Glaschu, one of Glasgow’s most established fine dining restaurants, will join forces once again with acclaimed chef, Brian Maule for two nights on 6th and 7th August. Diners will be treated to a five course tasting menu, offering a unique blend of Maule’s French flair and Glaschu’s commitment to showcasing the finest Scottish ingredients.
Following the success of two initial dinners in May, the event will return with another innovative menu created by Brian in collaboration with Glaschu’s head chef, Graeme Brown to showcase premium summer produce and some of Brian’s favourite dishes from Le Chardon d’Or. The menu features dishes such as Confit chicken bon bon; Marinated cured salmon fillet; Ragu of king prawns; Venison Wellington with dauphinoise potatoes; and an extra bitter dark chocolate mousse with praline crumb. Enotria & Coe has carefully curated a wine pairing to complement each dish. A glass of Moët & Chandon will greet guests on arrival with a complimentary dram of Dalmore single malt to finish.
Brian Maule is a renowned Scottish chef and restaurateur, who owned Brian Maule at Chardon d'Or, often considered one of the finest restaurants in Glasgow until its closure in 2023. Prior to opening his restaurant, Brian was head chef at the two Michelin starred Roux restaurant, Le Gavroche. His career is marked by a commitment to high-quality ingredients, refined techniques and passion for wines.
Chef Brian Maule said: “After two very successful events back in Glasgow City Centre, I am absolutely delighted to announce follow up events at Glaschu. The dinners sold out in record time which is why I have decided to collaborate on more tasting nights. I am delighted to be back at one of my favourite restaurants in the city to showcase some of Scotland’s finest summer produce.”
Located on Glasgow’s Royal Exchange Square, Glaschu offers modern Scottish fine-dining to the heart of the city. Pronounced Glas-a-hoo, the restaurant serves lunch and dinner situated within the iconic Western Club building. The menu embraces Glasgow history and local roots, showcasing the best of Scottish produce. Halibut and Loch Tay trout are freshly sourced by local fishmongers, while meat is supplied by family-owned, John Gilmour Butchers.
Glaschu’s head chef Graeme Brown commented: "We are delighted to welcome Brian back to Glaschu for another two-day event in August. I have always admired Brian and we’ve had a lot of fun with the menu development for the May events. We can’t wait to share an unforgettable experience with our guests, filled with exceptional flavours, creativity, and great company!”
The event is priced at £120 per person. It includes a glass of Moet & Chandon Champagne on arrival, five course tasting menu and paired wines.
Marshall Bass, Territory manager from Enotria & Coe, Glaschu’s wine partner, providing wine for the event added: “I am delighted and tremendously honoured to be a part of this event with Brian and Glaschu for a third and fourth t
00:00Good morning from sunny Glasgow. We're in Glashahoo, I think I said that right.
00:06It's the landmark restaurant in Royal Exchange Square and I'm sitting here with Brian Mull.
00:13Brian, good morning. How are you doing?
00:14Nice to see you.
00:14Nice to see you.
00:17You are doing a special event here. You've already had one of these dinners.
00:23Tell me a bit about the reaction to the first dinner.
00:26Yeah, I mean obviously we did one in May, well two in May, similar to what we're doing next month.
00:34Two nights, Wednesday and Thursday night. So both nights were full, the last one, and I believe we're full again.
00:42So no, it's all good.
00:44And have you got planned for the second one?
00:47Very similar event, matching obviously champagne and arrival and then matching wines to go with the meal.
00:56I'll come out and discuss the menu and we'll have an author who will discuss the wines of why we've matched.
01:04I've actually got the tasting tomorrow. So we'll match the wines tomorrow.
01:10You were one of the chefs who were responsible for making people look at Glasgow food in a different way through the fine dining element,
01:21but also a lot of the chefs that came through your kitchen went on to kind of do their own thing and bring an added energy to Glasgow.
01:28When you look at Glasgow now, how do you think it's going to change since you returned from your time in London?
