This week our Sous Chef at Contini Cannoball, Emma Mills, is on her way to France!Travelling in association with the Institut Francais Ecosse and VisitScotland, Emma is part of the Budding Chefs: Scots go to Brittany programme which offers up and coming Scottish chefs an amazing opportunity to experience the food of France at first hand.
The week long trip begins in Paris and takes in some of the French capital’s most respected restaurants including a visit to Guy Martin’s Le Grand Vefour, a gastronomic destination for over 200 years. The Parisien leg of the visit concludes with a visit to the Rungis wholesale market and a tasting session with chef Otis Lebert of Le Taxi Jaune.The group will then travel on to Brittany where the itinerary includes visits to mussel, oyster and poultry farms, a tasting menu at Le Coquillage with Olivier Roellinger and visits to the Restaurant and Chocolate and Dessert Laboratories of the Grand Hotel Les Thermes Marins in Saint Malo.
Emma will also be learning some new skills to add to her repertoire, with cooking classes at the Lycee Hotelier Dinard and the setting up and running of a pop up restaurant serving a Scottish menu with Breton produce for 100 guests.The week ends on a high with a trip to the farmer’s market of Rennes and the Retour de Marche Challenge for 20 guests. We’ll need to wait until Emma comes back to see what the challenge consisted of. But whatever it is, she will certainly rise to it.
Emma first joined the Victor & Carina Contini team five years ago as a chef at the Scottish Cafe & Restaurant at the Scottish National Gallery. She left us for a while to travel the world and sample the cuisines of the Southern hemisphere before returning to the TSC fold two years ago. When we opened our newest venue, Cannonball on the Royal Mile in the Summer of this year, Emma moved up the hill to join the kitchen team there. During her time with us she has participated in a number of high profile events, including the Sustainable Restaurant Association Awards dinner in London in February 2014, and more recently cooking for the First Minister at his residence, Bute House. As well as being a rising star in the kitchen she is also a ray of sunshine in the Victor & Carina Contini family. We’re looking forward to hearing her traveller’s tales and seeing how new Gallic inspirations shape the future of her cooking and our menus!
Bon Voyage Emma!
