AN award-winning country house hotel in Deeside has reopened with a new head chef at the kitchen’s helm.
Matt Price will head up the culinary team at the historic Douneside House in Tarland, which has been North-east Scotland’s only AA triple rosette-awarded restaurant for the last five years.
As former Head Chef at The Vineyard at Stockcross in Berkshire, and having secured three AA rosettes at the Airds Hotel on Scotland’s west coast, Matt brings 13 years’ experience to his new role, including a stage in the world-famous New York restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, at the time Number 1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
“I’m delighted to be here at Douneside House – the property has a rich history and well-known association with the RAF, but it has also developed an enviable reputation for its hospitality in recent years, an aspect I’m looking forward to consolidating,” explains Matt. “The people are fantastic and the surroundings are absolutely stunning – I only arrived in February but already the place feels like home.”
He is particularly looking forward to making the most of the property’s Royal Horticultural Society-accredited kitchen garden, from where much of the inspiration for his dishes will come.
Matt said: “Using fresh, local, seasonal produce is hugely important to me – as it should be – I’ve created an enormous spread sheet of what we’ll be growing in the garden to tailor our menus around.
“Production obviously slowed a little last year due to the pandemic, but when the garden here is up and running, we’re talking about over 80 different fruits and vegetables.”
Heading up a team of seven in the kitchen, Matt and his chefs will prepare a range of mouth-watering dishes, from Scottish retired dairy cow sirloin served with glazed brisket, onion and madeira tart and garden greens, to local duck eggs cooked at 64 degrees Celsius, with morels, broad beans and mushroom tea.
“I’m looking forward to a great salmon dish,” he continues, describing just one of the highlights of Douneside’s new menu. “Using wild Atlantic salmon from John Ross in Aberdeen, we cure then marinate it for five days in soy sauce and treacle, then serve it with a five-spice-braised beetroot and stem ginger filo tartlet, with avocado and wasabi gelato on the side. We present it quite simply on the plate, but you can taste the hard work that goes into it behind the scenes.”
