When Ed Barnard moved from London to Speyside last year, he’d hardly even heard of butteries.
A year on and the baker has made it his mission to take the humble rowie to new culinary heights by fusing it with never-before-used flavours such as kimchi and cinnamon.
It has been a whirlwind love affair for the 42-year-old, who swapped the hustle and bustle of West London kitchens for the tranquillity of his wife’s native north-east.
And from his Right to Roam brunch pop-up in Craigallechie Park near to the famous bridge, Ed hopes his buttery creations will give the local favourite the wider respect he believes it deserves.
Me and My Buttery caught up with Ed to talk about his fixation with butteries, what makes them so versatile and why he’s not another big city chef looking to gentrify a staple food.
Hello, Ed! Great to speak to you. Tell me about your buttery love affair.
I’ve gone on a real voyage of discovery. We moved up here a year ago, but prior to that, because my wife’s from Speyside, I’d encountered them on various post-pub nights and also for various breakfasts.
The last six years I’ve been working on various food projects and as a chef de partie in and around London. Up here, I wanted to do something that would allow me to innovate and it struck me that the buttery was crying out for something. It has so much versatility. Working in London, it was always about taking concepts from around the world and merging them together.
So I started making my own butteries and it was immediately apparent that the potential was huge. They are effectively a blank canvas.
What did you make first?
First, I made cinnamon-inspired Danish rolls using a buttery-based dough. My version of the buttery is a bit different to the classic recipe but I find it works better when mixing with other ingredients.
My next invention was an egg and bacon buttery. To this day, it’s the thing I am most proud of. It was so nice. I used whipped salted pork fat and added smoked bacon, which all went in to the base dough.
I’d bake that up, then add American cheese and a fried egg, plus some gherkins. You basically had the best breakfast sandwich in the world. I still have people coming to me asking for them. But to make it on any kind of scale was really difficult.
What was the reaction?
Can you imagine living in Aberlour and then all of a sudden there’s a dude at a stall selling this kind of food? I still make the cinnamon butteries but the egg one – I still have that up my sleeve. It was so good.
What’s next?
I want to keep that spirit of innovation going, so I’ve road-tested some kimchi butteries where I’ve taken kimchi and cheese and put it through the dough. You get that lovely kind of salty, slightly spicy, crunchy, wet tang with the crispness of the cheese mixed with the indulgence of the buttery.
Then I’ve got marmite and cheese butteries. They are really delicious. I have a few other recipes that I’m going to do.
You seem to be making a name for yourself.
What I want to do is to be known as the guy that’s doing the crazy butteries. I’ve got four now, and I’ve got another couple of flavours that I’m testing at the moment, which are going to be great.
Is there a risk that people will see you as coming up from London and gentrifying their butteries?
If your usually buttery is a JG Ross one then maybe you wouldn’t see me as being in the same vein as that. But you hopefully would still like what I’m doing.
And finally, the question we ask all our guests – how do you eat your buttery?
Well, I eat mine cold at 5am when I’m baking them. I eat them like people eat popcorn in the cinema. They’re just around.
Ed runs his Right to Roam coffee and food pop-up from Craigellachie Park near Aberlour. He is open from Wednesday to Friday from 10am to about 2pm.
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