Eriska, Scottish Island

Young Waiter of the Year

Today for the fourth time I have been asked to help with the judging of the Young Waiter of the Year Competition. It is run alongside the Young Chef of the Year competition and through the support of the industry and especially the Savoy Education Trust it has managed to hold its own with the kitchen competition. It would be easier for the kitchen competition to overshadow the Waiters given the high visibility of the Chefs involved but it is also important to note that without the skilled support of those front of house the great kitchen creations would never reach the tables. Therefore appropriately the chefs and waiters have to work together to create dishes and service which is then judged.

Each year it has developed but the main task is to acknowledge that there is a career ahead for the talented youngsters who enter the industry and this is always evident by the feats of former winners and the skills and attributes I see performed around me at the competition. In reality I sit quietly in the corner in awe at the enthusism and knowledge of the competitors and the enjoyment they all get form the experience. If they represnet our young stars then our industry is in safe hands.

weather w/c 28th September

Well after a weather forecast of doom and gloom over the equinox it turned out to be much better than expected. I had personally anticipated even worse weather given the fact that last week we poured the concrete slab on our new spa but given the dry weather and warm nights the whole construction project is not only ahead of schedule bnut porobably a couple of days away from completeiona nd then it will simply be inside working in the dry and warm area getting it all ready for the grand opening? Or so we will hope!

Anyway whats ahead for next week?

Today: Patchy overnight mist and frost will disperse after dawn. The sunshine could set off a few showers, more so across the hills.

Monday: Unsettled with bright or clear spells and showers, these merging at times to give longer spells of rain.

Tuesday: Dryer day but still windy with the risk of showers.

Wednesday:Rather breezy with strong winds or gales later on.

Thursday : The start of October is expected to be unsettled with showers or longer spells of rain across the UK.

Friday: It will be windy at times too with gales. Some heavy rain is possible at times, especially inland.

Saturday: Rather cool at first, but temperatures will recoverbut it will continue unsettled with periods of rain or showers.

Energy Assessment

Part of our recent drive to make Eriska more enviromentally sensitive has been our general assessment of potential forms of energy. We have, with the help of the Carbon Trust now worked out exactly how much energy we require and then how much our average Carbon Emission levels are. Whilst the report has highlighted some simple areas for reducing our energy consumption it is already clear that if we are to try and reduce our general carbon footprint we will need to look far more radically at the issue and this will lead to us trying to become Carbon Neutral.

In order to try and do this therefore we really have to look at our general power creation and consuption and quickly our heating has become the main souce of interest. Whether we uprade our boilers to more efficent machines, introduce a modular system with complicated controls which kick in as demand rises and thus sees us reduce the excess heat we produce and therefore waste, or whether we change to a renewable fuel such as woodchips is all on the table. However in the back on my mind is the other option of creating our own electricity whether through tidal or wind power and thus we would then change our plant to electricity!

Yesterday Chay and I spent the day in discussions with one of our advisors who has helped us throughout the last 3 decades to insure that we have to date made simple rational decisons about the best way forward. The Staff accomodation has ironically been far more simple to solve as by luck we have opted for underfloor heating and far greater insulation in the new build than the hotel so the whole system benefits from a slow constant heat requirement and therefore in time we hope to change them all over to heat pumps which could benefit from small wind turbines.

The main hotel is however far more tricky as we still at the heart have an old traditional building and no real short term soltion to making it more eficient other thena increasing insulation, replacing windows with double glazed units and keeping on top of energy control in general. So in short it is a long term objective to geberate our own renewable energy power from wind or tide but in the short term it is a matter of finding the most cost effective solution to reduce our bills. Soaring oil, and electricty are therefore making the investment, huge though it will be though, into woodchip boilers, seem increasingly attractive.

Seafood Salad - a triumph

Often the best ideas are evolved late at night after a good evening and in most cases, fortuneately they do not see the cold light of day as the are forgotten or other matters take over but on occassions these ideas become the centrepeice for a great idea and when it is followed through to the end it gives a great feeling of achievement to all involved.

One such idea was brought to the Pride of Britain Board meeting by our President - George Goring. Having been regularly rescued from the sea by teams from the fearless Lifeboats his wife had suggested that they ought to use his connection with Pride of Britain Hotels to create a cookery book which was also a bit of fun and with the help of two friends, an illustartor and a poet, she set about creating a simple coffee table book. However as with all great ideas this one took a bit longer to turn from a concept into a product, but with a great deal of patience and hard work penny goring has succeeded in producing a delightful book.

