Nairn do well

Nothing if not ambitious, Nick Nairn is hoping to add political lobbyist to his long list of talents. Janet Harmer finds out more.

Nick Nairn is a political animal. Speaking to Caterer towards the end of last year, just days after Scotland's First Minister, Jack McConnell, was appointed to his post, he is talking about making personal approaches to the most prominent politician in the country.

Nairn's intention is to lobby at the very highest level of Scottish politics on a subject dear to his heart: healthy eating. Having held meetings with both of McConnell's predecessors, Donald Dewar and Henry McLeish, he knows that the only way to change things is to gain the ear of those at the top.

"But you have to be politically aware and realistic about what you can achieve," cautions Nairn. "The secret is to find the right vehicle."

Nairn believes he has found that vehicle. He has recently returned from Australia, where he was a judge at the World Food Media Awards, an Australian government-sponsored event, and would love to see it come to the UK. And he believes it is something that the Scottish Assembly might take up.

"Scotland has a new sense of self-determination and the country has a unique opportunity to become a major food nation - an event like this would do wonders in helping to promote our produce, restaurants and hotels. I strongly believe that putting food on the political agenda would benefit people's health and wealth enormously.

"Scottish people continue to have one of the worst diets in the world and yet we are surrounded by some of the best produce - that is something the politicians need to address."

The fact that Nairn has access to the highest echelons of political power is an indication of how far the self-taught cook has travelled since opening his first restaurant, Braeval, in Aberfoyle, in 1986.

Much has happened to Nairn in the intervening years, including critical acclaim, in the form of a Michelin star, for his cooking at Braeval; a successful career as a television chef; and divorce from his first wife, Fiona (now general manager of Amaryllis at Glasgow's One Devonshire Gardens). Then there is the sale of Braeval; the launch of his restaurant, Nairns, in Glasgow; creation of an outside catering company, Nairns Anywhere, plus a cookery school; and remarriage.

As well as running Nairns, one of Glasgow's highest-profile restaurants, he is in the process of expanding Nairn Cook School, relaunching Nairns Anywhere, and working on a host of projects through his company Nick Nairn Enterprise (see below).

It is the last of these that comprises the most lucrative part of Nairn's burgeoning business empire, and which takes up the biggest slice of his time. He usually devotes a couple of days a week to the company's activities, while the restaurant, cookery school and outside catering business take up a day or so each.

Although he has probably never been busier in his professional life, Nairn is conscious of the importance of achieving the right balance between work and home. Consequently, most of the cooking he does these days is at home with his second wife, Holly, whom he married in June last year. "Having gone through something of a transition, my life is now very stable," says Nairn. "Holly and I are a good partnership. There are parallels in what we do. She is a self-taught gardener, as I am a self-taught chef."

Indeed, he talks with as much enthusiasm about his wife's new business, Holly's Herbs, as he does about his own ventures. The company supplies organic herbs and salad leaves to Nairn's restaurant and cookery school, as well as other restaurants such as Restaurant Martin Wishart in Edinburgh.

Nairns, his restaurant in the Charing Cross area of Glasgow, which opened in a blaze of publicity five years ago, was relaunched at the end of June following a major refurbishment. There had been many problems running the business, which was split between two dining rooms in the basement and ground floor, together with four bedrooms on the second and third floors.

"Because of the configuration of the building, it proved very unwieldy to operate," explains Nairn. "And while the bedrooms were a good idea, having to employ a night porter, two maids and an administrative member of staff to look after them just became too costly for the return we were getting."

While the restaurant was busy in the early years, with annual turnover reaching £1.5m, Nairn readily admits that a lot of mistakes were subsequently made. "We received a lot of complaints - an arrogance crept into the service and inconsistencies began to appear with the food," he says. "With a busy restaurant like that you need someone full-time to oversee it, and I simply couldn't devote enough time to it."

As a result, the restaurant has been scaled down considerably. It is now confined to the basement and has been reduced from 75 to 40 covers, with staff shrinking from 30 to 12, and opening on five days a week instead of six.

The bedrooms, bar and ground-floor dining room have been converted into three leasehold flats.

Head chef Derek Blair has created a simpler menu, and Nairn is delighted with the results. "The food is more like the food I was doing at Braeval," he says. "Derek is using the best ingredients to produce some excellent but simple dishes, and it takes a huge amount of confidence to do that."

Nairn is serving about 100 lunches and 180 dinners a week, with an average spend at dinner of £48 per head, including wine.

