“We launched Scotland's only dedicated cookbook shop in Edinburgh - I wasn’t expecting support from Nigella!”
Martyn Bryson and partner Liz have launched Scotland's only dedicated cookbook shop in Edinburgh - which has even received support from Nigella Lawson.
Welcome to Scotland's only dedicated cookbook shop - located in Edinburgh - which has been backed by celebrity chefs like Nigella Lawson.
Martyn Bryson and partner Liz founded The Cookbook Shop after noticing a gap in the market and launching a Crowdfunder.
The couple reached out to several famous chefs with details of their plan - and received support from Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi, who donated signed books. After two months of business, the pair, who have a background in publishing, have been overwhelmed by the support from their local community.
Martyn said: "When we first started this fundraiser, we weren't expecting as much support as we ended up getting. We reached out to some chefs' teams on a whim, expecting no response at all - we're not big names in the industry and this is a brand new business. But they were incredibly generous with their support.
"We had donations of signed books from Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi, but also a lot of local people - Stuart Ralston helped us out with a couple of signed copies of his books, and he's a really big name locally in Edinburgh.
"That gave us a lot more confidence with the starting of the business than we may have had otherwise. When we did open, the reception was so positive, and it did give us a sense that there is a desire for this and chefs, people in the industry, see value in the idea."
Martyn described an initial "learning curve" - as he says partner Liz is the more experienced chef - but he has now thrown himself fully into the world of cookbooks.
He said: "In terms of the content of the stock, my partner is really the expert - even before this.
“I was familiar with them, but it wasn't really something I'd thrown myself into in the past. It took a little bit of adjusting to be able to comfortably understand the stock well enough to make recommendations and answer people's questions, but I've learned so much in the last six to seven weeks."
The shop has attracted visitors from the local area, as well as tourists who have travelled to Edinburgh specifically to visit the store, which Martyn says is always "surreal" to hear. Customers regularly visit with queries about specific diets, like vegan or gluten-free diets, as well as ways to make use of local plants and mushrooms through foraging.
He said: "We have a very varied group of people who come into the shop on a daily basis. We get a number of tourists, but we've also found a number of people who have travelled into Edinburgh - whether that's from inside the UK or further afield - that have come here specifically for us. It was just so unexpected.
"My favourite part is when people come in and they talk about books that remind them of things they can get at home - ingredients that people recognise from their childhood, or foreign language books.
"I get a lot of requests for specialty diets - we have a section for vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free diets, and that's the thing I'm seeing more and more of. We also get people who are looking for local foraging and wild foods, especially with spring being a good time of year for that. There's a lot of local greens that are edible here, like wild garlic and gorse."
The couple, who live locally, say that connecting with the community is key, and have plans to host many events in the shop over the coming weeks and months.
Martyn said: "We don't just want to be a place that tourists come and spend money - we want to be a local community space as well. Our biggest priority at the moment is to expand our events.
“We're at a beginner level, where we have one event a week this month, but we plan to do them more frequently than that. We want to have book clubs, film nights, and we've already got a mixer planned for Pride Month in June. We're hiring at the moment, in order to allow us to do that a bit more effectively.
"We want to be part of the city, and not just another shop that doesn't integrate with the way people actually live their lives."