The irony isn’t lost on Jak O’Donnell when she admits that, as a school girl, she had no ambitions to carve out a career in cooking.
Today, as chef patron of prestigious The Sisters restaurants in Glasgow – and the first Scottish female to take part in the Great British Menu – she admits that sometimes grandma does know best.
“When my grandmother discovered that cooking wasn’t on my O grades list, she was horrified,” recalls Jak. “I remember her saying: ‘You, my dear, need to learn how to look after a husband and to cook.’
“At the time I thought ‘What?!’” but it turned out I loved it and even my Saturday jobs were food-related,” she smiles.
“I had a round on Thursday nights selling eggs and bacon from a farm in Ayrshire. The bacon was all old-fashioned cuts and I’d deliver all around the houses. The eggs cost 60p but most people just gave me a £1 so I was furious when the price of eggs went up to 90p and I only got a 10p tip!”
She might not have realised it at the time but Jak also had her gran to thank for an appreciation of fresh produce and its provenance.
“When I was a little girl my grandmother would send me into the garden to pick rhubarb and I always marvelled at the way these big sticks of pink and green turned into a wonderful dessert,” she recalls. “And that was when I first made the link between garden and table.”
But despite a love of food and a talent for cooking, the path ahead wasn’t as smooth as she had been expecting.
“As a student you’re taught all the areas but back in the 80s most women were put into the kitchen as a pastry chef – I wasn’t allowed into the main kitchen,” she remembers.
Nothing daunted, Jak took more courses to become the best pastry chef she could and eventually set up her own pastry business.
“Ultimately though I missed the atmosphere and buzz and started hiring myself out for dinner parties in the West End of Glasgow,” she says.
A year later Jak, then aged 29, and sister Pauline opened their first restaurant together above an Irish bar, calling it Deirfiuracha, the Irish word for sisters.
Jak has firm ideas when it comes to her two current restaurants in Kelvingrove and Jordanhill.
“The Sisters isn’t a ‘fashionable’ restaurant so we won’t go out of fashion – tradition is on our side and you won’t find small plates or taster menus here. It’s Scottish food with an Irish twist – with lots of potatoes of course,” she laughs.
Jak wants diners to feel relaxed and as if they’re in the intimate setting of a friend’s dining room rather than a formal restaurant. And her staff obviously feel at home too – some of them have been with her for more than 15 years. “That’s a long time in the restaurant trade, especially in Glasgow and both my teams are great,” she smiles.
She is really looking forward to the Taste Angus Festival on August 19 and 20 where she will be hosting demonstrations with some of the other chefs.
“It will be lovely – some of the chefs can get nervous so having another chef on stage helps,” she enthuses. “We’ve had great feedback from past shows – visitors have been inspired to cook and are amazed at the fantastic Angus produce.”
For Jak the stand-out produce at Taste Angus is the seasonal soft fruits. “Knowledgeable producers and wonderful farmland result in stunning produce, and take me back to pulling the rhubarb at my gran’s,” she smiles.
“Shellfish from Scotland’s ice cold waters is magic and my favourite meat has to be venison – I think it’s underused yet it’s available in abundance, is very healthy and pairs amazingly with Tayside berries,” she continues.
For Jak, good food is all about seasonality and simplicity – one of her favourite recipes uses just four ingredients: spinach leaves, berries and venison, with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
“It takes minutes to make but is so fresh and delicious,” she observes. “People say: ‘Is that all you put in it?’ and it’s great to give them that kind of knowledge. Cooking should be accessible, nothing too fancy.
“Nobody wants long recipes full of rare ingredients that are hard to come by locally or need fancy equipment. I’m a chopping board and knife kind of person – that’s as complicated as I get, although I do have a good blender. I like chefs who call a pan a pan, and not a water bath!”
www.tasteangus.co.uk
www.thesisters.co.uk and www.jacquelineodonnell.co.uk
Jak’s recipes
Cured Scottish sea trout in a malt whisky served in a refreshing salad of crispy native apple & ginger salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
2” knob of fresh ginger grated
25ml 12yr old malt whisky
2 Cox’s Pippin or Braeburn apples
1 packet of watercress
1tbsp rapeseed oil
Pinch sea salt
4 x 120g cured sea trout fillets pin boned and skinned
Directions
Make ginger juice by grating fresh ginger, with the skin as well, on to a few sheets of kitchen paper and then wring out over a glass. Mix with 25ml malt whisky and set aside. Cut apples with skin on into thin matchsticks.
Toss sliced apples and watercress in remaining ginger juice with rapeseed oil.
Season very slightly with sea salt and leave for 10 mins before serving pour ginger/malt mix over trout fillets.
Serve apples and watercress mix in bowl and lay cured fillet over the top.
Scotch lamb & wild game chorizo casserole
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 x 6oz Scotch lamb rump
4 x mini chorizo sausage
4 x banana shallots
2 large carrots
2 cloves garlic
50g fresh rosemary
100ml red wine
300ml lamb stock
½ tin butter beans
50g broad beans
50g tenderstem broccoli
Directions
Seal lamb skin-side down in hot frying pan, along with the chorizo. Remove once browned all over and sit to one side. In same pan add shallots, carrot and garlic that have been peeled and cut into chunks. Add rosemary once veg is browned and add red wine. Add the lamb rump back into the pan and add the lamb stock. Place into casserole dish and pop in the oven at 185C for about 10 minutes, then remove lid, add butter beans and cook for futher 10 minutes. Cook the broccoli and broad beans quickly in boiling water leaving slightly al dente. Once casserole veg is out of oven, slice the lamb and sit on top of a selection of the veg, beans & gravy
Individual custard tart with summer berries
Makes 4
Ingredients
100ml whole milk
400ml double cream
1 grated fresh nutmeg
9 free range egg yolks
75gr golden caster sugar
1 tube of ready made croissant pastry
A selection of your favourite berries: gooseberries, raspberries, tayberries, blackcurrants or rhubarb.
Directions
Bring milk, cream and nutmeg to the boil. Whisk yolks and sugar until pale.
Whisk hot milk gradually over the egg mix.
Meanwhile unroll the pastry and cut squares to fit in muffin trays and blind bake at 170C.
Remove while they still have a slight golden colour and then bake another 8 mins.
Reduce oven temperature to 160, then pour cream into baked shell and bake for a further 12-15 minutes.
Remove whilst the tart still has a slight wobble.
Serve slightly cool with fresh Angus berries over the top.
