinners,
08:49Chardon d'Or, it was all about season.
08:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:52Season, and I was fortunate that I worked with a lot of chateaus from all over the world
09:00who were coming, so a lot of the dinners we had, we had the winemaker coming to do the
09:05actual dinner, so it was important to me that we were showcasing their wine, their individuality,
09:14their chateau, their history, their story, because it was the majority a family.
09:20And so that was important to me, and bringing the food to match their wine.
09:25And it was interesting once, you know, when you do the tasting, and you're doing the menus.
09:33But it's important that you're doing it in season.
09:36You know, you're changing the dinners to seasonal.
09:39I mean, obviously, at the moment, we're getting nice weather.
09:41Yesterday was rubbish, but we just don't know.
09:44So, but in general, we're obviously in summer, you know, we're going into kind of autumn in October
09:52when we're doing the dinner, really, so it's more getting a balance of as much local produce
09:59as we possibly can, and raising the flavours, et cetera, to match the wine that's, you know,
10:07what we have on the evening.
10:08Yeah.
10:09What are your, when you're out and about in Glasgow, what are the kind of areas that you
10:14most value, that are most personal to you, that you end up hanging about in?
10:19What's Brian Mulg's bits of Glasgow?
10:20To be honest with you, I don't really socialise in the town.
10:24You know, at the restaurant for 22 years, I drive in and drive home, always at the car.
10:29So, you know, unless we're going, it was work.
10:34I mean, obviously, we like Indians, so we like to Mr. Singh's.
10:37We go to Mr. Singh's.
10:38Satie's a good friend.
10:40We like Ho Wong.
10:41But then we'll try whatever's new or whatever in the city, when we are in the city.
10:49Like Sir Margo, we were at Margo, my wife's birthday not long ago.
10:54So with us both working again, it's hard to actually get time, you know, together again
11:01to be able to go out and enjoy.
11:04There's some good cracking bits, though, if you do get the time.
11:08Brian, it's great to see you.
11:09And, yeah, best of luck with it all.
11:11You too.
11:11Thanks very much.
11:12All right.
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