Two cooks who share (not spoil) the broth

They say too many cooks spoil the broth, but two of Scotland's top chefs have come together to open a new restaurant in Edinburgh. And, finds our reporter, the one thing not on the menu is ego

'A LOT of chefs' egos have had to change in the last few years, mine included," says Paul Tamburrini with a chuckle. "As you mature you understand that it's not all about foie gras and truffles. It's about how you prepare a nice free-range chicken leg or a rabbit leg. It's all about flavour now. If anything, that's brought the customer back to the fore."

Tamburrini has embarked on a new project with fellow top chef Martin Wishart, which promises to be all food and no ego. The duo first met in the kitchens of The Balmoral 12 years ago, and by the time Wishart – who trained at Marco Pierre White's L'Escargot in London and at the acclaimed Aird's Hotel in Port Appin – was awarded a Michelin star in 2001 for his Leith restaurant, Tamburrini was working as his sous chef. He then left Restaurant Martin Wishart in 2006 to become executive chef at One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow, but last year the pair began plotting their new ego-free venture, The Honours.

Opening today on Edinburgh's North Castle Street, The Honours will offer high-quality brasserie dining at competitive prices. Gone are the white tablecloths and floral centrepieces of the fine dining restaurants the duo are used to.

In their place are sturdy oak tables and black leather banquettes, a stone floor and polished plaster walls. High ceilings, big mirrors and staff in crisp, classic monochrome uniforms add to the feel of a Parisian brasserie. Gone too is the formality associated with fine dining. Customers can opt to eat at the bar, and a children's menu has been carefully put together. A three-course lunch menu comes in at 17.50 while customers are expected to spend roughly 30 a head in the evenings.

"I think in Edinburgh there's a gap in the market for brasserie food at this level," explains Wishart. "I think we can improve on the quality of the food on offer at the moment, the presentation, the flavours and service as a whole. Paul and I have travelled around for the past few months. We've been to Singapore, to New York to see the offerings they have and coming back to Scotland it's apparent that there's a lack of stuff on offer at this level."

"This style of food is in vogue now," adds Tamburrini. "Look at Daniel in New York or the Mandarin Oriental. Look at Heston Blumenthal. I think there's a market for it. There will always be people who want to dine in Michelin-starred restaurants, but this is about offering people a good service, great food at a decent price. We'll both try to use the suppliers we've used over the years in the Honours, bring them together and let the produce do the talking."

While Wishart will oversee The Honours, he will remain in his Leith restaurant day to day, with Tamburrini – one of Glasgow's star chefs – taking the role of head chef. The menu will be as extensive as it is varied. Customers can sample tapas-style small bites from around 2.50 a plate at the bar or they can opt for one of the restaurant's dry-aged Donald Russell steaks, hung for up to 36 days and cooked over charcoal. They aim, says Wishart simply, to offer "the best steaks in the city", and customers seem convinced before the restaurant even opened: two weeks ahead of opening they already have 160 covers booked.

The Honours' signature steaks will be prepared on a Josper grill, sourced from Grenoble. Wishart and Tamburrini came across the specialist indoor charcoal grill on their travels, and the taste test convinced them to commission one for their kitchen.

"We had a steak cooked on a Josper grill at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Singapore, and we liked it so much that we came back and bought one," says Tamburrini. "It was a sensational steak, incredible. It's a pretty ferocious cooking technique, but once you get your head round it – and after a few burns – well it will be a great asset to the restaurant."In addition to the state-of-the-art grill, the hi-tech kitchen is designed to be as green as possible. There's a hybrid stove, and there's no gas. Instead they've opted for electric plates which heat up instantly so, unlike gas, don't need to be left on all day.

Eight front-of-house staff and eight chefs – including Tamburrini's sous chef from One Devonshire Gardens – were all carefully selected for The Honours, and their Californian barman, who has worked in some of the best bars in New York, will be serving classic cocktails. Wishart is keen that training young staff is an important element of the business and is looking into the possibility of working with institutions and helping staff gain qualifications on the job. Staff from Restaurant Martin Wishart can be fed into The Honours, and Wishart hopes that those staff may one day go on to emulate his own success.

"My aim is to have them leave us and go on somewhere, more qualified with a better understanding, and hopefully one day come back to Scotland and open their own business," he says. "I think when I started in the eighties the training was very limited and there wasn't anyone offering apprenticeship schemes. You had to travel to France or London. But I think in Scotland there is so much potential for diversity, for chefs to branch out into different areas."

Wishart and Tamburrini are certainly ambitious when it comes to The Honours. They are keen to expand the business one day, and chose the name, in part, because it can be easily transferred to other cities. It is named after Scotland's crown jewels, on display in the nearby Edinburgh Castle, and Sir Walter Scott, who was responsible for retrieving the treasures and returning them to Scotland, once lived on Castle Street. It's also a reference to a quote by the Reverend John Trusler from his 1788 text The Art of Carving: "To do the honours of a table gracefully is one of the outlines of a well-bred man." Beyond that they simply wanted a name which sounded established, classic and was easy to pronounce for non-English speakers.

As for the two men at the helm of this exciting new venture, if there are egos present, they don't show. They are men of few words, passionate about food and service and simply keen to get on with the job. But they've got nothing but praise for each other. "This is a great opportunity for me and I admire Martin's work," says Tamburrini. "Speak to anyone up and down the country; everyone knows Martin's name, and I was able to take a lot from working with him. He was the biggest influence on my career. I'd like to think I've grown since then but the fundamentals of the way he works and what he expects are still there. I know exactly what I'm going into."

"I wouldn't want to go into a partnership with someone who wasn't organised, disciplined and someone I wasn't able to work with," adds Wishart.

So do they ever disagree? "Not at all, not at all," says Tamburrini quickly.

"Sometimes I think, 'Shouldn't we have disagreed on some more things?' but no," says Wishart. "And I'm not bothered if something is Paul's idea and I don't think Paul's bothered if it's my idea. Fundamentally what we want to agree on is that what we're serving tastes really, really good."

• The Honours opens on North Castle Street, Edinburgh tonight. Call 0131 220 2513 or visit www.thehonours.co.uk.