Shaun Cooper

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Posts by Shaun Cooper

Allow the Customer to Spend!

I was recently out and about in the lovely city of Gothenburg, Sweden.  My wife and I were showing an Aussie friend around our new town. 

Inevitably it came to the point in the day when our thoughts turned to where we can have a feed and a few drinks.  We found a nice outdoor bar attached to a boutique style hotel in the heart of the city centre.  It has quite a large outside seating area, which is perfect on a warm (Swedish style) Summer’s day. So we stroll in, looking for a table, with the full intention of parking ourselves there for the [read more...]

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Dietary Requirements

As a waiter, every single night you will come across a guest that has some form of special dietary requirement.  Some of these requirements may seem a little far fetched, however it is imperitive that we listen to the guests’ needs and do our very best to accommodate them in order to avoid any unwanted health incidents.

We would like to name a few that we have come across on a regular basis, and specify the needs associated with each.  Of course there will be other requirements that I do not cover and would love to hear comments from other waiters out there in [read more...]

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Position Numbers

The easiest way to look like an absolute professional in the customers eyes is to use position numbers on your tables.  This is something generally used in most top end restaurants but there is no reason why it cannot work in any restaurant.  It allows food to be taken from the kitchen and delivered to the person who ordered it without standing at the end of the table and screaming, ‘WHO ORDERED THE SPATCHCOCK?’

To make it work, a manager needs to assign a seat on each table that will be called Position 1 - it needs to be a system that [read more...]

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Scotland - Speyside Malt

The Speyside region in Scotland is located in the North Eastern Highlands.  It is a relatively small area in relation to the neighbouring Highlands region but it produces most of Scotland’s whisky.  When I say most I mean between 50% and 60% of total Scottish production, and with roughly fifty distilleries operating.  This is a rough estimate due to there being a little bit of conjecture over where certain distilleries lie - in the Highlands or Speyside?

The region is centred around the River Spey, although few distilleries actually use its water for production.  Most water used in production tend to [read more...]

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Scotland - Lowland Malt

The Lowlands region in Scotland is located South of Greenock on the West coast and Dundee on the East coast and directly South of the Highlands region.

Lowland whiskies tend to have quite a bit of sweetness and lots of fruit characters with a dry finish.  They are generally un-peated which combines with the dry finish and the fact that they are a reasonably easy drinking whisky to produce an excellent aperitif.

The Lowlands have just three operating distilleries that produce single malt.  They are Auchentoshan, Bladnoch and Glenkinchie.  Glenkinchie is probably the most well known and is considered a typical example [read more...]

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Scotland - Campbeltown Malt

The Campbeltown region of Scotland is located on the South West coast.  It has only three operating distilleries  - namely Springbank, Mitchells Glengyle and Glen Scotia - not a lot compared to its heyday when there were close to thirty operating.  It is the rich history of Campbeltown that allows it to hold onto its place as one of Scotland’s famed whisky regions.

Of the three distilleries in Campbeltown, the Springbank distillery is the largest and produces three single malts under the names Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn.  Each of these malts are made with different production methods that produce different styles [read more...]

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Scotland - Islay Malt

There are five recognised whisky producing regions in Scotland.  These include the Highlands, the Lowlands, Speyside, Campbeltown and Islay.  Each of these regions produces their own unique style of single malt whisky with their own characters that can be considered individual to their region. 

Today we will have a look at the region of Islay (pronounced eye-luh).  Islay is the Southernmost Scottish island, located between Scotland and Ireland.  It is largely composed of peat - partially decayed vegetation.  This peat is battered by the elements on Islay and results in all the water on the island being brown - couple this [read more...]

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Clontarf Irish Single Malt

Clontarf is a unique single malt whisky. Irish oak is slow burned to produce charcoal. The pure spirit is passed through this Irish charcoal prior to racking in charred first fill bourbon barrels. The result is nothing short of stunning, according to Jim Murray in his latest whisky bible.

This is classified as:

“A superstar whisky that gives us all a reason to live”.

“Irish most excellent”  

“Outstanding blood orange clinging to the sharp barley edges; soft spices buzz and juiciness intensifies. Long with a myriad wave of fruit barley of varying intensity sometimes bringing cocoa and mocha”.

The official tasting notes from the producers [read more...]

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The Joy of Single Malt

Welcome to the delectable world of single malt whisky… 

We are heading on a journey of discovery to learn the individual nuances of the pinnacle of the world of drinking.  This is for those of us who want to add a love and knowledge of whisky to our already blossoming knowledge base.  Whisky is an important part of a complete meal.  Not just some cool bottle that happens to be on the top dusty shelf of your restaurant bar, that is only drunk by some perennial eighty year old with white whiskers.  Single malt whisky is an entity unto itself - [read more...]

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