Scottish chefs share their tips on the best autumn produce to cook with at home

Make the most of the autumn season, with these tips for cosy seasonal dining and cooking by some of Scotland’s top restaurants and chefs.  Autumn is the season of abundance, especially when it comes to wild ingredients, but what are the professionals cooking with at this time of the year?

Here some of Scotland’s best chefs and restaurateurs share their favourite autumnal produce, and dishes, which are ideal for cosy nights in.

Celentano's

Celentano's is a relaxed Italian-inspired restaurant, built on a passion for sharing good food and drinks with family and friends. Awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2022, the restaurant moved from its home in Cathedral House in the east end to the new Arthouse hotel on Bath Street earlier this year. Chef patron Dean Parker shares why he loves autumn. 

He said: “The colours, the flavour, cob nuts and squash, makes autumn a perfect season for cooking. We are just about to add squash into our popular Agnolotti dish making it a super warming primi dish.

"Find it on our menu, next time you visit. I also love the combination of beer (malt) pear and honey.

"We have our own beehives at Celentano’s and the first draw of honey coming out of the hives at the start of autumn is always so interesting. You can taste the frames and notice different floral notes coming through.

"It’s amazing and we are incorporating that into our dishes and drinks here at Celentano’s.” 

Dean’s top tip for autumn cooking at home - Butternut Squash, Pumpkin Seeds, Gorgonzola

Autumn squash Agnolotti dish. Picture: Celentano's

"Butternut Squash is so versatile. I like it best roasted in wedges at 180 degrees celsius with a sprinkle of brown sugar until it’s very dark. Then serve with toasted pumpkin seeds and gorgonzola. It’s a wow!"

Dean’s favourite seasonal ingredient is onion squash. Of this, he said: "the colour and flavours are incredible, but also the starch that comes out of it when cooking is so useful to add to other dishes." He also loves a more exotic ingredient: "I love cooking with Japanese Quince. It grows really well in the UK; it usually fruits around September. The poaching liquid is interesting. It's hard, intensely fragrant and extremely acidic - somewhere between quince, lemon and green apple."

Eleven Fifty Five

Eleven Fifty Five is the new neighbourhood bistro on the site of The Gannet, which was a multi-award-winning Scottish fine-dining restaurant. You’ll always find seasonal menus featuring the best of local and Scottish produce there. 

Chef patron Peter McKenna from Eleven Fifty Five loves autumn. He said: “It’s fair to say that autumn is my favourite food season, long walks in the woods foraging for mushrooms, our game dealers bringing young tender grouse, the first partridges. The menu tends to write itself with every phone call from my supply chain.

“Jerusalem artichokes are incredible at this time of the year, they are so sweet when just dug from the earth, and still sweet before the sugars break down.

"This versatile vegetable is perfect for soups, crushed in pasta fillings, roasted and served with game also surprisingly fantastic in desserts for those a little more adventurous.”

Peter’s top tip for autumn cooking at home - autumn soups

Peter said: "If you're intending to make a butternut squash or pumpkin soup, you’re best to cut these in half then roasting skin side up until it breaks down and the sugars start to caramelise.

"I like to add an abundance of herbs while it’s going through this process, by doing this you will concentrate the flavour by reducing the water content and making it perfect to add to your soup base or to make a pasta sauce."

Ralph & Finns

Acclaimed chef Kevin O’Neill from modern Scottish bar and brasserie, Ralph & Finns thinks autumn is the perfect time for changing your seasonal ingredients. 

He said: “It's a time for warming, comforting dishes and moving away from summer produce.

"It's a great season for well-cooked meats, roasted vegetables and incorporating autumnal fruits in starters and desserts.

“Delicious autumnal ingredients such as sweet and sour red cabbage, sweet potato fondant, tender stem broccoli and figs, take centre stage on our menus at this time of year, alongside seasonal game like Highland venison. 

“These autumnal ingredients also lend themselves well to vegetarian options - our Roast Butternut with spiced potatoes, lentil dahl and curried mayo is a big hit with our customers.”