01:34Yeah, it's changed massively. I mean, obviously I'm back. I mean, we had the restaurant for 22 years.
01:41As you said a minute ago there, there's a lot of the boys who have came through me,
01:45whether they're in Glasgow or went elsewhere, all been successful, which is great to see.
01:52It's a great compliment to myself that, you know, they've listened to what was getting put in front of them,
02:01not just on a work element, but a management and a discipline level, which they've took on board.
02:08And obviously they're doing it on their own now. So that's good.
02:12And in terms of how you think people look at Glasgow now, the food scene, all the different cuisines.
02:17I mean, what was the first big restaurant that you remember coming to in Glasgow when you were growing up?
02:24Obviously Regano. I mean, I'm not from Glasgow, I'm Ayrshire.
02:28So coming to Glasgow was a day out back then because the trains and et cetera weren't the best to get here at the time.
02:37So when I left home, when I left home at 18, so coming back, I was, you know, mid-30s really, coming back to reality.
02:44So when I came back, obviously Regano was still big at the time, when I first came back.
02:51But I didn't really know anybody in Glasgow.
02:53So when we came back after I'd been away for so long, it was really just focusing on bringing quality and raising Glasgow.
03:05Not just trying them all, it was, you know, it was about bringing Glasgow to the map really and raising the name and the city.
03:13And it's not as rough a city as what everybody had always said in, you know, in those years.
03:20But I think now, as you said there, it's important that we have a lot of different cuisines.
03:28And we have casual, you know, a lot more fine dining.
03:32You know, I never really looked at myself as fine dining.
03:36It was more bringing a professional attitude, the professional cuisine.
03:41But I laid back, you know, atmosphere in the room, but making sure that the customers are looked after.
03:48Yeah.
03:49I know one of the things that you enjoyed as a chef in the kitchen was, you know, like getting really good produce and then be able to do something with it.
03:56I mean, I think it's still important to get, you know, the best produce.
04:00But obviously, you know, things are getting hard on the prices.
04:04You know, as we spoke about off camera there a second ago, you know, the price of beef, etc. is going through the roof.
04:11And it's not just beef, it's, you know, fruit, veg, fish.
04:18You know, we're surrounded with water and we're paying more for fish here than, you know, the continent.
04:23And it's, you know, Brexit's not been a great thing, especially for our industry.
04:29Yeah.
04:29You know, we can't grow fruit here.
04:32We don't have the weather.
04:33So, you know, we're having to buy for salads and, you know, we're fruit, etc. still from European markets.
04:41So, there is a, it's getting tighter and tighter on, you know, being able to make money on food.
04:50Yeah.
04:50You know, it's.
04:51Talking of Europe, did you not, as a young lad from Russia, did you not take off to France?
04:58France, yeah.
04:59I lived in France for a year and a half at the age of 19.
05:03Went there.
05:04So, it was myself and.
05:06What was that like in terms of like a.
05:08Myself and two friends left.
05:10We had, we never had a job.
05:12We just, we put money in an envelope.
05:14Three of us and then chapped doors.
05:17And fortunately, we all got into like the best three restaurants in Leone at the time.
05:21Which was mind blowing at the time.
05:24But obviously then it was six day week.
05:26It was a six day working week, which is hard enough when you're doing, you know, a normal
05:33eight hour day, but when you're doing 15, 16 hour days, it's a telling.
05:39But it's, it's what we went to do.
05:43And, you know, we wanted to learn.
05:45I wanted to learn to live and eat like a French, you know, the way the French do and give me
05:51a better understanding of their culture and why, you know, they, they were streets ahead
05:58on food and wine and probably still are to a degree.
06:01One of the interesting things over the last 10 years when I've been writing about Glasgow
06:07food and drink is you meet a lot of chefs that, they've come back to Glasgow, they go
06:11to London or they go to Southeast Asia or they go to America and they, you know, like
06:17they work hard and they earn their stripes and then they come back and they bring something
06:21really interesting to the city.
06:22Do you think that that's like one of the reasons why Glasgow's food scene has kind of developed?
