How many times have you stayed at a hotel, guest house or B&B and the only options are either a full cooked English/Scottish breakfast (or similar variations around the world) or pitiful offerings of pre-cooked, warmed containers of eggs, sausages, bacon etc cooked hours ago?
The cooked breakfast is where you can set yourself apart from everyone else. Together with the cold buffet selection of the previous episode, it’s where you show you care for your guest.
At our guest house, the cooked breakfast options have evolved over the years to a point where we think we have it nailed…but are always (as you must be) open to experimentation and improvement.
Many guests arrive at our guest house with one breakfast in mind: the Full Scottish.
It’s a beast of a dish consisting of fried eggs on potato scone, square sausage, haggis medallion, black pudding medallion, grilled tomato, bacon rashers, mushrooms and baked beans (which are always presented in a ramekin instead of sloshed like goop all over the plate).
It’s a supremely boring and easy dish to cook and exceptionally difficult to artfully present.
But many guests love it and we’ll honour their craving by serving the choicest ingredients (eg only ever Stornaway, the king of black puddings) cooked minutes before their chosen breakfast time. Many will cook bacon, haggis, black pudding, sausage an hour before and keep it warm. Don’t. Your guests deserve better and will be able to tell the difference.
A good variety of breakfast options to present your guests will (inevitably) be the cooked version above (or version according your geographical location) and:
- A vegetarian option of the cooked breakfast mentioned above
- Omelettes of your guests’ choice,
- A variety of scrambled or poached egg options
- Some egg-free options
- Options with local specialties (like smoked salmon in our case)
At our guest house, we ramp up the offerings by adding eggs benedict and eggs royale to the mix.
Presentation, presentation, presentation!
Instead of serving dishes agriculturally, take the time to artfully present your breakfasts.
The wonder of avocado.
We offer avocado with almost all our scrambled egg or poached egg dishes. Simply quarter an avocado and slice thinly into 6 slices arranged in in a wreath pattern (three left and three right) encircling some smoked salmon, for example, yields a gorgeous visual. I’ve lost count of the look on folks faces when the dish is set before them and they say: “Oh wow! That’s a work of art…too gorgeous to eat” (and then they take a photo of the dish).
Other fabulous plate adornments are baby vine tomatoes (just three will do it), and pea shoots.
They fill up blank white spaces on the plate, add texture and colour.
As one delightful French guest once put it when presented with an artfully arranged breakfast plate: “So beautiful…you know, in France, we eat first with our eyes…”
Note on allergies and dietary preferences.
Over the years we’ve noticed many guests now leaning toward gluten-free, lactose-free and even egg-free. Some have health conditions. Some simply have preferences. At Highlander House our challenge is to ensure everyone is well looked after and wowed at breakfast.
The cold buffet is a fabulous area to offer chia puddings made with almond milk, overnight oats made with Oatly Barista. Both are gluten-free and lactose-free. Fresh fruit salads, stewed fruit and berry compote are other favourites with our guests.
On the cooked side it’s easy to offer gluten-free options: toasted bread, eggs, bacon, smoked salmon with avocado etc. Egg-free requests cut down options but there are still plenty.
