- 7 weeks ago
It's that time of year again when we head to the world-famous Edinburgh festivals to sample some of what's available for locals and visitors alike. The festivals are back with a bang this year - Edinburgh is absolutely jam-packed with people and performers.
Producer Kelly and Rosalind brave the busy streets - starting the day with an Eating Edinburgh: Fringe Festival Food Tour. Luana Scott-Moncreif, their tour guide brings them to different restaurants and shops in the city, learning more about the fringe and catching some street performances on the way as they eat their way around Edinburgh.
Their next stop was the Edinburgh Gin Distillery for Ready, Steady, Cocktail - yes, it is exactly what it sounds like - that famous show, reincarnated but with Edinburgh Gin-based cocktails. You'll hear Gordon Dundas who hosts the show and Rosalind speaking to Sarah Prior, Brand Homes Head of Sales and Marketing for Edinburgh Gin Distillery who tells her all about the show and the new distillery.
Finally the team went along to see Emmy award-nominated Cory Cavin's 'Enjoy your meal' - a one man show which portrays a somewhat fraught evening in the life of chef Wayne Swingle.
You'll hear some of the show as well as a chat Rosalind had with him online the next morning.
If you do get to go to enjoy the festivals we hope you have a great time and enjoy some quality scran!
Producer Kelly and Rosalind brave the busy streets - starting the day with an Eating Edinburgh: Fringe Festival Food Tour. Luana Scott-Moncreif, their tour guide brings them to different restaurants and shops in the city, learning more about the fringe and catching some street performances on the way as they eat their way around Edinburgh.
Their next stop was the Edinburgh Gin Distillery for Ready, Steady, Cocktail - yes, it is exactly what it sounds like - that famous show, reincarnated but with Edinburgh Gin-based cocktails. You'll hear Gordon Dundas who hosts the show and Rosalind speaking to Sarah Prior, Brand Homes Head of Sales and Marketing for Edinburgh Gin Distillery who tells her all about the show and the new distillery.
Finally the team went along to see Emmy award-nominated Cory Cavin's 'Enjoy your meal' - a one man show which portrays a somewhat fraught evening in the life of chef Wayne Swingle.
You'll hear some of the show as well as a chat Rosalind had with him online the next morning.
If you do get to go to enjoy the festivals we hope you have a great time and enjoy some quality scran!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Scran. It's that time of the year again when we head to the world-famous
00:12Edinburgh festivals to sample some of what's available for locals and visitors alike. And
00:18my, are the festivals back with a bang this year? Edinburgh is absolutely jam-packed with
00:22people and performers. Producer Kelly and I braved the busy streets starting our day with an Eating
00:31Edinburgh Fringe Festival food tour. Loana, our host, brought us to four different restaurants
00:37and shops in the city, learning more about the Fringe and catching some street performances
00:41on the way as we ate our way around Edinburgh. Nice classic dish enjoyed on the steps of some
00:50Monument on the Royal Mile, watching a guy balance on some chairs.
00:58Our next stop was the Edinburgh Gin Distillery for Ready Steady Cocktail. Yes, it is exactly
01:03what it sounds like. That famous show reincarnated but with Edinburgh Gin-based cocktails.
01:12That is a unique combination. What are you thinking? What are you thinking? What can you do?
01:17What are you going to bring them together? Because they were very lucky in the fact that
01:20they're all savoury. So we're going to play off that. There's so many things you can do.
01:26Like, as you say, you could make a nice direct, but this is going to make a really good cocktail.
01:29And Jamie is terrible.
01:34Fighting to, fighting to.
01:36Finally, we went along to see Emmy Award-nominated Corey Cavan's Enjoy Your Meal, a one-man show
01:46which portrays a somewhat fraught evening in the life of Chef Wayne Swingle.
01:54Even in the midst of all the chaos, you can still have some really good food. And someone
01:58who's doing so many things wrong can do just a few things right. And you can be impressed
02:03while that person is still kind of falling apart and failing.
02:10Here's our guide from Food Deer's company, Eating Europe, Loana Scott Moncrief, as she
02:15walks us around the festival city.
02:17Okay, hello everyone. Welcome to Eating Europe's Edinburgh French Tour. It's a brand new tour,
02:23so it's a super exciting one. The concept of this tour is super simple. We've got an hour
02:28and a half ahead of us. And what we're going to do is we're going to have some takeaway food.
02:31So, to get a nice taste of some local food, while watching street performances.
02:37So, Edinburgh Fringe is an amazing event that happens here in August. It lasts for three
02:45weeks and it's about 55,000 performances. So, it's huge. There's about 4,000 shows.
02:54And about a quarter of those are actually Scottish. Lots of them are also from Edinburgh. So, a lot of
03:01people around the UK that study drama or arts will come for the Fringe to perform their end
03:08of year show performances. So, the history of Fringe is that it started in 1947, at the time the Edinburgh
03:18International Festival Festival was just born. And the whole idea of the Edinburgh International Festival
03:24was to basically get together with other European countries after the Second World War and kind of
03:33celebrate different cultures from Europe. In 1947, eight theatre companies showed up to Edinburgh, ready to perform,
03:40uninvited. And in the spirit of spontaneity, Edinburgh International Festival decided to find venues for these theatre companies and jokingly called it Edinburgh's Festival Fringe.
03:54And that's how it all began. That grew over the years and eventually in 1958, the Edinburgh Fringe Society was born and that was kind of to create a bit of an official structure around it.
04:06Today, it's about 4 million people that visit the city for August and for the Fringe. To give you a bit of perspective, there's about just over half a million people that live in Edinburgh year round.
