Chips are down as pub takes fries off the menu

Published on Friday 12 March 2010 09:29

THEY are the staple of every pub meal – but not any more in one health conscious Edinburgh bar.

Customers at the Joseph Pearce in Leith will have to go elsewhere for their chips after the owner decided to permanently ban them from the menu.

Anna Christopherson, who is originally from Sweden, has replaced chips with the Swedish and healthier alternative, oven baked hasselback potatoes – with parmesan cheese.

The mother-of-two, who has no plans to reintroduce chips to the menu in future, believes other bars and restaurants in the Capital should follow suit.

Mrs Christopherson, 35, said: "The head chef Joseph Malik said everyone was ordering chips, it was the first choice for almost everyone. We just thought 'we don't need chips, we can have something else to enjoy'. Chips are just a really unhealthy food. Hasselback potatoes with parmesan cheese are not extremely healthy, but they are better than chips. We wanted to show that there are other choices."

Newsletters have also been sent out to let customers know that Joseph Pearce is no longer serving chips.

Mrs Christopherson, who moved to Leith from Boda in Sweden in 2003, added: "Everyone has been really positive about it and they have enjoyed the hasselback potatoes. I thought it would be more negative with people like, 'Oh no, no chips!'. If there are other fun alternatives on offer, people are willing to try them."

The bar and restaurant on Elm Row, which Mrs Christopherson and her husband Mike, 41, have owned since November 2007, serves Scandinavian-influenced food.

Mrs Christopherson said many people chose to have chips or crisps to accompany meals, rather than salad.

"I like chips but not with everything and I like to try different things," she said. "I was surprised at how much chips and crisps people eat here."

She added: "It's very different in Sweden where everyone does what the state says, so if the state says you shouldn't eat something, they just stop.

"Scottish people are much more free – they have their own mind."

Mrs Christopherson, who lives on Ferry Road, also encouraged other bars and restaurants to consider making a similar change to their menus.

She said: "It's our responsibility as suppliers to provide something different for customers. I would encourage more variety, the more choices people have the better.

"There will definitely be no more chips served here – I have no plans to put chips back on the menu."