Couple cooking up new recipes for their future

Stuart and Amanda Clink are operating a mobile cafe called Underdog from a horsebox trailer around their home town of Peebles.

After the first lockdown, Stuart decided not to return to his career as a restaurant chef and with the support of Amanda and the couple’s two children, Billy, 10, and Hugo, seven, took the audacious decision to go it alone.

The venture is very much a family affair. Stuart, 42, explained: “We’ve done what the government said and are working from home with our kitchen transformed into a sort of commercial kitchen. Amanda is here making carrot cakes, we’re doing home schooling, which consisted this morning of getting my ten-year-old son up at six o’clock to come down and get him stuck into the prep list.

“The name, Underdog, sort of just evolved. We feel like the underdogs at the moment because we don’t have a restaurant, don’t have the premises, and when Amanda came up with the name Underdog it felt right for the times.”

At the moment the Underdog cafe operates out of Whitehaugh Farm, but the couple also have a roaming street licence to set up at other locations in town. The cafe’s menu is Scandanavian-influenced, Stuart having worked there in the course of his 20-year career - so expect open rye sandwiches, focaccias, season salads and hearty soups.

Stuart, who acknowledged the licensing support he had received from Scottish Borders Council, added: “It’s nothing pretentious. Just good, honest food.” You can check operating locations by following ‘Underdog’ on Facebook.