With three new openings in the past year and a fresh third AA Rosette, MasterChef: The Professionals winner Jamie Scott and his team are as busy as ever.
And there are no signs of slowing down for the 36-year-old chef, as he’s eyeing up new locations for The Newport Bakery in the towns of his native Angus.
“I’m busy,” he says.
“I’m still quite young, I don’t want to be doing this when I’m 40.
“You can’t sit still and be too stagnant, I think you get left behind and we want to be the leader in the area for fine dining, brasserie, and bakery.”
The 36-year-old is on track to reach his goal, as The Newport finally achieved it’s third AA Rosette in September, which the owner describes as “amazing”.
Jamie says: “To be honest, I’m not being big headed, I’m not being overconfident, we were overdue it.
“We were given Restaurant of the Year a couple of years ago, we thought we would have got it then. It was delayed, Covid happened, I believe that was the reason we didn’t get it at the time.
“But we finally got it and that shows the benchmark of where our food level is.
“That’s not to say that our food is posh or pretentious. I’d say our food’s very polished and really refined.”
Challenging times for The Newport
Since the hospitality industry reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses have struggled. Jamie’s bakeries and restaurants included, in May 2022 his electricity bill for The Newport went up by £73,000.
This triggered a conversation within his team about how much their food and service is really worth. Considering the cost of the food, time to develop and learn the dishes, tasting and training, they increased the cost of the tasting menu to £85.
Jamie explains: “We don’t want to feel like we’re ripping people off, we know what we’re worth and £85 at the time was a really good price to go up [to].
“That was to be inclusive of energy rising, food costs, staff wages rising – and we didn’t have one single push back on it.
“That alone was quite exciting for us as a business, because it felt like our customer base was growing with us and understood.”
Now that price increases have slowed down, the team sat down again in September. With the restaurant less busy than before, The Newport introduced a new 8-course menu for £72.
Jamie thinks this might have led to people thinking the restaurant is struggling.
“We are struggling, everyone’s struggling a little bit at the moment I think,” he admits.
“It’s a quiet time of year and we’re not in a holiday destination. This time of year fluctuates for us, the summer as well.
“After October it does pick up, festive time is really busy for us, then we’re quite busy February until April, and then it ticks off a little bit.
“We’re always finding our feet and the balance of where the bills are. We’re a small business with no big investment, so we’re doing this ourselves.”
The Cove Bar will bring guests in
In a bid to adapt and progress the offering at The Newport, the idea of The Cove Bar was born. As the pub was just sitting there, it seemed the perfect place to bring something new to.
Over the last few years, Jamie has slowly changed the style of the bar area to tie in with the restaurant and rooms. With reclaimed railway lines and whisky barrels as furnishings he “feels like it’s finally getting there”.
Having tested a more casual food offering before, the chef is sure the new menu will go down well.
“We had quiet lunches before lockdown where we’d do a little bar offering, which was very popular,” he recalls.
“They would utilise stuff we had to use in the kitchen, there was soup or a nice burger with triple cooked chips. And the funny thing is, people always said that’s one of their favourite things that they miss about Newport.
“It’ll also bring people in, if you’ve not been to The Newport before, come and have bar food that is executed to the highest of our ability.”
The Cove Bar menu is based on The Newport’s tasting menu, making use of excess ingredients and by-products from the restaurant.
The new offer also ties together all of Jamie’s businesses in Newport, as guests staying in the rooms can pop to The Newport Bakery for breakfast, The Cove for lunch and enjoy dinner in the restaurant.
‘I’m quite shy and bashful’
As The Newport’s tasting menu changes regularly, does this mean that The Cove’s offering will change frequently?
“One of my biggest flaws, if you ask any of the guys, is that I’m not content on one menu for a long time,” admits Jamie.
“We’re super seasonal, sometimes that means it can be two weeks with a change.
“For example, we use an amazing garden in Brechin, they send us a list every week of what they’re growing and we adapt our menus to that.
“We’ll try and change the bar menu a little more frequently, so people would maybe come to it more. Not weekly, maybe bi-weekly, whereas the restaurant is more of a destination place they want to come once a month.”
Whether he’s serving three AA Rosette-worthy tasting menus, burgers and chips or croissants, the former MasterChef: The Professionals winner has a solid following.
Even Great British Menu Champion of Champions Adam Handling has described Jamie as “a very good chef”.
Though Jamie doesn’t want to take all the credit for his successful businesses himself.
“I’m quite shy and bashful about that still. That’s why my name isn’t above the door,” he says.
“It’s a whole team effort here, but I do believe we have a standard and expectation, and I think we’ll meet that in the bar.”
Jamie Scott’s future plans
Over in Broughty Ferry, Sandbanks Brasserie also focuses on seasonality, but Jamie has restricted menu changes to five or six times a year.
The Brook Street eatery opened in May 2022 just three weeks after the chef picked up the keys. Then he spent three months straight in the kitchen, making sure everything was right.
After seven years of serving tasting menus, changing to à la carte was a huge learning curve for him and the team, but it’s all under control now.
Jamie says: “I saw a gap in the market for Sandbanks doing brasserie food and being a place where I want to go on my days off. Because unfortunately, I don’t feel we’re blessed that much in Dundee at the moment.
“I go there now once a week just to eat, and it’s brilliant. We love it.
“I work in there a couple days a week, so I split my time between Newport, there and the bakery.”
The Shipwreck Seafood food truck may be currently anchored for winter, but when next year rolls around Jamie has big plans for The Newport‘s car park fixture.
With a more permanent outdoor kitchen and sheltered seating, he hopes to expand the season and offer more opening days.
“It’s outgrown its little horsebox; Shipwreck is too big now,” says Jamie.
“People like the idea of having fresh fish next to the sea, and there’s no one doing it around this area of Fife.
“We’ll definitely bring it back next year – hopefully with better weather.”
Conversation