Chris Niven to head up The Lawn in North Berwick
Working with White Rabbit Projects, whose hospitality portfolio includes Lina Stores, Kricket and Island Poké, Niven will oversee both the restaurant and a new bar and afternoon tea lounge named the Bass Rock Bar in his role as the hotel's executive chef.
The Lawn will serve a four-course à la carte menu that includes snacks, starters, mains and desserts, with a focus on locally-sourced ingredients including lobster fresh off the Seacliff fishing boat; vegetables from Phantassie Organic; and meat from Castle Game.
Sample dishes include Cumbrae oysters with shallot mignonette; Tweed Valley beef with oyster, caviar and potato; Gigha halibut with chicken butter, brown shrimp and cucumber; and chilled hay rice pudding with strawberries, verjus, vanilla and basil.
Niven, who was previously executive chef at The Fairmont in St Andrews and The Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh, has designed Bass Rock Bar’s food menu to complement its extensive drinks list, which includes cocktails; new and old-world wines; whiskies and local spirits; and Scottish craft beers and ales.
The menu will feature a range of sharing plates such as Belhaven smoked salmon with crème fraiche, capers, dill and rocket; and truffle mac and cheese made with St Andrews farmhouse cheddar, black truffle and cauliflower.
Bass Rock Bar will also serve afternoon tea that will offer savoury dishes like duck egg, mustard and watercress sandwich, and pork and haggis sausage roll; alongside sweets that include cranachan choux buns, and a chocolate & pistachio 'nemesis'.
Niven, who trained in Dundee, recently made it to the finals of the National Chef of the Year competition, which will be aired at a VIP red-carpet premiere at the Everyman Broadgate cinema on 21 October.
