Glasgow Cuisine
- One Devonshire Gardens

One Devonshire Gardens

Award-Winning One Devonshire Gardens
While many chefs maintain a great loyalty to a restaurant in order to build up their own experience and the reputation of the house cuisine, changes are inevitable and healthy for the industry. The younger trainee chefs, following a rigorous and demanding apprenticeship which involves nothing short of a passion for the work in hand, can then move up the ladder. Never a truer word has been spoken than the phrase "If you can`t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".

Andrew Fairlie has been Chef de Cuisine at One Devonshire Gardens for six years during which time the restaurant attained the prestigious honour of a Michelin star.

"The fact that I have been here for six years has surprised a lot of people. It`s a long time in a chef`s life. The first two years were a learning process for me. My first real job under the spotlight. A lot of young people may have a glamourous perception of the industry but the realities of starting in a kitchen at ground level can prove quite a culture shock.

"The first four to six years are a crucial time for a young chef and it`s important that time is devoted to training and motivating them. Training is hard work but you get out what you put in. Some of the young guys have been here with me for three years but I tell them to move on and we try to place people with Michel Roux at the Waterside Inn, the only three star Michelin restaurant in the country."

At the GRA awards it was Andrew Fairlie who picked up the prize for Spirit of Glasgow Chef of the year. "The dining room at One Devonshire Gardens is an experience not to be missed" goes one of many accolades.

Good timing for such an award, for it`s now time for Andrew Fairlie to bow out of the city. This summer he takes up a new position as chef of his own aponymous restaurant at the grand and world-renowned [5 Red star] Gleneagles Hotel in the heart of Perthshire. This is a typical scenario in the industry; once a chef has established a public recognition, through awards, cookery books or a television series they may have the confidence to open their own restaurant.

The chef taking over Andrew Fairlie`s shoes is none other than the celebrated Gordon Ramsay who has enjoyed a highly successful career with his own restaurants in London, [3 Michelin awards] a cook book "A Passion for Flavour" and a Channel 4 TV series. At the end of April he returned to Glasgow to open Amaryllis, at Devonshire Gardens and several diners are already in ecstasy after tasting the Ramsay experience. "Food of a standard as yet unavailable anywhere else in Scotland." enthused food critic Gillian Glover in the Scotsman, the day after the opening.

The opening night banquet was described as a six course menu prestige and included Ramsay`s signature appetiser of a cappuccino style soup - a veloute of white beans with a slick of truffle oil. Then sautéed foie gras and chicken confit, followed by Tortellini with lobster, langoustine and fennel. A main course of lamb fillet, with pineapple. And "a perfect creme brulee ended a remarkable meal".

It seems likely that Gordon Ramsay would be offered membership of the GRA if he so desires - his standard of cuisine is sure to pass their test. Tomkins is delighted to hear about the opening of Amaryllis. " Gordon Ramsay coming to Glasgow is great news because it continues to raise the profile of the Glasgow dining scene. Good luck to him".

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This feature was written by travel writer Vivien Devlin. .

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