You could say that Derek Marshall, owner of the renowned fish and seafood restaurant Gamba in Glasgow’s city centre (pictured above) is an endangered species.
The quietly-spoken chef-patron, who started cooking at age 15 and by age 27 was head chef at Rogano - the city’s late, legendary Art Deco seafood restaurant - has successfully run Gamba for 25 years, an increasingly rare milestone celebrated with a birthday bash at Gamba last weekend. It was thronged with his loyal and long-standing customers who were served with a selection of canape-sized versions of Gamba’s most popular dishes.
While all around him the city centre’s eating-out scene has waxed and waned over the years - Rogano has scandalously been left derelict, the nearby Le Chardon d’Or by Brian Maule has recently closed, celebrity names Michael Caines, Carluccio, Conran, Jamie Oliver and Martin Wishart have come and gone - chef-patron Derek has been quietly doing this thing for quarter of a century, serving around 300 diners over four days a week in his beautiful basement sanctuary for which he personally buys flowers at the city’s Blochairn market.
His own recipe fish soup has become a classic, along with house sole meuniere and scallops and monkfish steamed in paper. So popular is his fish soup, in fact, that last week he handmade three large pots of it, each serving 60 bowlfuls.
But all things come to pass** and now this rare and cherished stalwart of Glasgow’s culinary scene has put Gamba on the market.
“I feel I’ve done my time,” he tells me over a flat white. “Gamba is a great, consistent and sustainable business with no debts, but it needs new blood. This is a brilliant opportunity for someone to take it on, make it their own and take it forward with their own narrative.
“I’ve been coming to this decision for about a year,” he adds. “I used to do seven days a week but when you get a bit older it’s not as easy as it once was even on four days. However, I’m not giving up; I need a new challenge and I want to keep cooking, but on my own terms.” He adds that he may stay on at Gamba under a new owner for a short while if required. Staff will be retained under the terms of the sale.
“But the first thing I want to do when I sell Gamba is get a puppy. I’ve always wanted one and I’ve never had the time.”
*Rogano.co.uk
(** Pardon the Pass pun)