Has Leith's latest culinary star taken leave of his senses?
Chef Barry Bryson on “cutting the throat” of a hugely successful business to open his own restaurant
I can’t help it. After listening to the newest culinary star to grace the foodie nirvana The Shore describe the success-laden career he has chosen to leave behind, it’s a question I feel compelled to ask: Has he, ahem, taken leave of his senses?
Despite the excellent reviews Barry Fish has garnered, chef proprietor Barry Bryson has, by his own admission, “cut the throat” of a successful business to launch a new restaurant at a time when the hospitality sector is on its knees.
He is leaving behind a career as an events chef par excellence, working with such stellar luxury brands as Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Chanel and Louis Vuitton and travelling in the process to places as far flung as Scandinavia and South America. As client lists go, it doesn’t get much more impressive, especially when you add in luminaries like food writer and broadcaster Nigel Slater, fashion designer Roland Mouret, and artist Tracy Emin.
And all to work seven days a week. In Leith. Even though I’m sitting in the tasteful, calm sage green interior of the restaurant designed by his husband Robin, I wonder if he feels even a teeny bit regretful?
Not a bit of it, in fact. Barry is a happy man. “Somebody said to me you are cutting the throat of a very successful business to do something that is really high risk - and they are not wrong. I certainly have had a successful ten years.”
Has there ever been a golden time…
“I get it. The timing is terrible. Ending a successful company to open a restaurant is silly. Doing it in such a difficult time makes it even more silly. But has there ever been a golden time to open a restaurant, a time when every restaurant that opened was successful?”
He speedily dishes up an answer to his own question: “No. There have always been restaurants that open and do well, and restaurants that don’t. It is not going to be easy, but it is certainly not impossible. There has never been a good time in the sense of a guarantee, but I don’t think now is a disastrous time, and Edinburgh is a great city where people like to eat well.”
To be fair, Barry is off to a great start at his new venture, named to play on the confluence of his first name with the Edinburgh slang for “good.” The reviews are in, and they’ve been unanimously gold stars. Straight 5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor and how about this from Gaby Soutar at The Scotsman: “No wonder everyone’s raving about this place. Anyway, I’m very relieved I finally made it to Bryson’s permanent home. It’s not just barry, it’s pure dead barry.” Or Ailsa Sheddon at The List: “Each dish is balanced and delicious, fresh and fun. Even the tunes are spot on.”
Talk about hitting the high notes. He is, naturally pleased with the way things have gone so far. Particularly given his proximity to so many of the great and very, very good of Edinburgh chefdom. “You come with a strong idea of what you want to do, your concept, but you are worried that you might have to change, you might have to scramble, but I’m very happy that has not been the case.”
Michelin-starred establishments Restaurant Martin Wishart, The Kitchin, and Heron are all within a pebble’s throw, almost half of Edinburgh’s seven star-awarded venues (count them and weep pretty much every other UK city bar London). Does he have aspirations to join that particular galaxy?
“I don’t feel pressure to get a Michelin star. Being next door to Martin Wishart is wild for me, he has been such a focal point for so many chefs in the city for such a long time, and it must be said that Michelin stars are a huge recognition, a real badge of honour, but it is not necessarily my goal. But I must say that being so close to great cooking is inspiring for us, it really is.”
What is also inspiring for Barry is that he has ended up in a prime spot on The Shore in his beloved Leith.
“I am really annoyingly pro-Leith., which has always been my favourite part of the city. I ran my events catering business from here for 12 years – I know every nook and alleyway in Leith. Yeah, it has changed a lot but I know it like the back of my hand. Leith is more than a commercial area, it is a residential area made up of some beautiful new homes filled with folk who have moved here, and also people who have lived here for years. Through all the changes it has kept its strong community, 100%.
“We are proud to be in Leith. I’ve lived here as well as worked here so I feel ingrained in this neighbourhood. I could have opened in Stockbridge and I’m not sure I’d have cooked with the same energy. We could have opened on Frederick Street and I’m not sure I’d have felt that same pride, so I think that being in Leith helps me a lot. Cooking is something I feel passionate about it and doing it in what I think is the best part of the city is perfect.”
A happy accident…
So did he always plan to be in the star-strewn area? “Landing here on The Shore is a happy accident, even though I’ve been planning the concept for three years. In truth I missed out on three sites during that time, all nearby, and I wanted all of them and was keen on each of them. But they didn’t happen for one reason or another.”
He gets wistful as he looks out of the front of his restaurant over the Water of Leith: “When you end up with something better than what you might otherwise have had it is wonderful. We have a window on the kitchen looking out onto water and onto life. I’ve not had a window in the kitchen for ten years. Having natural light is a buzz, and when things get hectic I just pause for a few seconds to look out the window and take it in.”
He does, however, rue one thing. “My only regret at opening a restaurant is I don’t get to eat out too much. Anyone who cooks realises how much you can learn from eating someone else’s food, and sometimes it is also good to switch that part of my brain off and just enjoy the meal, but I no longer get to do that enough.”
Barry has taken a path less trodden to this point in his career. After undergoing chef training at college in Fife for three years, he promptly left and worked front of house to start a 15 year gap from cooking, only returning to the kitchen to work in the events catering business. His company, Cater Edinburgh, was a big success story, and he firmly believes the eye for detail required to work with such illustrious clients in the luxury sector has helped him in his determination to get things right in his own place.
“I never approached any luxury brand to work with them, ever. It was all word of mouth. I did one party for Louis Vuitton and I continued working for them for 12 years and through that came about Chanel, Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Waitrose and all these other amazing brands and people.”
Does any one highlight stand out from his time as a top event chef – indeed it does. He got to meet and work with one of his heroes.
“Nigel Slater is a food hero of mine. He was producing a biographical play, Toast, which was based on his memoir and in which – naturally for such a renowned cook and food writer – food was playing a real part. The audience would eat some of the food that was produced for the play. It was very interactive.
“In 2018 he came to Edinburgh and was interviewing chefs that had been put to him to produce food for the play. I was obviously petrified and after the meeting - even though he’d been very gracious - I felt we wouldn’t be the ones he’d work with. But we did and it was incredible. He’s a massively influential person to me.”
For now, he’s grateful for the good reviews and the well received launch, which has given him something to build on despite the sector’s travails. Just don’t expect any slick marketing campaign - he intends to rely on an old fashioned approach as refreshing as a sorbet. Word of mouth. “I’d rather people just came, had a great meal and told their friends and colleagues about the experience.”
And that, he says, would be barry.
A man who has earned all the plaudits that have come his way. I’m delighted he’s having so much fun and getting so many good reviews.