Join us for the first event in our mini-food festival, curated by Coinneach MacLeod, aka the Hebridean Baker. Coinneach talks to Gareth Cole, who runs the acclaimed and very remote Café Canna. It’s one of Conde Nast Traveller’s top beach shack restaurants and one of the Herald’s best places to eat al fresco. Together they’ll demonstrate some of the tips and tricks that Cole deploys in his restaurant, which is perched on a beautiful island measuring just two miles across.

By necessity, and also out of love, Cole and his team make the most of local ingredients from the island and its shores. The café is justly famous for its seafood, landed from the sparkling Hebridean waters. Foraged seaweed is also a mainstay of the menu. Meat comes from the fields next door, vegetables from the garden plot, fruit from the orchard, fresh bread is baked daily and beer brewed on the premises. Gareth’s book is a magnificent celebration of Café Canna and the close-knit island which is its lifeblood. Over 70 recipes showcase the enormous range of dishes produced locally, all of which can be replicated by enthusiasts at home. The range of starters, main courses, puddings, accompaniments and baking is rich and varied, from dulse seaweed croquettes, crab bisque, Full crust Canna beef, Skye Black ale and Blue Murder Pie to Wild gorse crème brûlée, Nettle and spinach spanakopita and Singapore chilli Canna crab.

About the author

Gareth Cole was born in Aberdeen and worked in IT in London before moving with his young family to Canna to develop Café Canna.