For Food Sake: How one Fife chef went from redundancy to owning his own successful cafe in less than two years

After starting heat at home business For Food Sake from his own kitchen, Fife chef Xen Larg now has his own cafe and kitchen team.

In the middle of the pandemic, Xen was made redundant from his head of catering job at Scone Palace.

With new jobs few and far between, in January 2021 he turned his house in Dalgety Bay into a production kitchen to start his own business.

“It didn’t go down well with my wife and kids to begin with,” he admits.

“You go through a lot of emotions when you get made redundant.

“But I didn’t want to give up. I had something inside me, it was just something that I had to do for myself.”

With the name For Food Sake, Xen started cooking restaurant quality dishes made to heat at home.

For Food Sake grows

Operating a production kitchen at home proved a challenge, but slowly Xen’s dishes gained traction.

With the ethos of using quality, local ingredients, his wife Sabrina – a business development manager – helped build the company and brand to reach new clients.

Xen says: “If it wasn’t for her, we certainly wouldn’t be where we are now.

“I’m a professional chef that can make the food taste good. My wife is really the brains behind it all.

“With me working every weekend from the house and doing it all myself, Sabrina and the kids sacrificed a lot to make it happen.

“Even after a full day of cooking, I still had to go and deliver all the food.”

After building a solid local client base, Xen took over The Cafe at Number 16 on Aberdour’s Shore Road in October.

He now offers the heat at home dishes, outside catering and plans to grow the menu and expand opening times.

“Finally I’m out the house and we’ve got our kitchen back. My family’s probably more than delighted by that,” he laughs.

“It got to a point where I was pushing out 20 different main courses and 30 meals a weekend from a tiny kitchen.

“It’s so good to have a professional kitchen again, it feels like I have a purpose.”

Good team of staff and family

From running For Food Sake completely on his own, Xen now has eight staff with him in the cafe.

The first few weeks of operating have gone down well with the locals. From high end dishes such as fillet steak medallions with pepper sauce to cottage pies, there’s something for everyone.

“Going from a domestic kitchen to being an employer is quite daunting,” Xen admits.

“I’m slowly gathering a nice team, so I’ll be able to grow the business even further now.

“We’ve been awarded a micro grant to buy a display freezer and will offer our frozen range from inside the café along with heat at home pre-orders.”

“We have plans to offer more daily specials from our Mexican and bistro heat at home menu in the cafe.”

As well as wife Sabrina, the chef has extra help behind the scenes. While their four-year-old son Zach isn’t very interested yet, their 10-year-old daughter Maya is proving herself.

Maya started charging Xen £5 every time she peeled potatoes, but since the cafe opened she’s stepped out of the kitchen and into the limelight.

“She was in the cafe our first opening week. I turned around and she was at a table with a pad taking their order. She’s certainly got a lot of confidence,” Xen laughs.

“She is amazing for her age and has learned a huge amount through it all, seeing her father not give up. We’ve worked quite hard for what we’ve got.”

For Food Sake in the future

After more than 30 years in the industry, Xen hopes to build something unique in Aberdour.

With the help from Sabrina – who has a background in hospitality and is training their staff – to Business Gateway’s funding expertise, Xen believes he’s on to something.

His goal is simply to keep the business running and make it a success. And maybe expand For Food Sake to other areas in the future.

He says: “There’s a nice community spirit in Aberdour, where businesses support each other.

“The hard work’s still underway, but I’ve got a couple of years under my belt and I’ve built quite a following.

“I started with zero – which was daunting in itself – but looking back over the last couple of years, to be where I am now from where we started is unbelievable.

“I have to pinch myself sometimes and realise what’s going on, it’s been quite a rollercoaster.”