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Lowland Brewing 13th February 2018

Lowland Brewing (LB) update

13^th February 2018

We have received the in depth drawings from Homer Young of McGowan Miller in Dumfries and these have now been sent to the builders we have been dealing with in Lockerbie.

It is great to meet up with people I was at school with in Lockerbie and haven’t met for 30+ years!

We are submitting our Leader Application form on Monday the 26^th of January and we have an excellent meeting last week with Ellen Grant from Dumfries and Galloway Council who gave us various pointers.

The purpose of the grant application is to match fund the LB resources for the building renovation and to equip the building with our stage one equipment for the large scale brewing of beer, which is mainly vats and kegs and some other smaller items.

I am working on the wording of the application and Tom is chasing up some more figures.

We are hopeful that building works can start to take place in April and with luck we might be producing beer by some time in June.

We are running a free beer tasting and tapas evening in Lockerbie on Friday the 23^rd of March between 6pm and 9pm and everyone is invited for a chat and a beer to find out more about our plans for development in Lockerbie.

We have also opened dialogue with a group in Lockerbie about a potential site for a Lowland Brewery visitor centre to get us on the map and onto the Dumfries and Galloway Food and Drink trail. Being realistic (which is not one of my strong points!) this may happen in 2020 or 2021.

We are keen on the idea also of a festival which we would like to have up and running in 2019.

If anyone else would like to get a prospectus please email:

tom@chefsinscotland.co.uk or call the brewery mobile which is 07493716521, leave a message and we will get back to you.

Photos

trying to post photos

7th February 2018

Newspage 7^th February 2018

Pain upon completion

It has been a mainly enjoyable week being back hands on the CIS office this week. Monday morning and sure enough a few relief jobs piled in and on the database I found familiar names and faces who I could call up to offer work to on Skye, Lanarkshire and Aviemore.

Johanna Watson is back from moving house in Moffat on Friday this week and we have a full day of meetings at the office.

Two chefs are coming for a visit and a cup of tea and a blether.

The first one I first encountered in about 2007 when this excellent CV crossed my desk up on Skye at the old offices in Wentworth Street, looking out the window from the second floor to The Tongadale Hotel and sitting a couple of doors away from the Cale Hotel where I would occasionally frequent of a night for a pint, a game of pool or a shot on the puggy.

I got the chef organised for some interviews at good establishments on Skye which were on our books at the time; Isle Ornsay Hotel, Duisdale and perhaps Ullinish. The chef took a job at The Three Chimneys via another agency. Ouch!

Again a couple of years later, the even more glorious CV with a few years as junior sous chef at The Three Lums popped into my inn tray again. Another chance to make a permanent placement. Nope, it wasn’t to be. Off he went to the Horseshoe by Peebles, through another source, not us! Failure yet again.

Eventually the chef came to meet at our new premises in Moffat maybe in 2010 or 2011 and we had a good chat about the near misses. It turns out that he took his first ever job in Scotland at Monachyle Mhor after seeing one of our adverts in a Polish newspaper with Marcin who I used to put out adverts with back in 2003 and 2004. CIS paid for the advert and we split any placement fees. The good chef, had seen our website and apply for Mnachyle Mhor, not been a failure at all.

Over the last six or seven years, he has done a lot of relief jobs via CIS and has been excellent wherever he has worked, whether it is fine dining or bistro food, no problem, pitches up, does the job and gets an excellent reference. Dziukuje bardzo.

He is a modest man, so not going to name him, but how pleased am I that he has asked me to be a reference and sign a document as he applies for UK citizenship.

Catching up with a friend.

The other chef is Bobby, who hasn’t done so badly himself and is after a couple of bottles of our beer, which I am sure we can manage.

Out and about 2nd February 2018

We still have 35 relief chefs out working which is 14 more than last year.

Relief is steadily coming in and we expect to get busy earlier as Easter falls this year towards the end March 1^st April.

Lots of permanent jobs coming in so if you are looking for a change please get in touch with Jessica or Tom and email your CV to recruitment@chefsinscotland.co.uk or call 01683 222830.

We are getting lots of relief chefs registered for the busy season ahead.

Out and about just now –

Johan Sikkema is at The Lovat Arms Beauly

James O’Brien has been back at Ardanaseig Hotel in Argyll

Stacey Donnelly is back at Skeabost Hotel in Skye

Blair Mackay was helping at Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Spey and has just started back at Eden Court Theatre

Sarah Pozzi, Oliver Mould and Steve Moffat were helping Orde Catering with an outside function in Kelso.

Keren Tweedie is at The Morrings Hotel in Fort William

Glenn Richards was at The Newton Hotel in Nairn

Michael George is booked to go back to Cullen Bay Hotel

Scott Macintyre is at Muckrach Lodge Hotel in Speyside

Paul Sellers is finishing up at The Cumbria Park hotel in Carlisle

George McCallum is at Inverlochy Castle Hotel near Fort William

Ionel Rizea is back at The Old Mill Inn in Pitlochry

Ally Elder is back from Thailand and is straight out to The Ben Nevis Hotel in Fort William

Michael Staniland is at The Blackadder Hotel in Berwickshire

And Lauren McConnell is over in Stornoway at The Caladh Inn

Lots of excellent feed back

Thanks for all your hard work Chefs!!!