04:17So, that is a lot of people. But it's super fun. The streets are basically theatre performances and you just don't know what you're going to find.
04:25We're now going to head to our first food on the menu.
04:29It's a really good idea in terms of you walk past the performers on your way to other places, so you maybe miss the performance and any sort of places to eat round about.
04:38So, I'm just excited to see what we're going to get.
04:40Well, the first, it's a little bit of a staple, kind of our national dish. We have to go with haggis to begin this.
04:48At Arcade, there's a couple doors down the street and we'll just pick it up. They'll have it nicely packed for us and head to some performances.
04:56Thank you very much.
05:03So, this is a special Festival Fringe tour, obviously, but what are the tours like normally? Do they run all year round?
05:09Like, what can people expect if they're not at the Fringe?
05:11Eating Europe is a company that actually started in Rome.
05:16The person who created Eating Europe is called Kenny Dunn.
05:20Basically, he travelled the world and food was always a really big part of how he travelled.
05:27And so, when he moved to Rome, he decided to just kind of have his friends and people he met along his travels come to Rome and taste different foods while he told them about the history of the city.
05:42And then in 2011, he started the company to kind of make it an official thing.
05:48So, now we've got about 18 destinations around Europe.
05:52Edinburgh is actually one of the newest ones, so it started in March.
05:57And I've been touring with them since May.
06:00So, it's a very fresh tour.
06:02The more traditional version that we do is a three-hour tour.
06:07And in that one, we sit at different places, including arcades.
06:12So, we're just on Coburn Street and in Arcade Bar, which is known for its high guests.
06:16And it's conveniently across the road from a cafe called Scran.
06:19Imagine that!
06:29It's the best time of the year. Best time. Never better.
06:32I love having all these people from all over the place. It's something for everybody.
06:35It's really cool to see a lot of people just trying to do their best and a lot of people supporting people trying to do their best, you know?
06:41Independent artists, comedy, music, theatre, you name it. It's a good time.
06:46And all of them enjoying delicious haggis.
06:49Yeah, well, you know. I love haggis. They don't pay me extra to say it. It's not scary.
06:54If you're not from here to whoever's listening to this, come to Scotland, try haggis.
06:58Lovely people, lovely food, amazing city. We hope to see you here.
07:02My name's Lucas.
07:05Thank you very much.
07:06It's my pleasure.
07:07So here we've got haggis bonbons with some crispy parsnip, crispy kale and a raspberry and whiskey marmalade.
07:20And that kind of comes to replace the traditional whiskey sauce and root vegetables, neeps and tatties that you would find with haggis traditionally.
07:28What do you think of it?
07:29Really good. The crispy kale and the crispy parsnips are delicious. And the sauce is lovely. I can imagine it would be very nice with how rich haggis is.
07:38Yeah. The bonbons are absolutely lovely. Spicy. Just the right amount of spice which you need in haggis.
07:44And I'm a haggis fan anyway, so preaching to the choir here.
07:49Yeah, I always like to tell people it's basically like a kind of peppery meatball.
07:54Another thing I tell people is that if you've had a hot dog sausage, then you're safe to eat haggis.
08:00Yeah, exactly.
08:02So a little bit about the spirit of fringe.
08:05When the Edinburgh Fringe Society was born in 1958, one of their main ethos was they would never vet any shows on the fringe programme.
08:18And that is why we have such a huge number of shows and a huge number of performers.
08:23Basically anyone with a story to tell and a venue to host them will be able to perform at the fringe.
08:29And even if they don't have a venue, they can just go onto the Royal Mall and have their performance there.
08:33The Royal Mall is the most spontaneous part of fringe.
08:38It's where you find all sorts of performances, whether that's music, theatre, clowning, there's really all sorts.
08:45And just like you, I have no idea what's there today, so let's go discover.
08:50Let's go.
08:52Before we go ahead and watch some street performances, we're going to go and pick up our second piece of food on the menu.
09:00We're going to get our fish and chips from Landy's, which is quite a new restaurant, but has quickly become very well established.
09:08This is great, because I've written about this, but I've not actually been, so I'm excited to try it.
09:13Oh my god, another one. That's great.
09:16There's a lot going on here just now, like food and drinking in Edinburgh in general, not just showing the fringe.
09:22So yeah, this is cool.
09:23It's so nice to have fish and chips right in the centre of the city.
09:26Yeah, so it's a really, really big restaurant just in the corner of the Royal Mile.
09:31It's looking kind of like modern retro inside, lots of stripes, a bit of like deck chairs, neon.
09:38Yeah, it looks like a big kitchen. It's quite busy, I can imagine. Fish and chips.
09:44Do you want to interview him?
09:46Okay, go on then.
09:48What's your name?
09:49My name is Zoo.
09:50And how is your festival going so far, Zoo?
09:53It's going quite good. I'm not going to lie, I like it.
09:56It's getting busy.
09:58What about you? How is it going? How many people did you manage to interview?
10:01Today's our first day at the festival, so we're here, we're going to blow in and blow out probably.
10:06That's amazing.
10:07So tell us, what do you find the tourists like to order then?
10:11Over here, most tourists will order the battered hadop, which is the classic prison chips.
10:18Now here we do also some tapas, so a lot of people would go for the tapas, which is quite good.
10:23It's a nice experience to share if you're a big group of people, so it's quite good, yeah.
10:29And business is booming for Landis.
10:31Yeah, it's good, it's good money.
10:33Have a great festival.
10:34You too.
10:39Is there someone inside a balloon?
10:44Or at least their hair days.