Kevin’s top tip for autumn cooking at home - Butternut Squash

Kevin said if this vegetable: "Butternut squash is a difficult vegetable to peel. You don't need to do this as the skin is edible once roasted.

"If you cut the squash in half long ways and remove the seeds, you can also lightly toast the seeds, they are a really good way of adding texture to butternut soup, stews or curries. 

"Cut the squash into equally sized cubes and roast at a low heat with olive oil, seasoning, rosemary, thyme and heather honey to bring out the natural sweetness and maximise the flavour."

Lannan Bakery

Lannan's sea buckthorn jaffa cakes | Darcie Meher

Owner of Edinburgh’s ever-popular Lannan Bakery, Darcie Maher said her favourite autumnal ingredient is: "Sea buckthorn is native to Scotland. It grows all over the East Lothian coastline and it's a gorgeous ingredient to use when it’s in season. We make a Sea Buckthorn Jaffa Cake at Lannan. It includes a buckwheat and brown butter financier, a sea buckthorn pate de fruits and a silky dark chocolate ganache."

Cardinal

Tomas Gormley of Cardinal in Edinburgh loves a foraged nut for autumn cooking. He said: "Some of my favourite autumn produce are Cobnuts - the season runs from late August to October, perfect for autumn menus. Unlike most nuts, they’re served fresh and have a bright, juicy texture. I like to serve them with Jerusalem artichokes, black truffle and goat’s curd."

The Palmerston

Llyod Morse of The Palmerston in Edinburgh loves cooking with fish at this time of the year and said: “Acqua pazza – literally ‘crazy water’ – is a fantastic base for stewing fish and shellfish. It’s incredibly versatile: the fish can be whole on the bone, like gurnard or red mullet, or fillets. Always good to add some clams or mussels, or both. “

He shared this recipe for a seasonal fish stew.

Palmerston fish stew | James Porteous

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

For the acqua pazza:

1 head of fennel

1 large brown onion

6 sticks of celery

2 medium shallots

1 leek

1 peeled garlic bulbs, chopped

1 long red chilli, split

Peel of 1 lemon

Peel of 1 orange

1 tsp whole fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

3-4 fresh bay leaves

1 small bunch fresh thyme

6 parsley stalks leaves kept separate

1 bunch of basil

A pinch of saffron (optional)

1 glass white wine

2 tins of tomatoes, or 1kg fresh toms, chopped

2lt fish stock

For the fish:

300g fish per person (gurnard, red mullet, either whole or on the bone)

250g clams or mussels per person

Method

1. Dice or slice the fennel, onion, celery, leek and shallots. Crush and chop the garlic, In a wine thick based pot place the herbs, citrus peel, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, chilli and saffron if using.
2. Gently warm over a low heat. When the pan begins smelling strongly of the spices, but before they begin to colour add the olive oil followed by the vegetables plus the bay, thyme and parsley stalks, all tied up together. Season with salt and cook on a medium heat, slowly, allowing the vegetables to cook but not colour.
3. After twenty to thirty minutes, the vegetables should be soft. Add the tomatoes, season with a little salt and cook for another twenty minutes, allowing the tomatoes to cook and thicken. Once the general ‘wetness’ of the tomatoes have cooked out, add the glass of white wine and again cook until the sauce thickens up and the wine isn’t so strong in the sauce.
4. Pour in the fish stock and bring to the boil, drop the heat down and cook slowly for thirty minutes, allowing all the flavours to mingle and become friends. The stew will need seasoning of salt, pepper, and probably lemon juice before using.
5. The acqua pazza is now your own to use however you wish. An easy way is to get a few fillets of fish and some clams from a fishmonger – around 300g of fish per person. Cut the fillets into inch or so wide strips, or thicker, season with some salt and add them all together along with the clams to the cool stock, cook very slowly until the fish can easily be pierced with a skewer and the clams are open.
6. Finish a glug of olive oil and some lemon juice. You can add anything extra to the base – tinned white beans, or chickpeas, potatoes or whole broad beans left in their shell to braise slowly. Always eat with bread to mop up all the juices.