When the pandemic struck, husband and wife team Chris Heather and Melodie Paterson got their heads together to figure out if there was a way they could help support their restaurateur friends.
With venues up and down the country forced to close and dealing with restriction challenges, it was the idea of offering exclusive bagels at their outdoor street food van that sparked a weekly two year long campaign.
Chris, whose firm Heather Street Food is based at Dundee’s V&A, reached out to a couple of friends who owned restaurants locally to float the idea of a bagel collaboration which would show off the venue’s offering.
Teaming up with Dundee’s award-wining artisan cheese monger, The Cheesery, on Exchange Street first, they launched a nacho bagel, and have since had 20 to 30 different collaborations with various businesses across the local area and the UK.
Each bagel is available for one week only, so when it is gone, it’s gone.
Chris said: “I think there is such a friendly community spirit amongst people that run hospitality businesses in Dundee, and I consider a lot of the other owners as friends.
“I am a huge fan of what they all do. So, I sent a couple of them some messages and said ‘Would you be up for this?’, and they were.
“I think they saw it as a fun way to do something together and showcase what they do.”
Ingredients flown in just for their bagels
As the collaborations grew, Chris even had Michelin star venues including The Peat Inn near St Andrews, The Fife Arms in Braemar and the Isle of Eriska Hotel involved.
“We got in touch with Michelin star places and chefs to celebrate fine dining, unusual tastes and bring amazing ingredients to a street food van at a reasonable price,” said Chris.
“That’s where the excitement came for me. For example, someone wouldn’t expect to get to taste of a Gigha halibut, which is an extraordinary ingredient that you can only get from the West Coast in Gigha.
“We collaborated with The Peat Inn to bring our customers this piece of fish which is only cured on the West Coast by one family. You can’t buy it anywhere and we had to fly it in from there just to have it. ”
Other venues the firm has teamed up with includes Dundee Indian street food vendor, Jim’s Dehli Club and Vandal & Co which opened in the city last April.
The most recent collaboration is with the Eden Project in Cornwall. Chris met with the head chef in Cornwall and organised a three week series of bagels inspired by Cornish ingredients.
This week’s bagel is a vegan one packed with hummus with fresh coriander, toasted hemp seeds and black onion seeds, roasted peppers, carrot, red onion, mint, and spinach leaves.
Next week and the following week will be either a meat or vegetarian option, with fillings yet to be announced.
Why bagels?
Inspired by memories of his dad making his sandwiches as a child, Chris wanted to put a bit of a twist on the homely option.
He and Melodie got looking to the local scene and realised that stuffed bagels were missing.
Chris added: “My dad is from New Zealand, so we grew up on sandwiches. Every morning he would get up at 7am and make me, my brother and sister these really cool sandwiches that I thought were really disgusting at the time.
“He would give us brie and pickle – he even tried to put sheep’s brains in one once. Everyone at school would look at me funny. But looking back, I really loved them and they had great quality ingredients.
“I’ve always thought bagels were a bit cooler than sandwiches. You can get sandwiches everywhere but there us something cool about a bagel. They are a bit more interesting and fun.”
Will the collaborations carry on?
With plans to reopen their second street food truck, which serves up halloumi fries, chips and soft serve ice cream, again for the summer, the team have taken the decision to put the collaborations on hold after the last Eden Project bagel goes live.
“This will be the last one for a little while. It takes so much time and energy and I don’t even make money, but I find it really fun and exciting,” explained Chris.
“I had a lot of them lined up but with it being so busy in the summer with two trucks, it is something I think we will put on pause and bring back again in the winter.”