10:46Kids seem to be loving it to be fair.
10:48Yeah, the kids are loving it.
10:52And being freaked out as well.
10:53There must be about four or five hundred people just standing around watching this show.
10:57And the guys just burst out the balloon.
11:04Yeah, I think that's the wonderful thing about Fringe.
11:06It really celebrates an episode.
11:08It's absurd.
11:09Your Majesty.
11:10Two for one tickets.
11:11No, thank you.
11:12Your Majesty.
11:13That's my hug.
11:15It's 9-6-20.
11:16Feminist Shakespearean stand-up.
11:17Two for one.
11:19I thought the fish and chips were delicious.
11:30Really good chips.
11:31Nice big piece of fish.
11:33It's definitely a lot for a small portion.
11:36But yeah, nice classic dish.
11:38Enjoyed on the steps of some monument on the Royal Mile.
11:42Watching a guy balance on some chairs.
11:52You've done this before.
11:53You've lost people before in a crowd, haven't you?
11:55This is actually, believe it or not, the first time I've lost it.
11:59But you need to stand on a baller to see a house.
12:02I was just like, let's go.
12:04I'm going to be somewhere.
12:11For anyone that's never been here before, we're just walking up the Royal Mile.
12:14There's thousands and thousands and thousands of people.
12:16There's people promoting things.
12:17There's people performing.
12:18There's people just wandering about.
12:20There's live music, as you can probably hear.
12:22All different kinds of acoustic, electric guitar.
12:25There was a silent disco a minute ago.
12:27So you'll literally see everything and anything just coming up here.
12:35In front of Victoria Street.
12:41This is probably the most iconic, most photographed street in Edinburgh.
12:46It's got these beautiful, colourful facades.
12:48Lots of really exciting these shops.
12:51It's also very popular for Harry Potter.
12:55But we are not here for Harry Potter.
12:57We're here for cheese.
12:58So this is IG Mellis.
12:59They started out as a kind of cave-like shop.
13:02And then have grown to be basically the most well-known cheesemongers in Edinburgh.
13:07And they're extremely talented people working here.
13:10And they just know their cheese very, very well.
13:13I am Ria Malone.
13:14I am the manager of the Vic Street Mellis shop.
13:17So we are going to have a taster of three different Scottish cheeses for you guys today.
13:22You have got a little bit of, this is at the Isle of Mell cheddar.
13:27So quite a sharp, quite immature cheddar.
13:29It's definitely the best seller within the shop.
13:32I think it's the kind of thing that most people are familiar with.
13:34And this is a very good version of it.
13:37So it's aged for about 18 months.
13:39Quite a creamy texture.
13:40But really delicious.
13:42Quite sharp flavour.
13:43Kind of makes your mouth lot better.
13:44You're also going to have a little bit of Old Reekie.
13:46Which is another kind of smoked cheese.
13:49This one is made just in between kind of like Dundee and Aberdeen.
13:53You're looking at kind of like Ballester direction.
13:55But nice like smoky flavour to it.
13:57Smoked over the chains of whiskey barrels.
14:00So very Scottish.
14:01And obviously named after the old name for Edinburgh.
14:03And then a little bit of blue cheese as well.
14:05Which is Lanark blue.
14:06So Lanark blue is a sheet milk blue.
14:08It's made by the Errington dairy.
14:10About 40 minutes south of Edinburgh.
14:12Down in Lanarkshire.
14:13It's a little bit saltier.
14:15And a little bit stronger than most blue cheese.
14:17It has a really lovely flavour.
14:19And a nice creaminess to it.
14:20But the sheet milk has less fat in it.
14:23So you generally taste the blue a little bit more.
14:25Just because there's less creaminess than a counterbalance.
14:27And then you've got some more cakes to have it with.
14:29Thank you very much.
14:32It sounds and looks delicious.
14:34The people that come in during the Fringe.
14:36Do they have specific Scottish cheeses they want to try?
14:38Or is the Red just sort of looking for sort of any sort of recommendation?
14:41I would say definitely Scottish cheese is what are most requested kind of thing.
14:46Especially in this branch.
14:48We sell a lot of, especially the Isle of Mullins, the one of the cheddars you're trying.
14:52That's kind of like our best seller.
14:53But I think a lot of people come in with like a general understanding that there will be Scottish cheeses.
14:58But not a specific understanding of what cheeses those are.
15:01So we do a lot of kind of explaining and tasting and talking people through the differences.
15:05Scottish cheese, we have quite a big, like a lot of different places produce it.
15:10But it's not necessarily all of our recipes originate in Scotland.
15:14We do a lot of taking other places recipes and kind of making our own version of it.
15:19So we have cheddars and we have blue cheeses and none of them originally come from Scotland.
15:23But it does, we kind of all put our own twists on it.
15:27So it's like a very live, yeah, ever-evolving kind of industry.
15:31That and Scotch eggs is what we mainly get asked for, I would say.
15:35Do you ever get any lost Harry Potter fans?
15:37Yeah, a lot.
15:38Yeah, definitely, yeah.
15:39We do a lot of tour guides direction.
15:41Where's the castle?
15:42How do you get the castle from here?
15:44And also a lot of Harry Potter directions.
15:46But it's a nice, it's a nice mix.
15:48I think the people who come in generally are interested enough to like stick around and try some stuff.
15:53So we don't get every passing tourist, but we do get a bunch of them.
15:57Definitely busier.
15:58Thank you very much.
16:00So the cherry was lovely, sharp, like they said.
16:09Really, really moreish.
16:10Could have eaten probably a whole block of that, to be honest.
