Restaurant Andrew Fairlie named in world’s top 100

Andrew Fairlie in the kitchen at his restaurant in the Gleneagles Hotel. Picture: Robert Perry

Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, based at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, was one of just eight UK-based restaurants to make the list, compiled by the elitetraveler.com website.

Naming the eatery’s Home Smoked Lobster, Warm Lime and Herb Butter as its standout dish, elitetraveler.com said the restaurant had become an ‘epicurean citadel in the lush Perthshire countryside’.

Paying tribute to Fairlie’s focus on locally-sourced produce, elitetraveler.com added: “His focus on quality, locally sourced materials means staff members are often found foraging in the hotel grounds.

“A chef of exquisite skill, he masterfully turns the best of Scottish produce – from wild salmon to Aberdeen Angus Beef – into legendary dishes.”

• Review: Restaurant Andrew Fairlie

Awarded the first Roux Scholarship at the age of 20, Fairlie held a number of high-profile positions in the catering world before returning home to Scotland to open the eponymous restaurant in 2001.

His restaurant is the only Michelin two-starred eatery in Scotland, and one of just 15 throughout the UK.

It was named one of the world’s top 10 hotel restaurants by Hotels Magazine in 2002, with Fairlie being named the inaugural Scottish Chef of the Year later that year.

In 2006 he was named AA Chef’s Chef of the Year and was named a Relais & Chateaux Grand Chef du Monde in 2011.

Restaurant Andrew Fairlie came out on top in the 2012 Sunday Times Food List of the top 100 UK restaurants and has had his restaurant listed in elitetraveler.com’s top 100 in the past.

• Elite Traveler’s top 100 restaurants in the world 2015

Reviewing Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in July 2013 for the Scotland on Sunday, Richard Bath said: “It’s more like an updated version of a top-end Parisian salon, sort of Alain Ducasse meets Terence Conran, but as well as mixing the classical and the contemporary, the ambience is surprisingly relaxed for a place where you sometimes have to book months ahead to get a table at the busiest times.

“One of the surefire signs of upper Michelin-star territory is the overkill when it comes to staff numbers, and although Fairlie is relatively (and joyously) parsimonious on this front, we were seamlessly whisked along into our meal by our knowledgeable waiter.

“From the environment and waiting staff... to the end product on the plate, this was an excellent meal, even judged through the prism of our inevitably ramped-up expectations of a two-star restaurant.”