Celebs reveal their food secrets

Published on Saturday 1 August 2009 20:01

PRESIDENT Obama can rely on a team of hand-picked chefs to whip up anything from a peanut butter sandwich to a five-course banquet, while a similar team of culinary wizards serve Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace.

However, Gordon Brown has revealed he is often reduced to heating up late-night microwave meals at No 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister may be one of the most powerful men on the planet with a formidable entourage, but his punishing schedule means that for dinner he prefers to warm up a modest convenience meal for one.

The Labour leader has spoken of his lonely culinary predilections in a new book which reveals the favourite foods and recipes of a host of Scottish celebrities.

In the book Brown does little to dispel his dour Presbyterian image by recalling, in contrast to millions of youngsters, that he also enjoyed eating his greens and that Brussels sprouts were his childhood treat of choice.

The book also features Brown's next door neighbour, Alistair Darling, outlining his distaste for the "vile" Western Isles delicacy of salted gannet, while Alex Salmond offers a childhood recollection of being playfully mocked by his family for being so skinny.

In Haste Ye Back, food writer and chef Sue Lawrence talked to dozens of prominent Scots and asked them to provide their favourite recipes as well as memories of their early eating habits.

The Prime Minister agreed to take part in the project, which will raise funds for the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), and talked about his own modest cooking skills.

He said: "I'm okay at rustling up a simple lunch or supper for the boys when needs be.

"The microwave is a wonderful invention for when I'm on my own or working late."

Brown recently revealed that his gruelling schedule means that he routinely works well into the early hours before snatching two or three hours' sleep and starting again.

The premier recalled fondly how his childhood home, a Church of Scotland manse in Kirkcaldy, was frequently full of parishioners visiting his father, Rev John Brown.

He said: "Mum would always have a huge pot of soup sitting on the stove so there was also something hot and nourishing to offer guests.

"As one of three boys, we had great appetites, so she was busy making big stews or Sunday roasts.

"I never had a problem eating my greens and my favourites are probably sprouts."

The latter remark evoked memories of his Downing Street predecessor John Major who was mocked mercilessly by the satirical show Spitting Image and newspaper cartoonists after admitting that peas were his favourite food. Brown submitted a recipe for apple and blackberry crumble, one of his favourite desserts.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor spoke of growing up in the Western Isles and his strong aversion to the local delicacy of guga – salted and boiled young gannets which are harvested every year on the remote island of Sula Sgeir, north of Lewis.

Lawrence said: "When I told Alistair I had cooked and eaten guga, he remembered many tales from his childhood, not just about their 'acquired' taste, but also their 'vile and lingering' smell."

Darling recalled a diet rich in other local produce which he found more to his taste.

He said: "I remember clootie dumpling, roast lamb and best of all the marags (Gaelic for black pudding) fried for breakfast with eggs from hens my granny kept."

The First Minister submitted his wife Moira's recipe for Cullen Skink and said the traditional north-east haddock soup had an additional meaning for him.

Lawrence explained: "Alex's dad used to call him a skink as a child because he was so skinny."

Salmond, who has since filled out somewhat, said his mother's Christmas cakes were the talk of Linlithgow.

He recalled: "She would make some 50 each year to give out to extended family, friends and old folk. I used to dispatch them.

"These were serious cakes and they lasted for ages.

"Indeed, though my mother died in 2003 we kept one of her cakes and still enjoyed it, albeit with a slight hint of sadness and nostalgia, three or four years later."

The SNP leader recalled his favourite dish as a youngster was rice pudding made with goats' milk because of his "severe" allergy to cow's milk.

Former Scotland football coach Alex McLeish revealed that he found his own childhood preferences particularly difficult to shake off.

Lawrence said: "Alex's first memories are of eating Farley's rusks.

"They are very fond memories as he adored eating them well into his teens when, instead of having them soaked in hot milk, he would dunk them into his tea."

Singer Sharleen Spiteri revealed that she takes a taste of home back to London with her, stating: "Whenever I visit Scotland I stock up on a month's supply of tattie scones which I eat fried with brown sauce."

Spiteri has fond childhood memories of eating toast and Marmite as well as stuffed olives, reflecting her Scottish and Maltese roots.

Midge Ure, musician and co-author of the multi-million-selling Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas?, told of his own modest childhood eating habits.

He wrote: "We were never really into pudding. Besides, there wasn't a table in the house until I was ten.

"We just ate off our laps so there was little time for two courses.

"One of my favourite dishes was stovies, but then I love peasant food throughout the world."

&#149 Taste Ye Back will be published by Hachette Scotland on August 13.