16:12The smoked was much kind of milder, creamier, really hint of smoke there if you've had like a smoked cheese before.
16:20Not very smoky, but very nice.
16:22And the blue was not too strong, very creamy, really good with the oat cakes.
16:28So yeah, very nice snack, which I don't feel like I need at this point, but it's been very delicious.
16:34Yeah.
16:35I mean, to me that's how you start dessert, is cheese.
16:48So we are at the end of the grass market.
16:51I love to bring people here because to me this is the best view of the castle.
16:56This is where our next stop is.
16:59It's just across the road.
17:00It's Kilted Donuts.
17:01And Kilted Donuts do an extremely fun thing.
17:04It all started with Lina and Mark went to New Orleans for the honeymoon.
17:10Discovered the donut scene there.
17:12Loved it.
17:13Decided to bring it back to Scotland.
17:15And it started as a market stall.
17:18And now they have about three shops around the city in Edinburgh.
17:22So what they do is that they take traditional Scottish desserts and then they turn them into donuts.
17:27Sounds delicious.
17:29It is.
17:30All right.
17:31So this is a Kranikin donut.
17:40Of course, Kranikin is a traditional Scottish dessert.
17:45It's usually or traditionally, it was a harvest celebration dessert.
17:52And what it is, it's cream.
17:54Sometimes with a bit of whiskey, fresh raspberries and toasted oats.
17:57In the donut form, that is a cream filled donut with a raspberry glazing.
18:03They do actually use actual raspberries to make the glazing.
18:06And then you've got your toasted oats on the top.
18:09This is delicious.
18:10Very sweet.
18:11But I'm getting like old school raspberry donut vibes from it as well as Kranikin.
18:17Mmm, nice.
18:18So if you're a fan of an old school dessert, go for this.
18:21But it is huge.
18:22It's like the size of my face.
18:26So this has been brilliant because not only have we had a really good chat with you.
18:29We've seen some street performers and bits of Edinburgh that come alive more so in the festival than anywhere else.
18:35Any time else.
18:36But we've had a lot of food.
18:38Like it's been a really proper like three, four course meal.
18:41There's other walking tours with food.
18:44Maybe getting like little tasters here and there and you leave feeling a bit hungry.
18:47This is like, if you book this, you're going to get a lot of food and feel really good at the end.
18:53Where do you like to eat and drink during the festivals?
18:55So I've got a few different places.
18:57I feel like if I'm looking for a quick lunch, I'll go to the very well known in Edinburgh,
19:02either Nau Valley of African Rap.
19:05There's always an ongoing competition between the two rap places because they're next to each other.
19:11I think they're both great actually.
19:12If I want to get a little bit outside of the festival and what a nice meal,
19:17I would go to Cafe Royale because they've got some really beautiful food.
19:21Beautiful Victorian setting.
19:23It's a lovely space.
19:24And then my favourite restaurant in Edinburgh in general is Soul Vegan,
19:28which is a really beautiful Malaysian restaurant.
19:31Yeah.
19:32Delicious food.
19:33Nice.
19:34So anyone that does want to book the tour, how can they do that?
19:38And how often does it run and what are the details?
19:41Alright.
19:42So for the Fringe Eating Europe tour, we've got tours every day during Fringe from 2 to 3.30.
19:49And you can find the information on the website Eating Europe Edinburgh.
19:54And you can either book the sit-in, sit-down version if you want something a little bit more spread out.
20:01Or if you want the Fringe experience with the street performances and the takeaway food,
20:05then that is the 2 to 3.30 every day.
20:09Well, thank you very much.
20:10It's been a great afternoon to see the sights and trying some really good food.
20:14Awesome. Thank you.
20:15Next up, Gordon Dundas hosted Ready Steady Cocktail at the Edinburgh Gin Distillery in the Arches.
20:24I also spoke to Sarah Pryor, Brand Homes Head of Sales and Marketing for Edinburgh Gin Distillery,
20:29who told me all about the show and gave me an update on the new distillery.
20:36So, tonight as you see there's Ready Steady Cocktail.
20:41So, what are we going to do tonight? Well, you all have a gimlet in front of you.
20:44So, enjoy your first drink of the evening.
20:47Essentially, we're going to get two of you out the audience to come and make a cocktail.
20:52Some of you may want to do it, some of you may not want to do it, but you may have to come and do it.
20:57That's the way this works.
20:59And we're going to be doing it through...
21:03Well, we need some way of defining the flavours that you're going to use in this cocktail.
21:08So, I want to introduce something that we have spent months creating.
21:14It is the Tombola of Taste.
21:19And this is going to define the botanicals, the flavours that we're going to put the cocktails in.
21:25We'll do a little bit of the housekeeping of that in a minute, but thank you for the Tombola of Taste.
21:30You can see here we have two teams, Juniper and Rhubarb.
21:34Juniper is these two. These are the professionals.
21:39These are the people that spend hours making and drinking cocktails, going to other bars,
21:45so you can make sure you're making the best drinks.
21:48It's a tough job.
21:50It is difficult.
21:52It is difficult.
21:53And then we've got, effectively, Rhubarb is you guys.
21:58And you will become a cocktail maker.
22:01Well, one or two of you will become a cocktail maker during the evening.
22:05So, if you're a budding cocktail maker, I may pick you.
22:09We'll see.
22:10We'll come back to that in a minute.
22:11But I just want to do a little bit of introduction.
22:14So, where are you from?
22:15Where's everybody from?
22:16Where are you from, sir?
22:17Hello, Sarah. We're here in the Edinburgh Gin Distillery.
