Edinburgh groom dons chefs whites to cater his own wedding

Rings, suits, cars, vows....and for one Edinburgh groom the small matter of cooking all the food for more than 100 guests.

Groom-to-be Gordon Craig, chef patron of Taisteal on Raeburn Place, is one of the Capital’s finest chefs so finding someone to cater his wedding was always going to be a tall ask. So the chef decided to do it himself and he’s been spending the last week cooking up a storm in his kitchen ahead of his nuptials on Saturday.

Mezze plates are on the menu for the more than 100 guests who will gather to watch Gordon, 33, and his soon-to-be wife Lucy Theaker, 26, tie the knot at Kirknewton House Stables. He said: “We looked into hiring a catering company but we couldn’t get what we wanted so we decided we didn’t want to pay someone when we could do the jobs better ourselves.”

Michelin-trained Gordon opened Field with partner Richard Conway on West Nicolson Street, bringing best man and head chef Byron Kennedy up from London to help launch the fine-dining restaurant in 2013. Byron has been on hand in the run up to the wedding to help the groom prepare the sharing dishes inspired by food Gordon and Lucy have enjoyed on their travels across the globe.

Tables at the wedding venue will be named after places the couple have holidayed including Bangkok, Beijing and Berlin. Guests will tuck into the six sharing platters on each table, all prepared ahead of time by the groom, with help from the bride and best man, before being cooked and plated on the big day by a team of sous chefs from his kitchen.

Gordon, who opened Taisteal in 2017, proposed to his girlfriend of nearly five years at home with the help of her favourite sweeties. He said: “I hid the engagement ring in a bag of Haribo rings which Lucy loves. Usually she demolishes them but this time she wanted to save some for the next day.

“Eventually, I managed to persuade her to keep going and she found the ring.”

Lucy, a business and communications executive, was delighted with the platinum and diamond band and soon they were planning the wedding. It’s a family affair with the mother of the bride making one cake and best man Byron surprising the couple with another three-tiered affair fashioned by his fair hand. It was important to the pair that the wedding was about everyone in attendance and not just the happy couple.

Gordon is nervous about his friend’s speech, even more so than his own, which he plans to deliver off the cuff.

The couple, who met at work when Lucy worked front of house at Field, will be honeymooning in Puglia, Italy, where they are looking forward to discovering new dishes they can recreate at home.

Gordon said: “Lucy and I both love to cook and we make versions of what we’ve had in other countries.”

He isn’t worried about switching off work mode on the big day: “After a few beers, I’ll be fine”, he laughs.