A COWDENBEATH chef is swapping Fife for Brighton after scoring a job in one of the country’s top vegetarian restaurants.

Robbie Sutherland (33) has been a chef for nine years and for the past nine months has been working with mum Sharon and her partner Stevie at Tilly’s Organic Coffee House in the West Fife village of Carnock’s Main Street. This week, he is leaving for Brighton to take up his new role as chef de partie in the town’s acclaimed Terre a Terre restaurant, one of the most successful vegetarian eateries in the UK.

“I’m looking forward to it, especially to be working at a vegetarian restaurant,” he said. “It’s got a good reputation and is highly regarded so I’m chuffed!

“It will be good to be in a kitchen full of chefs, learning new things. You never stop learning and I can’t wait to find out about more stuff I’ve never seen or heard of before, whether it’s new dishes, new combinations or new techniques.” Robbie’s culinary career started years ago in an attempt to save some cash for travelling.

“I started off when I was backpacking in Australia,” he explained. “Before I left I had to save some money so I was working as a kitchen porter. When I got to Australia, I got another kitchen porter job and when the chef was off one night I was asked to help out with the starters and it just went from there!” Since returning to Scotland, Robbie has worked at restaurants across Fife including one in St Andrews and family-run Tilly’s, where he worked his final shift on Sunday.

“I told my mum and Stevie that I’d help them get started up but I wasn’t going to be there forever!” he said. “I said I’d stay for six months and I’ve been there for about nine now. I’ve spent six days a week with them and it’s a small team.

“I applied for a couple of jobs down in Brighton. I was always planning on going down south and my girlfriend lives in London.” Although he has worked in all kinds of restaurants, the fact that Terre a Terre is vegetarian is exciting for Robbie.

“I wanted to stick to vegetarian stuff because I do enjoy that,” he said. “My mum has been a vegetarian for more than 30 years and other people in the family are too so I’ve been brought up around that sort of food.

“I’m not vegetarian myself but I don’t eat a lot of meat. It opens you up to a wider variety of things you wouldn’t normally consider cooking for interesting flavour combinations.” As he heads off on his Brighton adventure with an exciting new stage of his career ahead of him, Robbie admitted the one thing he won’t miss when he heads down to the busy seaside resort is the Fife weather!

“Getting a bit of sun will be good!” he said, laughing.