It has taken a little more time than I am sure she had initially planned and even more patience as contacting all the hotels and speaking to their chefs, collating a recipe and then working with the poet and illustartor to combine the whole concept together must have been a bit like Chay trying to catch his chickens at the end of each day- just when you think you have them all in one is spotted in the distance and as you chase after it all the others escape!!

Eriska's entry, a Crayfish and Cognac,  is accompanied by the Matrimonial dance of the Spiny Crayfish and each pageb is interjected by a piece about the wonderful work of the lifeboat crews. Other recipes include stories from Herbert the Turbot to the ghost of Millicent the Mullet! Anyway hopefully all the fun will help out the Charity.

Anway it was with great delight that we have now received the excellent copy with all profits being donated to the RNLI, hopefully others will enjoy the book as much as we have here at Eriska and it will become a real best seller of which we can all be proud.

Food festival potential

Last week I attended a meeting about the Whisky Coast and their plans to run a food and drink festival at Inveraray castle next May. Then by coincidence I was invited this weekend to the Abergavenny Food Festival in Wales and not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth thought I could use the visit both as fact finding and enjoyment so headed south. By chance it all fitted in well with a meeting in the south prior to the event and one on the way north in Chester.

So mixing business with pleasure I wandered round the festival, now in its 10th year and was amazed by the diversity of stands and the huge wealth of choice and products on display. What began as a simple chance for local farmers and restaurants to showcase a that is positive about the local area has become a huge festival with suppliers and producers from not only wales but also England and even Scotland and clearly some of the show moves around the country from week to week selling and advertising as it goes.

The whole event was also however blessed by fantastic weather which insured that the fact it had grown throughout the town and involved wandering some distance between exhibitions became a positive opportunity to stand in the sun as opposed to a mad rush between rain showers as I believe it may have been in the past and possibly could be at inverarary! Alongside the show was also several other events such as entertainment, arts , crafts and music and lots of family activities to keep everybody occupied and in the evenings their were still further demonstrations and specialty dinners for the visitors.

All in all whilst the event musty have grown hugely over the last decade and developed enormously involving a great deal of organization and effort it was also clear that it has not only created a great showcase for the area but also a central point for visitors from all over to come and visit. Lest hope the Inverarary event can do the same!   

Good Food Guide partial recognition

Every year September brings with it a deluge of guidebook publications, firstly the AA, then the Good Food Guide and finally the Good Hotel Guide. All publish in time for the Christmas rush, a bit peculiar given the time till Christmas but I am sure as soon as one comes out they must all follow to insure sales. It does however amaze as soon as the book is published it is out of date and also given the preparation period prior to publication it must only include data and information covering properties till the middle of the year and yet they title themselves for the Proceeding year. ie 2009.

Anyway we have had partial success with the Good Food Guide this year, and much of this is down to our loyal guests who continue to respond and send in reports to keep the guide independent although it retains inspectors and is supported financially. This year Eriska is listed as the 15th longest running entry in the guide and just shows how long ago it was that my parents managed to get us an entry in the guide.

However on the downside they have managed, despite me writing to them directly and filling in a form as requested, to get both our address and and Roberts tenure in the kitchen both wrong.! I was so incensed that last year when they published a menu we had not served for over 18 months, an advantage of an ever changing menu so we could track it down, that I wrote to them to draw their attention to the inaccuracy and so this year I have been repaid with further mistakes. Its a shame that this has happened as in a day when all the independence of the guides is being questioned, simple clerical errors do not enhance the support and one wonders how much longer we will wish to be associated with the guide.

At least the Good Hotel Guide which is published next week has to date managed to be factually correct and as I understand it remained completely independent, surprising given the cost of publishing but maybe it is true that the customer buys the best guides and they will survive!

weather wc 14th September

Last week i was watching the forecast closely and as with waiting for a kettle to boil, hoping that Saturday would be a sunnier day than predicted it never happened so my day on the hills was disappointing in terms of views but still at least it was not too windy, however that is about to change!

