A journey which began five years ago in the heart of Hackney has seen a talented Skye chef return to her roots, as she helps to strengthen the island's identity as a world-famous foodie destination.
Driven by a passion for Hebridean produce, chef-owner Clare Coghill founded Café Cùil on Kingsland Road in 2019, introducing Londoners to a menu full of Scotland’s finest ingredients from West Coast crab and Stornoway black pudding.
Just one year later, the beginning of the pandemic would forever alter the trajectory of her fledgling business.
She said: “I was really enthusiastic about bringing Scottish produce to London and had every intention of staying down there to run the café.
“When lockdown came, I decided to head back home to Skye instead of being stuck in a flat.
“Three weeks quickly turned into three months, and I started to realise how much better the quality of life was up here.
“The concept that I was trying to execute with the café came so much more organically and felt like a joy to do.”
READ MORE: Award-winning chef to open new cafe, bar and bottle shop
Aside from the odd hankering for a 2am takeaway, Coghill has little regrets about leaving fast-paced city life behind in favour of relaunching her café in the quiet village of Carbost.
While an appreciation for the diverse cuisines and cultural influences of Hackney is still evident throughout her culinary creations, there’s no mistaking the menu as anything other than a heartfelt love letter to her island home.
She said: “People from Skye, especially those who decide to open a restaurant, are lucky to have grown up surrounded by such incredible produce.
“I learned about foraging at a young age and being able to bring that into a menu is so rewarding.
“This afternoon, for example, I’ll be going to a secret spot where I know wild garlic is abundant.
“I’ll be picking a bunch to turn into a pesto for my menu on Friday.
“There are so many rewarding aspects of being able to utilise what’s around you, especially when you can share that with people who are visiting the island.”
Having just yesterday reopened for its third season after a winter break, the latest edition of Coghill's seasonal menu ushers in brighter days with the likes of Scottish smoked mackerel on sourdough or Lochalsh beef brisket rarebit topped with a rich Orkney cheddar sauce, poached egg and caramelised onion jam.
READ MORE: Recipe: Scottish smoked mackerel on toast from Skye's Café Cùil
Looking forward to welcoming her first customers of the year, she said: “There’s something so inspiring about the direct link you have with producers up here.
“Even just knowing my fisherman’s direct number and getting him to drop off the langoustines live at the kitchen’s back door makes it all feel so much more special.
“Skye is such a unique place for foodie tourism and it’s incredible that people I went to school with, like Calum Montgomery from Edinbane Lodge or Niall Munro from Birch, now run our own businesses with strong, individual identities.
“It’s such a supportive environment because we all share the same suppliers, so will often talk about things like where the best place is to get scallops at a certain time of year.
“There’s a real sense of camaraderie and I think we’re all quite proud of each other and our offerings.”
READ MORE: The team bringing the culture of 'coffee Mecca' to the Highlands and Islands
Like many others who grew up on the Island of Skye, Coghill is a native Scots Gaelic speaker and a passionate advocate for keeping the language present in modern-day culture.
The café itself takes its name from the word meaning ‘a nook, nest or corner’, and adorning its walls are hand-painted murals of phrases like ‘Tha a’ Ghàidhlig beò’ (Gaelic is alive) or ‘Bruidhinn Ghàidhlig an seo’ (speak Gaelic here).
“I’ve always felt that Gaelic is an important of my heritage and identity,” she said.
“Skye is becoming such an internationally recognised travel destination which is amazing, but it also means it's all the more important to make sure our heritage is not being diluted by mass tourism.
“When I opened that café I thought ‘what a great platform for me to try and do my bit for the language’.
“We’ve got a few hand-painted signs with Gaelic phrases as well as bilingual menus with translations for all of our dishes and we encourage visitors to have a crack at speaking it.
“There are some funny results, but even learning those few basic words helps to introduce them to the culture and adds this whole other element of depth to the eating experience.
“Being able to speak Gaelic is such an extra string to your bow, and we can keep it fun, current and encourage conversation then I think it will do wonders for the language."
Café Cùil is located at 4 Satran in Carbost.
For more information, visit their website here.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here