A career in oil and gas has seen Gary Maitland live all over the world.
But whether the Aberdonian is in the sands of the Middle East or on the coast of Nigeria, he makes sure he’s rarely without his trusty rowies.
The 63-year-old has spent his working life ferrying butteries from Aberdeen to some of the world’s most remote spots. Along the way, he’s introduced scores of people to the regional favourite, with mostly good results.
Me and My Buttery caught up with Gary on the streets of central Aberdeen during his first visit home since the lockdowns.
And as he prepared to return to Oman, where he works as a freelance consultant in the oil and gas industry, he gave us the lowdown on his wanderings, how some colleagues became addicted to butteries and why he’ll never forget the cheeseburgers on Piper Alpha.
Gary, thanks for talking to Me and My Buttery. So, tell us – where in the world have you worked?
Oh, many places. I’ve been in the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Canada, the US, Saudi, Oman, Dubai and Kuwait.
And everywhere you go you bring butteries?
I always pack two dozen whenever I head back from Aberdeen. I get them vacuum-packed here and then freeze them as soon as I arrive home. I’ll probably eat a couple when I get there.
When you vacuum-pack them you can squash a lot in to your luggage. They’re not like a softie, which don’t come back up. Butteries are flat anyway.
Would all the guys from Aberdeen do the same?
Yeah, and we’d share them around, especially in Nigeria. If there was a guy coming back, he’d share his stuff around. And then when you went home, you’d come back and share your stuff with them.
Some of the others would pack cheesy Wotsits or Penguin biscuits but we’d share butteries.
And when you were thinking about home you’d go to the freezer, pull a couple of butteries out and have them with a cup of tea.
Would you make them last?
I would try to make them last a bit longer, but there were some guys who would just gorge on them. That was their fix.
Would any of the non-Aberdonians eat the butteries?
Back when I started out in the industry working in Dyce, most of the Scottish guys went to the baker’s van at lunchtime to get them. Some of the foreign nationals would see this and ask us what we were eating. In those days there were a lot of French guys, and they got to like them.
When I was out in Saudi, a Columbian guy that had worked in Aberdeen got to know me. When he heard I was going back to Aberdeen he asked me to take some butteries back out to him.
I guess he just liked the taste. And it’s fairly addictive.
So food is important to the oil and gas people?
It’s a comfort thing. I spent 10 years working on the oil rigs and normally the only thing you have to look forward to are the meals.
The food quality declined in the later years when I was offshore because everyone was trying to undercut each other. But when I first went out in the ‘80s – you hear stories about steaks and things like that, and it’s all true.
Did the different rigs have different reputations for their food?
People would speak about the night chef on the Piper [Alpha, the oil rig that exploded in 1988 killing 165 men on board]. He used to make these amazing cheeseburgers. The buns were ginormous.
Sometimes you had to work long shifts, but at midnight the kitchen would start setting up the cheeseburgers.
So, yeah, you’d have a couple of them with a can of Coke and that was you happy. It would keep you going through the night.
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