Caiplie House Goings On

I am offereing a great deal for friends in June….TWO for the price of ONE

But how do we classify Friend? Friend on Facebook mmmmm sorry but I don’t really have a relationship with lots of these people. How about the old friend from school you haven’t spoken to in twenty years?

Or should we classify friends as those people who exchange Christmas cards? For those Christians amongst us that is surely the litmus test?

Well I have to confess I don’t send Christmas cards….sorry. Not through any strongly felt philosophical reasons. Unless laziness can be termed as such? Thanks to you guys who persevere and send cards year after year. Actually I usually open them around Easter time on my return from the Alps at which point they look kinda strange.

Anyway why not take your chance….are you a friend?
Book two for one…
twoforone@caipliehouse.co.uk

A few people have stopped and frowned, a couple have started shaking their heads and one even looked at their watch!

‘Whit you doin back?’

We are creatures of habit and as I have returned to my summer residence a little earlier than usual I have confused a few of the locals! A few years ago when I had a very long season and the swallows had arrived before I had again people were worried. I think people look out for the first signs of spring before pruning and planting; daffodils appearing, lambs in the fields, Finlay appearing home.

So it is not just the locals of Crail who get confused. I have a bit of a crazy week getting adjusted…I think the body copes OK….it’s the head. This time last week I was race training a group of guys for their Giant Slalom test in Pila, co-ordinating the AVMS test for snowsport instuctors, coaching French and trying to squeeze in a few powder runs through the trees.

This week I am back to cooking breakfasts and making beds!

I am lucky I love both parts of my Jekyll and Hyde existence and it is always a tonic coming back to the Eat Neuk, meeting new people and welcoming them to Caiplie House

Its that time of year when I pack up and head off for the mountains. Like the migrating birds gathering in the fields the preparation is all important!

Charing round the house trying to find those continental socket adapters, I must have a hundred of them but can I ever find them? I find them in the spring when I come back with six new ones!!

The wardrobe choice is just as much fun……packing for a four month trip you have to make some big decisions…..should I take the Beach Boy shirt for the inevitable beach party or the head dress so I can a pass as a good arab?
This is very mood dependant and I have found myself having to put up with a crazy selection of clothing which seemed to be chosen purely on the basis of what parties maybe on rather than day to day wear.
The opposite is true! That if on the 28th of November you are in a somewhat sober mood you are stuck with a rather drab autumnal wardrobe until the end of April

There are still some spaces on John’s courses 12th-16th November:

The 14th is now sold out and on the 15th there is limited availability.

John is a top quality chef and a great teacher. What’s more he is great fun in the kitchen too!

It's all in the presentation!

 Here are some of the courses available. Give me a call to find out more about what is available on certain days, or to find out more about each course.

Full day courses

Cooking techniques for meat and fish and creating a perfect sauce

The perfect dinner party

Can’t cook would like to cook (recently retired husbands??!!)

Mediterranean cookery

French regional cookery

Student survival

Panic free Christmas

£110 including lunch

1/2 day courses

Easy desserts with a wow factor

Hot and cold starters

An introduction to Indian Cookery

Stocks and sauces

£60 including lunch

I am offering crazy prices for B&B during the courses. Single rooms at £27.50!!! and doubles or twins at £22.50 per person.

If you would like to book a course please give me a call regarding dates and availability. These courses make great early Christmas presents!

01333 450564

Finlay

To find out more about John and his cookery school please visit his site www.guesthouseinlanguedoc.com

I am Finlay Kerr no fancy middle names for me although I have had to tag on a Jnr.  Finlay Junior.

There is of course, Finlay Senior or Father Finlay, Old Finlay or Big Finlay. To confuse things there was Uncle Finlay but no longer and before I arrived Old Finlay was actually Grandfather Finlay!

Anyway I suppose I was wee Finlay for quite a while until I got up to big Finlay’s shoulder and as a tough rugby playing eleven year old didn’t really like being wee! So for a while I was young Finlay but at fifteen you feel pretty grown up so young doesn’t really feel right! It must have been around then that I went Junior.

Now for most of those years there weren’t many of us around us Finlays had to stick together. A few had drifted in from the West but we were a rare breed. However a strange thing happened in the late eighties or early nineties a new Finlay appeared and a female one ….in Australian soap Home and Away….what?

Wee Finlay F

Surely this wasn’t the reason that soon after a veritable crowd of Finlays appeared ? There were baby Finlays everywhere. For years I was pretty certain if someone shouted Finlay it was for me! Of course if it was my Mother shouting my Father and I looked at each other and remained silent. Now I flinched as I walked down the street. Finlay stop that! Finlay get down!

Of course there were The Archies the Anguss the Bruces and the Malcolms as well. All the old Scottish names have come back in vogue.

Interestingly I got an email from a regular visitor to the B&B here in Crail, a German called Stefan who along with his wife Julia have visited every summer since I have been here at Caiplie House. In fact they got the shock of their lives last summer when they turned up and Mad John Boggie was booked in to perform his first ever stand up gig. I am not sure they got all the humour! Not even the native speakers did!

Anyway Stefan was telling me they had just had a baby boy and guess what……..after deliberating long and hard they have gone for an ancient Scottish name over a German name, there is a new Wee Finlay! Finlay Fasbender

Best wishes to you all!

Finlay Jnr.

A very good friend of mine is coming to Caiplie House in November to run some cookery courses. As well as being educational they are sure to be great fun!

John McFetridge and I met in 1993 at the start of the winter season in the Alps, we struck up an instant friendship which resulted in us going into business together and running ski chalets together, primarily in the Savoie region of France.

John was already a very experienced chef and caterer when we met fifteen years ago. Over the years I have learnt a lot from John as I progressed from ski guide and pot washer to assistant chalet boy and then to be cooking in my own chalet!!

It was with these new found skills that I had the confidence in 2002 to purchase Caiplie House in Crail and have my own catering business as well as remaining a partner in The Winter Adventure Company.

In 2007 after cooking at Caiplie for residents for five years i plucked up the courage to start cooing for non residents. As I type I am preparing for a busy weekend in the restaurant in my second summer. Who would have thought it after heading to the Alps in 1993 as a Rep.? 

So that is my cooking history story….yours could start this November!!

Learn the tricks of the trade

Whether you want to go and do a winter season, open a guest house or host better dinner parties these courses will be great for YOU.

Contact us to book your place, cookerycourses@caipliehouse.co.uk

residential or non-residential places available.