The week of the equinox is always regrettably a little predictable as far as the weather in concerned due to the stronger winds coming in form the west but given that 2008 has rewritten the weather forecasts with Scotland's West Coast having a better summer than the rest of the UK we cannot be sure what we should expect. So whats ahead:

Sunday: A bright morning in store as any early mist and fog slowly lifts. The cloud will increase and thicken from the west during the afternoon as patchy rain spreads in later.

Monday: A mainly cloudy day as rain continues to occur during the day. The rain will be more persistent at first before becoming lighter and patchy.

Tuesday: Patchy rain dying out through the day.

Wednesday:  dry and bright with lighter winds

Thursday: Further cloud and outbreaks of rain will push in on strengthening clouds from the West.

Friday: Initially it is expected that we will have rather cloudy skies with occasional rain.

Saturday:After a wet night it will begin to dry with patchy fog gradually dispersing to allow some sunshine to develop, although there will often be large amounts of cloud drifting around.

Chay -pane in the neck!!

Some time ago a guest approached the reception desk with a rather starnge apology. Somehow, I thought it best not to ask, he had cracked the pane of glass in one of the bedrooms. It was incredibly honest as in truth had we just found it we may have assumed it was a bird or an act of God but we agreed to replace the pane of glass- easier said than done.

And what a saga, firstly the dimensions were lost and then once they were recovered the glass tuned up and surpiringly it was the incorrect size. Luckily the order was by email so proof was easily at hand and the glazier immediately set about making a second pane. The next deliver was chipped and so yesterday after huge aggrivation and about 7 weeks the new pane was delived to Oban. chay nearly at the end of his tether offered to collect the glass himself and set off to Oban.

To be fair I immediatelt thought the worst and was alsmost about to dig out the dimensiosn again as I was certain the goods would not make the return journey in the back of Chays land rover without incident but I am ddelighted and surprised to report that by lunchtime the window was back in use with a wonderful cl;ear, non cracked perfected fitting bottom Sash!! Lets hope its a long time before the next Saga!!

Eriska Big Bang anticlimax!

Last week we had our own "big bang" experimental anticlimax which although at the time seemed disappointing but I hope in the long term will derive huge returns! Anyway we have just completed stage one of our new staff accommodation on the other side of the bridge. In reality it is the final block of staff accommodation and brings our facilities to 20 units in total housing the majority of our team here. Following on from the success of my own highly efficient environmentally constructed house we decided to try and adopt the best points in the new house.

Although on first glance all the units look the same there are some big changes under the skin. Firstly the walls are twice as thick built in a better more substantial block and enclose a highly efficient insulation barrier. Secondly on the roof, for those looking closely, there is a solar panel helping to harness the suns heat to preheat the underfloor heating system and finally in the field in front of the house buried 2m deep is a kilometer of pipework which is part of the geothermal heating system.

Having done all this work therefore and hidden all the effort it was quite an exciting day last week when the engineer visited to fill and commission the heat pump. We all stood by waiting for fireworks and dramatic results and he flicked the switch. A bit like Geneva yesterday everyone stood in silence not really knowing firstly what to expect and secondly whether to cheer or cry as it seemed nothing had happened, but then the thermometer started to move and it showed that all was in action and working and a smile crossed Chays face.

Now after the initial disappointment we can settle down and start to see how efficient the system really is. The first residents move in today and we will be keeping a close eye on the electrical consumption but hopefully the immediate lack of an oil tank and continual deliveries will start to reward us for our foresight. Or so Chay tries to convince us!

Smallest Eriska Guests!!

The other night I spotted a guest coming in the front door, clearly hiding something under his jacket. Whilst he looked a bit sheepish, I thought it must have been some bottle of local malt, his wife was sniggering and stopped by the office to try and explain. In the end we were all seeing the funny side of the elicit entry!

It turned out that they have a traveling gnome and try to include him in shots of their holidays. they had cleverly spotted that we had a couple discreetly placed in the swimming pool and they thought it would be nice to see if they could introduce theirs to ours. I then suggested that I could manage must better and asked if i could borrow their companion.

Here is the moment that Bertie met a new friend on the steps of the library, clearly the addition of a bottle made the encounter much more benevolent and after a few uneasy moments they began to get along like a house on fire. The increased attention and lack of threat to Bertie's supper insured a peaceful trouble free evening and allowed some excellent shots of the evening.

I am sure the gnome had a great time and hope that the fact he was appreciated by all will help encourage others to follow in his footsteps!