A Dunfermline man who worked in financial services for the last 20 years has ditched the corporate world to open a café on the outskirts of Crossgates.

Ray Fagan, who was a director at Barclays Bank, decided on a major change and is set to open up Woodlea Café and Bistro, at the Woodlea Stables just outside the village.

Woodlea Stables is an award-winning bakery and farm shop which offers free range eggs, cheese, fruit and vegetables, and hot drinks.

“I started in manufacturing then financial services. I didn’t like it. I always had a passion for food, this just came up and I thought, let’s go with that.” Ray, 48, said.

Despite not doing any formal chef training, he has always been passionate about cooking and food, and even auditioned for Mary Berry’s Best Home Cook.

In the TV show, 10 home cooks compete against each other in a series of challenges set by the judges, which over the years have included Mary Berry, Chris Bavin, Angela Hartnett and Dan Doherty.

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Ray secured a place on the show, but was unable to go due to the filming schedule. “I needed like four weeks off for the filming… I couldn’t give up a lucrative job to go on a cook show!”

Similarly, he also auditioned for MasterChef but was unable to commit to the time needed for recording the BBC show.

But now Ray has an opening date of February 15 for the café, and he plans to create a menu featuring local suppliers and producers. He also has an Instagram page where he posts his latest culinary creations, called raybothecook.

Speaking of his Instagram page, he added: “I am going to try and bring that level of cooking to here, not necessarily the same dishes, but that same ethos.”

He plans to make his menu “as local as possible”.

Ray hired his first member of staff this week and hopes to employ a team of three or four.

His hope is to “really turn this into a destination café".