“I’ve seen the future of fine dining, and its name is Ross Caithness,” pronounced my satisfied companion.
I agreed.
We were in the unpretentious An Cala Ciuin restaurant at The Mishnish Hotel in Tobermory, Mull, having just finished the last morsel of an eight course tasting menu devised and executed by Mr Caithness.
The 32 year old Broughty Ferry native has been building up An Cala Ciuin (The Calm Harbour) since last August.
He loved cooking with his mum as a child, but didn’t give a career in it much of a thought while he was at Monifieth High School.
With beautiful symmetry he started his career in the Michelin tyre factory in Dundee, but moved onto Michelin-starred restaurants when he made his mind up that creating great food was what he wanted to do.
He gave up his good wage and prospects at the tyre factory to go to college in Glasgow and start working his way from the bottom up, as a kitchen porter.
Ross got cracking
“I cracked on hard because my peers were ahead of me at this point,” he says. “I wanted to go to the best places, learn as much as possible, as fast as possible.
“It was work, work, work.”
His hard work paid off, and he soon moved on to work in top restaurants, with celebrity chefs.
He spent a good while with Martin Wishart at the Michelin-starred The Shore in Leith; at two-Michelin starred The Hand and Flowers in Marlow and with Tom Kitchin at Michelin-starred The Kitchin in Leith.
From Kitchin he learned most, he says.
“I liked his style, Scottish produce with classical French techniques.
“The hours were long and gruelling, serving 130 covers at night.”
Ross was afraid he would burn-out so took a break, but not for long.
Working in Italy
During the Covid pandemic he found himself working in a restaurant in Italy, an hour inland from Venice.
“It was beautiful food, good, simple produce, not over-complicated.”
Eventually Ross felt it was time to open his own place, and came home.
Various plans and ideas fell through, until last year he ended up at The Mishnish ostensibly for four weeks to help out.
Within three days, owners Les and Meg MacLeod recognised his potential and he was offered a business partnership to take on An Cala Ciuin.
Ross said: “We started setting up in May but things can be slow on an island and we didn’t open until August.
“But the slow start allowed us to find my feet and develop the menus.”
Warm, welcoming ambience
With enough covers for around 22 the restaurant feels warm and embracing when you walk in.
Simple, gentle colours, real candles, real napkins —in fact mine was so soft and attractive I quite fancied it as a scarf—and music pitched perfectly, adding to the ambience rather than jarring with it.
Jamie Wells on front of house immediately made us feel (could many hoteliers and restaurateurs please take note) welcomed and valued.
All about passion
He also had a clear passion for what chef Ross Caithness is bringing to Mull, describing the eight courses to follow with brimming enthusiasm.
We were trying the tasting menu and paired wines.
The first four courses were fish and seafood. Companion claims he isn’t a fan of either, but I could only watch him savour every mouthful.
I should say at this point that both of us cleaned our plates at all the courses.
And they were more substantial in portion size than most tasting menus I’ve tried.
The evening opened with a glass of Joan Sardà Brut Reserva, a mellow gentle cava into which Ross had popped a spoonful of meadowsweet sorbet and an edible flower.
Why? Because —why not? That seems to sum up the fearlessness of Ross’s style.
It was surprising, and delicious, an exhilarating to start to the tasting menu.
Fine dining is all about feasting with the eyes as well, and the first course was perhaps the most ambitious visually of the eight.
A savoury cone emerging from a little pot of coffee beans and bearing a filling of Tobermory Fish Co. smoked salmon, all the way to bottom of the cone and ending in a slick of beetroot puree.
Next to it, a crystal ‘bread’ shell, filled with a mélange of crab and sea herbs.
Crystal bread is made from potato starch and kuzu and is perfectly transparent. The effect was of eating the crab in a softly crunchy shell.
By this time all our senses had come alive with such an array of flavours and textures.
Course Two was Isle of Mull langoustine, served on a duck fat brioche with tiny capers, thermidor and caviar.
The duck fat brioche was bold—and utterly delicious.
Yet more delights in the next course, braised squid with notes of chilli and fennel and a creamy shellfish bisque.
Red mullet was the star of Course Four, stuffed with a fish mousse, served with wild leeks sourced locally, a courgette puree and a buttermilk sauce.
Delicate deep flavours, and I loved the wild leeks.
After the surf, the turf.
Course Five: Glengorm Beef sirloin, served with asparagus, wild garlic and bone marrow. If I had to order my last supper, this would certainly feature in it, the earthy flavours all singing together.
Ross says of Course Six that often at the end of the night revellers go for a kebab, and this was our equivalent, Isle of Mull venison kebab.
He sources his venison locally of course, and wastes not a shred of it, so the kebab is made from those tasty trimmings which might get binned in a more wasteful establishment.
And no kebab shop could ever match the delicious mushroom puree and pickled vegetables it came with.
We’d already eaten a lot of delicious food but our stomachs weren’t protesting, on the contrary.
We theorised that food of this calibre is far more acceptable to our systems than the equivalent of more mundane fare.
A Ledaig sour cleansed our palates. Ledaig is made in Tobermory Distillery, just across the harbour from the Mishnish. We could see it from the window.
Ross said: “It’s a take on my favourite cocktail, the whisky sour, and you couldn’t get more local.”
Then I discovered that Ross and I are soul mates as regards one particular vegetable, or is it a fruit—rhubarb.
Ross uses it abundantly in his cuisine, in savoury or sweet dishes.
So to finish our tasting menu, we had rhubarb and ginger crumble, a white chocolate mousse, rhubarb sorbet, poached rhubarb and dehydrated rhubarb skin.
I can still conjure up the taste now. Normal rhubarb crumble simply won’t cut it for me any more.
The wines
The tasting menu came with paired wines:
L’Empreinte de Saint Mont, a light, orchard-fresh white; a second white, Andaina Godello 2021, a joyful wine from Galicia with notes of wild flowers and camomile.
The reds were VignaMaggio Gherardino Reserva 2017, a chianti extra-robust after 18months in oak; and Bakermat 2019, a very more-ish organic wine blending Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre and Touriga Nacional grapes from the Joostenberg Estate in South Africa.
Another Joostenberg graced our desert, a Chenin Blanc ‘full of honey, marmalade and apricot flavours’.
Information
Address: The Mishnish Hotel, Main Street, Tobermory PA75 6NU
T: 01688 302500
An Cala Ciuin’s tasting menu is £90 for eight course, with optional paired wines at £50.