Edinburgh bakery teams up with chef from Michelin recommended restaurant on sandwich 'worth travelling for'
An Edinburgh bakery has teamed up with a chef whose restaurant holds a Bib Gourmand distinction in the Michelin Guide to create a limited-edition chicken sandwich featuring chilli crunch and slow-reared Scottish poultry.
Company Bakery, co-founded by chef Ben Reade in 2017, has collaborated with Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef-owner of Ardfern in Leith, on the Rooster: a ciabatta filled with flavourful outdoor raised chicken, laced with the Ardfern Chicken Skin Peanut Chilli Crunch, pickled carrots, baby gem lettuce and fresh lime.
The sandwich pairs gently cooked chicken with mayonnaise blended with Ardfern’s Chicken Skin Peanut Chilli Crunch, bringing richness, heat and texture. Pickled carrots and lime cut through the richness, while Company Bakery’s renowned hand-formed ciabatta, leavened with a blend of sourdough and yeast, brings everything together.
The collaboration builds on a relationship between the two Edinburgh businesses that stretches back several years. Company Bakery has supplied Hall-McCarron’s businesses and stocks their retail products in its café. Ardfern, an all-day café, bar and bottle shop, opened in Leith in June 2024 and was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand the following year.
The sandwich recipe was developed by Company Bakery’s Connor Stewart alongside co-founder Ben Reade, who previously worked under Hall-McCarron at Eleanore.
The chicken comes from St Brides Poultry, which slow-rears heritage-breed cockerels outdoors for around six months. Company Bakery cooks the chicken on the bone to develop their flavour and texture, using both breast and leg meat in the filling.
Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef-owner of Ardfern alongside Edinburgh’s Little Chartroom and Eleanore, said: “Our Chicken Skin Peanut Chilli Crunch started out as a finishing touch on the menu at Ardfern, where it proved so popular with guests that we decided to turn it into a product of its own. It’s great to see it find a new home in a sandwich.
“We’ve known Ben, Connor and the team for years, so this felt like a natural collaboration. They really understand the importance of good ingredients, and bringing together St Brides Poultry’s exceptional chicken, Company Bakery’s own ciabatta and the crunch, heat and depth of flavour from our sauce has resulted in something really special. It’s the kind of chicken sandwich that’s worth travelling to Musselburgh for.”
Connor Stewart, goods kitchen manager at Company Bakery, said: “Is this the best chicken sandwich in Edinburgh? We think it’s certainly worth travelling for - and we are incredibly proud to offer this as one of our range of wholesale sandwiches.
“A good sandwich comes down to the quality of what goes into it and how those ingredients work together. We use really good chicken from St Brides Poultry, and Ardfern’s Chicken Skin Peanut Chilli Crunch brings a lovely depth of flavour. The pickled carrots and lime balance that out, so everything has its place.”
The limited-edition Rooster sandwich will be available through Company Bakery’s wholesale range, as well as at the Company Bakery Café in Musselburgh and at Ardfern, from Monday 2 November until stocks run out.
Ardfern’s Chicken Skin Peanut Chilli Crunch is available by the bottle from Ardfern Provisions.
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