22:22It's the first time Scran's been here.
22:24We've seen it as a hole in the ground and some plans.
22:27And I've been here personally myself, but it's the first time Scran's been here.
22:30So, thank you very much for having us.
22:31Can you just tell us a little bit about how it's all going?
22:34Sure. The distillery opened on the 6th of December.
22:37So, we're just past six months.
22:39So, really exciting for us.
22:40And we've done really well so far since we've been open.
22:43We have five different experiences that are available now for people to book.
22:48As well as our main distillery bar.
22:50And then we have two bars open on the rooftop.
22:52Our roof garden bar and our roof terrace bar that are open throughout the entire fringe.
22:57And you've also got a show on which we're here to see and talk about.
23:01So, can you tell us a little bit about that?
23:03Absolutely.
23:04So, Ready, Steady Cocktail.
23:06It's a really fun, fast-paced show based on that well-known TV programme.
23:11With a little bit of a twist.
23:13We have our team of professional mixologists pitted against a team of amateurs.
23:18And we have this amazing tombola of taste that gets pulled out on the night
23:23with some weird and wonderful botanicals for people to choose from.
23:26And that's what the teams have to make their cocktails with.
23:30So, it could be anything like Marmite and Haribo sweets against rhubarb and basil.
23:37And they have to create their cocktail.
23:40They have to do it really quickly.
23:42And make a sample of that cocktail for everybody in the audience.
23:46And then everybody in the audience will then vote either Team Juniper or Team Rhubarb for whichever one wins.
23:52Why don't you like, would you like to pick the first ball?
23:55Yes, that's right.
23:56So, you don't worry about colour.
23:57You don't have to worry about colour.
23:59Everybody else does.
24:00But you just get in there and pick.
24:02Give it a go.
24:03Give it a go.
24:07Ooh.
24:09Especially long.
24:10Got a blue.
24:11Blue one.
24:12And can you open that and tell us what's inside it?
24:15So, the next person that picks one has to pick a blue.
24:18What have we got?
24:19Black pepper.
24:20Okay.
24:22We're going to write these on here.
24:25Black pepper, blue.
24:27And that's for the professionals.
24:31So, if we give you the chance, sir, to pick up another blue.
24:36Black pepper, blue.
24:37Black pepper, blue.
24:38Black pepper, blue.
24:39Okay.
24:43My hands are too fat.
24:44They go in there.
24:45And this will be what the Rhubarb team or the amateur team will be using.
24:51Tomato.
24:52Tomato.
24:53Oh, here we go.
24:55Fantastic.
24:56Thank you very much.
24:57So, can you tell us how long it's going on for and how people can get involved if they
25:02want to come along?
25:03Sure.
25:04We're running for the full stretch of the Fringe.
25:06So, our last show is the 23rd of August.
25:08And tickets are available on the Fringe show and also available on the Edinburgh Gin website
25:13as well.
25:14So, do you know, sort of, now who's coming to the show?
25:17Is it locals?
25:18Is it tourists?
25:19And are they gin fans?
25:20Or is it going to be quite educational for people that don't know a lot about gin?
25:23It's much more of a fun show.
25:25So, there's not real education in there.
25:27We tell them a little bit about Edinburgh Gin as a brand and also the basis of the classic,
25:32which is our core gin of the Edinburgh Gin brand.
25:35And that's what they're making all of their cocktails round about.
25:39We've had a real mix of people that are coming.
25:41We've had a lot of locals and we've had a lot of visitors coming as well from all different
25:46countries, which is really fun and exciting for us to be able to host them in the distillery.
25:52What are you thinking at this stage?
25:54Looking at the reactions in the room.
25:56Nobody's run out yet and been needing to go to the loo, which is a positive thing.
26:02But, yeah, just give us your thinking.
26:05I'm feeling confident.
26:07I'm feeling happy that you guys get to try such a fabulous drink from us.
26:12What's the name?
26:13Have you come up with the name?
26:14Dill or no Dill.
26:15I'm excited for you all to try it and love it.
26:25I'm aware that a lot of you have friends on the other team.
26:29But remember, there's no love in this war.
26:34So we're asking everyone this on our festival podcast.
26:37Who would you like to eat and drink during the festivals?
26:39And do you have any tips for anyone visiting?
26:41I like something really easy and quick when I'm out with the show.
26:45Because we tend to do a couple of days, just solid shows all day.
26:50So street foodie things are really good.
26:52So George Square is excellent.
26:55The Edinburgh street food market is a really good choice as well.
26:59So can you tell us a bit about what's going on at the distillery for the rest of the year?
27:02And if people want to come and do a tour, when are they running and how can they get involved?
27:06Sure.
27:07We have, as I mentioned, we've got five different experiences that take place throughout the week.
27:12We have our classic tour and tasting that runs every day.
27:15Certainly during the fringe and for the rest of the year from 11am with our last tour at 6pm.
27:20Decadent Duo, which is an amazing gin and chocolate pairing.
27:25Again, available three times a day, every day.
27:29Our gin making experience that takes place at the weekends, which is where you're creating your own bespoke bottle of gin to take away with you with your own personalised label.
27:38Aroma Alchemy, tasting all about how your senses work with taste and smell.
27:44It's a real tasting masterclass.
27:46And then, of course, our mix and muddle cocktail making experience up on the roof terrace, which is just an amazing experience.
27:52And they can all be booked from edinbridgen.com slash visit.
27:57Thank you very much.
27:58You're welcome.
27:59So, about 15 to about 12.
28:02We have our winners.
28:11Well done.
