Latest news with #MarkHix
The Herald Scotland
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'This Edinburgh restaurant's lasagne is on another level'
In Spring 2025, Brett and his team officially opened Ondine at Seaton House in St Andrews, a brand-new luxury 5-star hotel overlooking the West Sands and the famous Old Course. The hotel has also recently launched 'Sundays at Seaton House', serving an exclusive three-course Sunday lunch menu at Ondine Oyster & Grill while live music fills the Bow Butts bar space. This week, Brett takes on our chef Q&A: What was your first kitchen job? My first kitchen job was washing dishes in the evenings after school. Where is your favourite place to eat out? Padstow Kitchen Garden in Cornwall. My dear friend and chef/farmer cooks incredible lunches and dinners from his barns in Padstow. We enjoyed the best Lobster ever cooked over coals on a Green Egg overlooking the camel Estuary. The vegetables and salad were picked and prepared all from his garden – incredible! What is your guilty pleasure meal? The Beef Shin Lasagne at Aemilia in Portobello in Edinburgh is on another level. Kip and Giada make the best Artisan produce around. Can you share a memory of your worst kitchen disaster? There are far too many to mention. What is your signature dish? It would have to be our very own Ondine's Hot Roasted Shellfish Platter, White Wine Garlic and Parsley Broth. It has been on the menu now for over 18 years, inspired by Mark Hix and Rick Stein. Who would you say is your biggest inspiration? It would have to be the late Ken McCulloch. His attention to detail, high standards and genuine love for hospitality inspired generations. He was always immaculate, very demanding yet always rewarding. A great man. Read more: What is one of your pet peeves working as a chef? It would have to be missing out on quality family time. If you weren't a chef, what do you think you'd be doing with your life? Hopefully retired! What's your favourite trick for making cooking at home easier? Batch cooking and always being prepared for the week ahead. Preparing food that can be eaten hot or cold. What has been the one highlight that stands out in your career so far? There have been many highlights over the last four decades. I have been lucky enough to work with many inspirational leaders. Working with the Stein family was very rewarding, as was working under Mark Hix at Le Caprice in London, which was also very special. Yet opening Ondine in Edinburgh was the one.
The Sun
22-04-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Major coffee chain with 2,000 branches to shut high street store in DAYS following string of closures
A MAJOR coffee chain, with over 2,000 branches, has announced the closure of yet another store. The branch is set to close in just days, leaving coffee drinkers devastated. 1 Costa Coffee is the latest high street name to shut up a shop with locals in Lyme Regis gutted as the popular café prepares to pour its last cup. The branch, based on Broad Street in the heart of the seaside town, is set to close for good next week after more than a decade serving flat whites, cappuccinos and caramel lattes to locals and tourists alike. Baristas will be clocking off for the final time on Thursday, April 24 – with regulars describing the shock move as 'very upsetting'. Costa took over the site back in 2012 from estate agents Fortnam, Smith and Bennett and quickly became a go-to spot for everything from weekend coffees to cosy catch-ups. A spokesperson for the coffee giant confirmed the decision, saying: 'We can confirm that our Costa Coffee store in Lyme Regis will be closing its doors for trade on 24 April.' Locals have taken to Facebook to share their disappointment. One user said: "It's such a disapointment, i can't believe it". Another added: "Such a shame to lose another store". A third chimed in: "The high street is just not what it used to be, so sad". It follows a string of closures for Costa Coffee. Just this week Costa shut its Shell Highworth Service station branch. You can see the full list of closures below: Shell Highworth Service Station – closed April 20, 2025 Stockton High Street – closing end of May 2025 Lyndhurst, New Forest – closed Bridlington, Yorkshire – closed Packhorse Road, Buckinghamshire King Street, Maidstone, Kent Chiswick High Road, London Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh Rottingdean, Brighton and Cove Erdington High Street, Birmingham Cheltenham (inside House of Fraser) Stockton Heath, Warrington High Street West, Uppingham Fleet Walk, Burnley Alexandra Retail Park, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent The news follows a string of high street closures in the West Dorset town. Boots shut its Broad Street store last February and celeb chef Mark Hix's restaurant The Oyster & Fish House also packed up in December, blaming rising costs. Beach & Badger café on Marine Parade also called it a day last year and now trades under a new name – The Terrace. One local wrote on social media: 'It is always sad when any business has to close, especially when it affects local jobs and livelihoods.' It's not yet clear what will move into the empty unit but with another big name gone, locals say the high street just won't be the same. Other shops leaving the high street Its not just food chains and coffee shops that are shutting up shop. Beales, one of Britain's oldest department stores, has launched a closing down sale before it shuts its last remaining shop after more than 140 years. The company will shut its branch in Poole's Dolphin Centre on May 31. The sale includes fashion, furniture, gifts and cosmetics, being sold for up to 70% off. Beales chief executive Tony Brown blamed the "devastating impact" of the rise in national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage for the store closure. Meanwhile, Huttons in London will shut its store in the Putney Exchange due to excessive energy costs. The gift shop became a local icon after it opened in the 1990s. Meanwhile, high street fashion chain New Look has begun to close stores as it scales back its UK footprint. It is understood to be shutting nearly 100 stores - equivalent to around a quarter of its 364 shops. Stores in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, St Austell, Cornwall and Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf have launched closing down sales. Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace of store closures due to tax changes in the Autumn Budget. RETAIL PAIN IN 2025 The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April. A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024. Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