"The restaurant is probably the least important part of my business financially, but it is important for my profile to have it there as a shop window," says Nairn, who these days finds teaching the most enjoyable aspect of his business.

The opportunity to open the Nairn Cook School came about when an outbuilding became available on the 40-acre estate owned by Nairn's parents near Port of Menteith. "We gutted it and installed a purpose-built school, spending £60,000 more than our intended budget of £100,000 to set up. Financially, it was very painful, but I insisted on installing the best of everything - Falcon stoves and Henckels knives - as I intend this to be a long-term project."

Key to the success of the school is the appointment of John Webber, previously at the Scottish Chef School, as tutor. "He is brilliant - a born teacher," says Nairn. Level of interest in the courses has risen to such an extent that this month extra facilities are being installed, enabling each class to increase the number of students from eight to 10. One-day classes - most of which are aimed at amateur cooks - cost £99, with a five-day course priced at £445.

Setting up the school also provided the space for Nairn to set up a permanent production kitchen to develop his outside catering business. Over the past 10 years he has undertaken a number of high-profile events (such as catering for the opening of the Scottish Parliament) as well as smaller dinners on an ad hoc basis.

Having the kitchen enabled him to launch Nairns Anywhere in May 2000, with the aim of targeting catering at the top end of the contract and events market.

Almost immediately Nairn was approached by the Compass Group, which was interested in getting into this particular market in Scotland. As a result, the Eurest brand of Compass bought Nairns Anywhere. Unfortunately, the deal did not work out as Nairn had hoped.

"The biggest problem concerned purchasing," says Nairn. "Our aim at Nairns Anywhere is to search out the best-quality produce from small suppliers, but that proved impossible with Eurest, which is used to central purchasing. We were in danger of doing a job where the quality of the food would not live up to the promise."

Consequently, Nairns Anywhere was relaunched this month having been taken over by the UK Leisure brand of the Compass Group, which also operates Roux Fine Dining and Leiths within its portfolio.

"UK Leisure is experienced at the top end of the market and fits in better with the Nairns Anywhere philosophy of providing restaurant-quality dishes and using as much organic, home-grown food as possible," says Nairn.

Nairns Anywhere is split between events and executive dining business, which it currently operates for the Royal Bank of Scotland's top personnel in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. Events cover a variety of projects, such as society weddings, corporate dinners, or major sporting occasions.

"We limit events to about 120 covers, using a team of five chefs and a runner," explains Nairn. "However, we could do a larger event by putting in two teams of chefs if the client is willing to pay for it. Likewise, with Holly's input, we can grow specific salad leaves or vegetables if requested by a client."

Any location in Scotland - or further afield if requested - is a possibility. The production kitchen at Nairns Cook School, overseen by John Webber, provides basic commodities such as jus, sauces, salad dressings, fish cakes and desserts, while UK Leisure's kitchens in Scotland co-ordinate the rest of the menus.

Nairn's involvement includes liaising daily with the team at Nairns Anywhere, as well as visiting the various site kitchens several times a year and attending training sessions held twice a year at the school for the company chefs. "There is also an option for a client to pay for me to be at a specific event," he says. "But I'm not cheap."

Nick Nairn Enterprise

Nick Nairn Enterprise (NNE) was set up in 1994 to handle the rapidly growing number of media and consultancy ventures taken on by Nairn in recent years. As well as Nairn himself, NNE employs two other members of staff: his PA, Nadine Carmichael, and an assistant. Current projects are:

• Keynote speaker at Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference 2002 at the Hilton London Metropole on 25 March.
• Cookery demonstrations.
• Baxters sauces - Nairn has devised a range of seven pan-fry sauces.
• Consultant to AquaScot Salmon - "Part of our mission is to raise the general quality of farmed salmon as there is so much crap out there; some of it is no better than cat food."
• Consultant to Quality Meat Scotland.
• Cookware range - Nairn has designed a range of saucepans and a pressure cooker for Tower.
• Creative director of Foodfest - the first Foodfest, a food show aimed at consumers, was hel at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, Glasgow, in October 2001, and is scheduled to become an annual event.
• Food column in the Sunday Herald.
• Books - Nairn's fifth book, Nick Nairn's Top 100 Salmon Recipes, will appear next month. It is likely to lead to a series of Top 100 books. Nairn is working on his sixth cookbook.
• Television - Nairn continues to record about 40 programmes a year for Ready, Steady, Cook. He is in talks with the Australian Lifestyle Channel to make a television series in which he will cook on a yacht sailing from Queensland to Tasmania.