28:12And I think you should all try each other's cultures.
28:15Sure.
28:16Really different.
28:17And I think, you know, when you look at the ingredients that you have, olive oil, dill and black pepper, you knew that was going to be much more of that savoury.
28:24And mixing that in with the third flavour that you had, which was light, was always going to make it a bit more fruity.
28:30But, what a great contest.
28:32What a great evening.
28:33Hope you've enjoyed it.
28:34The final stop on our foodies day out of the festival was to see Enjoy Your Meal, written and starring Corey Cavan.
28:50You'll hear some of the show here as well as a chat that I had with him online the next morning.
28:54Good morning.
29:08Hi!
29:09My name is Chef Wayne Swingle and I am here to give you the best meal of your life.
29:14Thank you so much for coming to the restaurant tonight.
29:16Really appreciate you being here.
29:17So, I want to tell you a little bit about myself and a little bit about where you are.
29:20I am the executive chef here at the restaurant.
29:24The restaurant is born out of its parent restaurant.
29:27That is called the Dirty Trout.
29:29The Dirty Trout was renamed from the Filthy Fish for obvious reasons.
29:33And, come on in, come on in.
29:35You guys find your seats, find your tables.
29:37Okay, I am now joined by Corey Cavan, who is doing a show at the Fringe for the first time,
29:44despite having a very long, very successful career in comedy.
29:47Corey, for anyone that doesn't know you or your work,
29:50could you please just give us a sort of brief update on your career to date?
29:54Sure, yeah.
29:55So, I have kind of a dual career that involves performing and also writing, directing and producing.
30:03I've worked in television a lot.
30:04I started in New York about 20 years ago.
30:07I moved there to do improv.
30:09And then I also worked as a producer for a show on VH1, a clip show called Best Week Ever.
30:16And then that led me to work for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as a producer for the internet side.
30:22And then after that, I went on to work with Nikki Glaser and Sarah Schaefer, two comedians at a show at MTV.
30:32And then I worked for Stephen Colbert.
30:34And then I worked at Bon Appetit Magazine, directing videos for them.
30:37And the whole time I was doing videos on my own and doing stand-up and doing sketch comedy and acting.
30:45So, I've kind of had this sort of like all over career.
30:47But the thing about working at Jimmy Fallon that was interesting was when I was working there on the internet side,
30:52that's when I started to work with chefs.
30:55Because chefs would come on the TV show and we would do a little thing behind the scenes with them where I'd do a video with them.
31:02It was called Late Night Eats.
31:04And it was like, what would you make a university student for $10 in 10 minutes or something?
31:12And you would have these great chefs like Anthony Bourdain or David Chang of Momofuku or someone just come in and be like,
31:20all right, here's what you would do if you had no money and no time.
31:23And that really got me interested in starting to work with chefs too.
31:28So, that's a brief rundown, I think, of a lot of things that I've done.
31:32Yeah, it's loads.
31:33And it's a lot of well-known names there that we would know here as well.
31:37So, how did you go from that to the Fringe?
31:40Like what drew you to the Festival Fringe?
31:43I'd known about the Fringe in New York.
31:45There used to be a Fringe Festival in New York.
31:47It was like back in the 2000s, maybe the 2010s.
31:51So, I'd known about it through that.
31:54But I have a friend who I'm doing another show with at the Fringe, my friend Kevin James Doyle.
31:59He's a stand-up.
32:00We did a show together in New York.
32:02We hosted a stand-up show for years.
32:04And he came here for the first time in 2017.
32:08So, I flew over here and surprised him at his show.
32:14Walked into his show one night.
32:15He didn't know that I was in Edinburgh.
32:17And then he brought that show.
32:20It was called The 30-Year-Old Virgin.
32:21He brought that back to New York.
32:23I directed the comedy special for that.
32:25And then this is his fourth time at Fringe.
32:27And he's always told me like, you need to come.
32:29You've got to come do something here.
32:31And last year, I came to see shows and visit him.
32:34And we started, we were talking to some people at a bar.
32:38And he was saying, yeah, Corey's doing a show here next year.
32:42And I was like, I am.
32:44And I'd had this idea for this food show.
32:46And so, as we talked to people, it just kind of became a cold pitch to people to say like,
32:51oh, yeah, yeah, the show is this.
32:52And it wasn't written or anything yet.
32:54And that's kind of when I decided to start messing with it was last year at Fringe.
32:58So, it was a very slow toe into the water of seeing the Fringe.
33:05I'd been to Edinburgh as a visitor without the Fringe before.
33:08And then I come twice to the Fringe.
33:10And this year, it was like, okay, let's actually do something here.
33:14So, that was how.
33:16And how does writing and performing a one-man show at the Fringe compare to something massive
33:21like Jimmy Fallon?
33:22Is it very, very different or is there similarities?
33:25I mean, it's obviously different in the sense of the scale, you know, and the scope.
33:31But I will say one thing that is the same that I've found through all those things is that,
33:37you know, the biggest thing about one of those things is you're putting on a live show,
33:41you have an audience, and you have a hard deadline.
33:44So, like when we would work at Fallon, the TV is live to tape.
33:48So, you know, sometimes you are live on the air, but a lot of times you're just, you're live to tape,
33:52and then it airs later that night.
33:53But when it's showtime, you have the audience in, you have a warm-up comedian,
33:57you have all your details planned out.
34:01And, as you know, my show has a lot of details with a lot of props and food and stuff like that.
34:06So, there's this element of, oh, we have to go.
34:11Like, it's 7, 10, people are loading in.
34:14We have to set these things up.
34:16Too bright.