06:27I think that, I think that's a massive importance to any individual, because no matter what industry
06:33you're in, I think it's important that you go away and find who you are as a person, as
06:38an individual, make your own mistakes in life, whether it's your work life or your personal
06:45life, I think that's important.
06:47And bringing that experience back to the city is massive.
06:51So, there is, you're always going to have an element of guys who are girls who are happy
06:58to stay here and work around all the places.
07:03But, you know, in the past, a lot of them were all doing the same thing, whereas now there's
07:08a big wide scope of different food, different cultures.
07:13And that, bringing that experience back with them is important.
07:16An odd thing happened last year, despite the challenges for hospitality in particular,
07:24the amount of independent places that were opening, particularly around the city centre,
07:29and it went up by about a third.
07:31Part of that's bounced back after everything we've been through over the last five years,
07:35but, you know, the fact that there's still independent places like this that only exist
07:40in Glasgow, that's important to a city, right?
07:43That you've got your own places and you've got your own people.
07:46Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, everybody's different in what they want out of their career.
07:51I always wanted to have my own place at the time.
07:55And I think that is massive.
07:56And I think, you know, bringing it to the city, individuality, you know, they're all doing
08:01their own thing, what they believe is right.
08:04Because there's no right, there's no wrong in how you look after somebody.
08:07And as long as we're getting, you know, as people are paying money, they want and looked
08:11after, as we spoke about, and they want and looked after, they want to come out, relax,
08:17you know, enjoy the food, enjoy their wine, and go home.
08:20And I think it's, you know, it doesn't matter who you are.
08:23It's important that, especially now, it's not cheap to eat out, you know, even if it's
08:28just a bowl of soup and a sandwich and a pint, it's, you know, it's not cheap anymore.
08:32And you've got to make sure that everybody's getting value for money.
08:37Yeah.
08:37What's your, when you're putting together a menu, what's your kind of ingredient essentials?
08:42What's your kind of primal staple to things that you need?
08:45I mean, obviously, when we're doing, when I do the dinners, when we did the dinners,
08:49Chardon d'Or, it was all about season.
08:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:52Season, and I was fortunate that I worked with a lot of chateaus from all over the world
09:00who were coming, so a lot of the dinners we had, we had the winemaker coming to do the
09:05actual dinner, so it was important to me that we were showcasing their wine, their individuality,
09:14their chateau, their history, their story, because it was the majority a family.
09:20And so that was important to me, and bringing the food to match their wine.
09:25And it was interesting once, you know, when you do the tasting, and you're doing the menus.
09:33But it's important that you're doing it in season.
09:36You know, you're changing the dinners to seasonal.
09:39I mean, obviously, at the moment, we're getting nice weather.
09:41Yesterday was rubbish, but we just don't know.
09:44So, but in general, we're obviously in summer, you know, we're going into kind of autumn in October
09:52when we're doing the dinner, really, so it's more getting a balance of as much local produce
09:59as we possibly can, and raising the flavours, et cetera, to match the wine that's, you know,
10:07what we have on the evening.
10:08Yeah.
10:09What are your, when you're out and about in Glasgow, what are the kind of areas that you
10:14most value, that are most personal to you, that you end up hanging about in?
10:19What's Brian Mulg's bits of Glasgow?
10:20To be honest with you, I don't really socialise in the town.
10:24You know, at the restaurant for 22 years, I drive in and drive home, always at the car.
10:29So, you know, unless we're going, it was work.
10:34I mean, obviously, we like Indians, so we like to Mr. Singh's.
10:37We go to Mr. Singh's.
10:38Satie's a good friend.
10:40We like Ho Wong.
10:41But then we'll try whatever's new or whatever in the city, when we are in the city.
10:49Like Sir Margo, we were at Margo, my wife's birthday not long ago.
10:54So with us both working again, it's hard to actually get time, you know, together again
11:01to be able to go out and enjoy.
11:04There's some good cracking bits, though, if you do get the time.
