Home Food Restaurant Reviews Recipes Drink Distilleries Whisky Gin Craft Beer Locations Scran Podcast Chef Nicola Blaque is a guest chef at a Scottish restaurant this month - and it’s well worth making a booking. There’s no denying that there’s some excellent places to eat in Scotland right now, from high end to relaxed cafes and bakeries. If you’re looking for something totally different, then this new chef residency is well worth booking.
Chef Nicola Blaque, who is based in San Antonio in Texas, is taking over the kitchen at Gaga in Glasgow for two days only. Chef Blaque is an award-winning chef who owns The Jerk Chicken Shack, Mi Roti and Freight Chicken. After serving in the army for 10 years, Blaque attended culinary school before setting up her own restaurants and, in 2023 chef Blaque was nominated for a James Beard Award for the best chef in Texas .
Blaque’s dishes showcase her Caribbean heritage, as well as shining a light on the history of food and its links to the slave trade, such as fried chicken . Blaque is visiting Scotland as part of the Culinary Diplomacy series from the U.S.
Embassy and Oxford Cultural Collective, which have partnered with the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, at the University of Glasgow. She was one of a panel of speakers discussing the topic of ‘envisioning a harmonious future from colonial legacies', which took place at Glasgow University on 24 September. Speaking of the dishes that she’ll be cooking at Gaga , Blaque said: .