Before being appointed in 2017 to lead the kitchen team at Gleneagles, I held senior positions at the Shangri-La Hotels group, as well as head chef roles at the Michelin-starred Drakes on the Pond and Heston Blumenthal’s Riverside Brasserie.
The move from London up to rural Perthshire was one I was eager to make. As soon as I arrived at the gates, I knew I wanted to work here, join an amazing team, and be a part of this iconic brand.
The breadth of the culinary offering at Gleneagles is among the largest and most diverse in the world, and for chefs at any career level it offers unparalleled development opportunities.
Over the past five years, the hotel’s been transformed with the largest investment programme in its 100-year history and it’s been incredibly exciting for our culinary team to be a part of that journey.
We’ve relaunched our iconic fine dining restaurant, The Strathearn, as well as our clubhouse restaurant, The Dormy; we’ve created a new café, a new brasserie, an afternoon tea lounge; and we’ve launched three new bars, all of which have their own culinary identities and styles.
What I’m most proud of is building a diverse team to deliver consistently across all these outlets, so that regardless of where our guests dine – and whether they’re enjoying breakfast, a simple sandwich or salad, a curry or a pizza, or a decadent three-course dinner – the dining experience they have is best in class.
As well as transforming front-of-house spaces, all back-of-house areas in the hotel – including our kitchens – have received significant investment. From cutting edge equipment to the installation of a new pastry kitchen, all our culinary workspaces are industry-leading.
Additionally, we’ve evolved our private dining offering by creating a range of beautiful new event spaces and experiences in the hotel, including a chef’s table at our open kitchen, where we recently launched an innovative guest chef collaboration programme, The Strathearn Series. This sees us inviting established and aspiring culinary stars from around the UK to host one-off dining experiences throughout the year.
We’re also surrounded by some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world, which lends itself perfectly to unique culinary experiences. If someone wants a picnic on the golf course, a sumptuous loch-side lunch while they’re fishing, or a candlelit supper in a stone bothy on top of a mountain, those are requests we relish. That’s the beauty of Gleneagles – everything is managed in-house. I can’t think of many other properties in the world that have this scale or scope of culinary offering.
For a chef, the best thing about this part of the world is the vast natural larder of outstanding regional produce. We change our menus regularly, to reflect the shifting seasons and make the most of these incredible ingredients at the right time. Our langoustines are creel-caught on the west coast of Scotland and delivered daily to the estate. Our wild venison comes from deer that have roamed freely across Scotland’s glens and mountains. Our berries are handpicked from a farm just a couple of miles away, and our wagyu beef comes from cattle grazing in a field just a stone’s throw from the hotel.
We’re lucky to have ingredients with such an enviable provenance – the fields, woods, mountains and waters around here are a cook’s paradise. We have access to some of the finest and freshest seasonal produce in the world, and that makes me and the team – and in turn our guests – very happy.
