Scotch eggs with redcurrant and pickled walnut sauce

With a childhood spent in the kitchen helping her mother and grandmother, it’s hardly surprising that when Joanne Munro got the opportunity to change career, she chose to be a chef.

And 18 years after finding her vocation, Joanne became head chef at a Glasgow institution – Café Gandolfi , in the city’s Merchant City enclave.

‘I was hugely interested in cooking and just loved to cook at home,’ Joanne explains. ‘My mother was a great cook, my grandmother was a great cook and I spent my childhood in the kitchen with them. Then I got a chance to change my career and went into Jacques Boyeldieu’s kitchen at his restaurant 1901 in Pollokshaws. I had no formal training, but he was just fabulous and very influential. He was so passionate about what he was doing and generous with everything he knew.

‘After 1901, I ran the kitchen at an independent Glasgow hotel, but the team was small and I wasn’t really learning anything. Gandolfi was always somewhere I’d admired and was a customer of, so I approached Lynne, the manager, and Seumas MacInnes, the owner, and they gave me a job.’
The move proved to be a natural fit for Joanne. ‘As soon as I joined I was really aware of the quality of the produce being purchased. When I became sous chef I started to take control of some of the specials.’