Dolce Vito Interview with Vito's Scottish smokers

Date Published:

10/09/2009

There's not much Ruby Marr doesn't know about smoking. After saddling up Vito with a side of salmon she tells 4Food's Hannah Williams about smoking, curing and how to make a cracking paté

What goes on at Marrbury Smokehouse?

The business is run by me and my husband Vince. We started back in 1995. At that point my husband was working for a big smokehouse and he was completely disillusioned by how they were fighting just to get good yields and really going against the principle of what he loved about smoking fish. He was so fed up he was coming home every day feeling miserable, so I said, 'come on why don't we just do this on our own?'.

So we started in our back garden, got planning permission and we went straight to the top right away. We'd decided from the very beginning that we were going to attack a niche market and what we were going to do was produce a really top quality, top end product by hand and go to the Michelin-starred level restaurants in the country and say, 'look, this is what we've got, what do you think of it?'. And within a really short period of time we absolutely snowballed.

We moved premises twice because we outgrew our premises and ended up where we are now, back in 1999 - where we opened, for the first time, our doors to the public and started the tourism side of the business.

Sound's busy!

It is hard because it's really important to us that we produce everything ourselves; we won't allow staff in the smokehouse. In the summer months we have 12 staff who work for us but never any of them in the smokehouse.

My husband produces everything and he has a real passion for what he does. He's very consistent about what he does and checks every single batch. He's absolutely obsessed.

And is it just smoked salmon?

No we've got 22 different products; we've got gravlax, different cheeses, duck, venison, game, poultry and we have four different types of smoked salmon.

So what's the main difference between you and the big guys?

So many differences, the whole process - there's even differences between hand producers. We all have our own techniques and our own recipes. Mass produced smoked salmon can be done in six hours; we take four days. We don't work nine to five; that's a huge factor because when you work in a factory operation you're controlled by automotive processes whereas we're looking at factors right down to the rain, the wind, the air temperature - on a summer's day there's no way our smokers will be on until dark because the air temperature would be too warm.

There are differences in the curing as well. People believe the cooking process in smoked salmon is in the smoking; the cooking process in traditional smoked salmon is in the curing and if a fish isn't cured properly it will be oily, it will be wet and it won't smoke well. Whereas if you have a fish that has been cured by salt and been dried by a natural process for over two days you could actually eat the fish - it would taste absolutely awful but it would be edible before it went in to the smoker. What you're then doing is just adding flavour.

What was it like working with Vito?

Vito was a lot of fun. He brought a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter to us. It was great having him in the smokehouse and working with him but the actual salmon fishing was the highlight for us. That was really quite scary for him. I thought we were going to lose him at one point. The problem with the salmon fishing is the banks are quicksand and, unless you know where to stand, you can very quickly go down for a few seconds and the next thing you know you're up to your armpits.

How do you fancy his chances impressing the Italians with British cuisine?

I thought he was a brave man, to be honest. Vince and I went out to Bologna to the opening which was wonderful. But we also ate out twice in Bologna and the food was wonderful but it is very repetitive. The restaurants are serving the same thing. So if Vito's gone in there with a high end product and something that's a little bit different, I think it's going to be terrific.

Do you think Italians are big fans of smoked salmon?

Obviously being a visitors' centre we do get a lot of foreign tourists and I'm yet to meet an Italian who does not love our smoked salmon. Italians have good taste for good food, they know a quality ingredient and when they taste our smoked salmon they absolutely love it.

Do you think Britain as a nation should take more pride in its food?

Absolutely. One of the problems Vito was up against in his experience in Italy was that certain regions could only sell produce from that region. I think British people should look on their own doorstep at what's available to them. It's surprising what's out there that many of us don't know about.

As a salmon eating expert, what would be your top tips for serving smoked salmon?

If you're using a good smoked salmon, keep it simple - some lemon, black pepper, a few capers and some rocket and that's all you need.

Never buy ready-made smoked salmon paté. Go to a good smoked salmon supplier, ask for some tail pieces and make your own - it's so simple and easy to do. I never encourage people to buy ready-made processed smoked salmon paté because you can make beautiful smoked salmon pate from scratch. Just some light cream cheese, the juice of a lemon, some black pepper a little bit of cream; throw it in a blender, whiz it up and you have freshly made paté.

Finally, what would be your ultimate British dish?

More on Dolce Vito - Dream Restaurant

Vote in the 4Food poll: Which is better - Italian or British food?

Browse all 4Food's smoked salmon recipes

Back to top