34:17Okay.
34:18And now the, oh.
34:20And we're already back.
34:21Back to the egg white.
34:22Look at that.
34:23Didn't take any time.
34:24Like I said, we go much faster.
34:25So, you know, and that's the thing.
34:28In cooking, what happens a lot of times is the same as in life.
34:31You know, you learn by doing, and sometimes you learn more when you make a mistake.
34:35Come on!
34:36Okay, we're going to go, like I said, even faster this time.
34:40So, what is this?
34:41Tell me one more time.
34:42Pickering's Gin, right?
34:44Yeah.
34:45Very good.
34:46Local Gin.
34:47Super friendly guys there.
34:49Okay.
34:50And then Campari.
34:51Arrivederci, right?
34:52Okay, good.
34:53Yeah.
34:54Italy.
34:55Good.
34:56Herbaceousness.
34:57Yep.
34:58Did that.
34:59Cool.
35:00The next, simple.
35:01How many people do we have in here?
35:03The other thing that I've seen that is similar is that, you know,
35:09I did this show myself, and I ran it a few times in New York, and I was carrying bags
35:16of everything everywhere.
35:17And I got here and realized I cannot do the entire thing myself.
35:21I have, you know, a brilliant tech, Sophie, who, Sophie, she, she techs the show.
35:31I have, I hired two people to help me bring things in and clean things up because I have
35:37such a short time to get in and out.
35:38And that's the same thing when you work on television shows.
35:41It's just like, there's so many moving parts and there's so many people.
35:43So it's like a communal experience too.
35:45So yeah, it's scale is different, but a lot of times the process is, is the same too.
35:51Your show is, it's immersive and edible.
35:55People do get to eat and you play chef Wayne Swingle, who, the tagline is the audience eats
36:00while the chef breaks down, which is exactly what happens.
36:05So you've talked about how in your crew, you've worked with some chefs on video.
36:11Was chef Wayne Swingle based on anyone or any sort of situation or, you know, like just
36:17now what's trending is the bear and everyone's really into this very intensive, like stressy
36:22chef situation is how, how did him as a character come around?
36:27It kind of came around.
36:29Um, I mean, in some ways I was, I was talking to a friend who, um, a friend that I've worked
36:35with a bunch in New York, who's a collaborator of mine, my friend, Bill Gramberg, we did a
36:40bunch of things together and, um, he had come over here and was helping me.
36:45Uh, he surprised me here the same way I did Kevin years ago and he helped me do the show.
36:50And, uh, he had said, he was like, you know, I'm not trying to be mean, but he said, in
36:59some ways his character is just you.
37:01And, uh, and it's because I often like, I'll have people over for dinner or something.
37:06And I always try to pack way too many things into a short amount of time.
37:09And it is, it's always, it's often meant out of, you know, it's always out of good intention,
37:16but it's always getting in a little too far over my head.
37:19And in some ways I think Wayne Swinkle is a little bit based on me because it's, it's,
37:24uh, in the worst way, it's someone who's trying to do a really good thing, but he just, it's,
37:30he has the right intentions, but he's just got too many things on his plate at that point.
37:35Um, so I think it's a little bit built out of that.
37:38And then, uh, I, I think there's a thing, like you said, with the bear, with all these
37:44chefs, it's meant to be, everyone knows it's a really stressful environment.
37:48Um, you hear horror stories, you know, of people working in, um, restaurants where people
37:54are shouting at each other, someone's behind and someone yells at someone.
37:59So it's kind of an amalgamation of just thinking of what that environment is.
38:05Plus someone, I always think it's funny.
38:09Um, as terrible as it is, I think it's funny of watching someone try to hold everything
38:14together when things are just falling apart and often they're a little bit the problem.
38:20And, uh, and so that's, I think that's where it comes from.
38:23It's, you know, just that idea, that being a little bit of myself.
38:26And then that being those chefs, I haven't really worked with a lot of, it's funny.
38:32Most of the, most of the chefs I work with, they're all super talented and really composed
38:39and are probably much more professional than Wayne Swingle.
38:44Um, which is good cause I don't think they would make the best show about them if they,
38:48you know, weren't like that.
38:49Um, uh, do you want the hard seltzer?
38:53Good God.
38:54Okay.
38:55One more hard seltzer.
38:56Pass these two.
38:57Yeah.
38:58Give that to her.
38:59Another hard seltzer.
39:00Um, um, how about a hard tonic?
39:05Does that work?
39:06Yeah.
39:07Yeah.
39:08Okay.
39:09What's that?
39:10Oh, okay.
39:11I thought you said no.
39:12And I was like, Oh my God.
39:13Um, okay, cool.
39:14Why not?
39:15Yeah.
39:16I love that attitude.
39:17All right.
39:18Uh, if anyone else wants a drink, um, who am I talking to?
39:20There you are.
39:21For anyone that's obviously thinking about coming to see it, or obviously we've, we've
39:24talked a bit about the character there, but just to give it context, how would you describe
39:27the show to potential audiences?
39:29The original thought of the show was that I was going to serve a five course meal to people.
39:34Um, and I was trying to figure out how to make that work structurally to say, okay, you
39:38come in and you get this, you get this.
39:40And actually now the show is a five course meal.
39:44You do receive five things to eat or drink over the course of it.
39:50Um, however, I would say it's like, you're coming to a comedy show.
39:55You're coming to a character show about this person trying to do their best.
40:01And you do receive some food and drink.
40:04Um, and despite the host best intentions, you're not sitting down for an entire meal,
40:13but hopefully you're walking away, um, with a fun experience.
