I am an Edinburgh based food lover with a dynamic fresh food and drink company called Cater by Barry Bryson.
CURRENTLY
Cater by Barry Bryson is a consolidation of the off-site catering company I launched in 1999. Cater works with venues, events companies, corporate and private clients, supplying creative, delicious food and drink options ranging from formal dinners, weddings and banquets to canapé events and birthday parties. Cater is a fresh food company using only the highest quality seasonal produce. Everything is hand-made in our Edinburgh commercial kitchen and delivered directly to the event address.
I employ many people each year on different projects, all the staff I bring on site or employ for the cafes are always a huge part of what clients and customers enjoy and appreciate about Cater, the chefs and waiting staff have very often been working with me for a few years and all are briefed and trained to the high standards customers expect.
I live in central Edinburgh with my partner Robin who is often to be found organising events with me alongside running his wonderful B&B Ardmor House.
PREVIOUSLY
In the early nineties I trained as a chef at college in my home region of Fife, it came after many years of getting under my mother’s feet in the kitchen and she had suggested perhaps it was where my future lay. After I completed college I went on to work in Edinburgh then London and Australia before returning home to Scotland in 1998 where I began developing ideas for starting my own food business.
The business was born in the summer of 1999 after I was awarded the contract to operate the cafe as a franchise at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery which I did for the next five years. During that time at the Fruitmarket the cafe became what it is now, central Edinburgh’s busiest and most highly regarded arts venue cafe.
After five years at the gallery I embarked on a long planned project to create an Edinburgh neighbourhood cafe which blended the best city centre style, service and seasonal cooking with the warmer, quieter backdrop of a local neighbourhood. Circle cafe opened in the winter of 2004 in Canonmills, over the following years Circle became a hugely popular cafe-restaurant and for five years running it was selected as one of Edinburgh’s best cafes (out of nearly 100!) in the independently rated and reviewed List magazine Eating and drinking guide as well as featuring favourably in several other national publications, food websites and by on-line reviewers who recognised the commitment to using local, fresh and seasonal produce. In the summer of 2010 I sold Circle to pursue other ventures and develop the Cater Barry Bryson aspect, it remains a much loved busy cafe.