40:18You learn a little bit about food and you enjoy your night and you laugh and, uh, and you,
40:24and you get to eat a little bit.
40:25So you mentioned you've been in Edinburgh a few times with, with the fringe and out with
40:30the fringe.
40:31Is there anywhere that you've enjoyed eating and drinking in the city?
40:33Yes.
40:34Yes.
40:35Um, I went to Edinburgh Larder the other day.
40:38Um, that place was, it was, it was so good.
40:42I, my, my family, um, has been here a couple of times and my parents, my, uh, being Americans,
40:48my dad always talks about asking me if I got haggis.
40:51And so, uh, cause we don't really have haggis and it's obviously, you know, very traditional
40:56here.
40:57I know that a lot of people probably, some people probably eat it.
41:00Some people don't.
41:01Um, it was great.
41:03I had a full, full Scottish breakfast, delicious.
41:05So, um, that place, Kim's mini meals.
41:08Uh, there's a place called Kim's mini meals.
41:10It's a Korean place.
41:11It's not too far from summer hall.
41:13Um, Kim's is great.
41:15Um, the wee boulangerie is a bakery and they have actually provided bread for the show.
41:21And, um, they're as a bakery, they're outstanding.
41:26They're really fantastic.
41:27So yeah, those are, those are a few places.
41:29Um, and then also, uh, I know that this is not a local Edinburgh place.
41:34Um, but Dishoom, the Indian restaurant, I know that's a chain, but always kind of try to
41:39make a pilgrimage to go there every year.
41:41I'm here too.
41:42Just for anyone who wants to book, um, what, how long are you on for?
41:46And what's the run for your show?
41:48Uh, the run is I, I'm here to the 25th.
41:51So I'm here all month to the 25th.
41:53There's no show the 11th and no show the 18th.
41:56Um, but other than that, it's every night at seven 20 at summer hall.
42:01And then I have another show after that called great times, which is a standup show.
42:05And that is at nine Oh five, which is why we couldn't talk last night.
42:08Which is why we're talking this morning.
42:09Cause I had to run out to that show.
42:10Nice.
42:11Yeah.
42:12So if anyone wants to watch you have a breakdown and eat some foods and just generally have
42:17a laugh about, uh, you know, the, the way that chefs can be, that's your show.
42:22And it is called enjoy your meal.
42:25Yeah.
42:26Yeah.
42:27The show is called enjoy your meal, uh, at summer hall.
42:29And well, thank you very much.
42:30And thanks for having us at the show.
42:32We thoroughly enjoyed it.
42:33And thanks for your time this morning.
42:34Good luck with all.
42:35Thank you so much.
42:36Did you actually get any food or drink or anything last night?
42:39I got the, um, the bread at the end.
42:43It was really good.
42:44It was really good.
42:45I wonder if people are going to be surprised that one, they get food and two, the food's
42:49actually nice.
42:50There, you know, what's funny is, um, the place that I'm staying in, in Edinburgh, it's,
42:55it's an old friend of, um, my cohost, Kevin at the other show.
42:59Um, and, uh, Kyle, who's flat we're staying at.
43:04He came to one of the earlier shows and then we've been developing the food and my, my girlfriend
43:10works in restaurants.
43:11Um, and she has been here, uh, and she, she helped me organize a few things.
43:15And Kyle said to us, he was like, Corey, the, the food is getting good, but I'm afraid
43:20it's going to, I'm afraid the food's going to be too good for a chef.
43:22That's doing a bad job.
43:25So I was like, you know, I, I want people to walk away to have a little bit of, uh, have
43:29a little bit of enjoyment with it.
43:32Um, I don't think the food will get too good, but I'm glad that you like some of it.
43:35I'm glad that I'm glad that you actually were impressed.
43:37That's kind of part of the point is that even in the midst of all the chaos, you can
43:41still have some really good food and someone can, someone who's doing so many things wrong,
43:45can do just a few things.
43:48Right.
43:49And you can be impressed while that person is still kind of falling apart and failing.
43:53Yeah.
43:54I mean, that sounds like life in general.
43:56So it's great.
43:57Exactly.
43:58There you go.
43:59Yeah.
44:00The show.
44:01It's a very human show.
44:02Exactly.
44:03Yeah.
44:04Yeah.
44:05That's true.
44:06The show is running, um, until the 25th.
44:0825th.
44:09Yep.
44:10Great.
44:11Yeah.
44:13Thanks for us.
44:14What is your stand?
44:15Great.
44:16Great.
44:17What?
44:18Great.
44:19Great.
44:20Great.
44:21Great.
44:22Great.
44:23Great.
44:24Great.
44:25Great.
44:26Great.
44:27Great.
44:28Great.
44:29Great.
44:30Great.
44:31Great.
44:32Great.
44:33Great.
44:34Great.
44:35Greatsun, Ryan, but fires an old house.
44:37Well there's a cooking term, so at least you don't bring it.
44:40urtain?
44:41It should be tough Wayne.
44:42What else?
44:43Can we talk about a hard salsa?
44:46We can, can-e.
44:49I'm gonna go start my own new restaurant.
44:51I want you all to be there night one, ok?
44:54kedcc.
44:55I'll see you soon, thank you.
44:56My name is Wayne Swingle.
44:57I hope you enjoyed the meal.
45:01James.
45:03thanks to all my guests on this episode and thanks to you too for listening
45:09please remember to rate, review and subscribe so you never miss an episode of Scran
45:13Scran is co-produced and hosted by me, Roslyn Derskin
45:17and co-produced, edited and mixed by Kelly Crichton
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