Stephen Jardine: Fair play, we’re first class at last

FOR the past year this column has been devoted to Scotland’s blossoming food and drink sector.

In a decade, it has gone from being a music hall joke to our greatest economic success story with exports worth £5.4 billion last year.

After years of food shame we have something fantastic to celebrate. This weekend the party really begins.

The Sunday Times Food List will tomorrow rank Restaurant Andrew Fairlie as the Best in Britain. Not runner up to Heston Blumenthal or Gordon Ramsay, but absolutely top of the pile.

Compiled from 75,000 reader reports, this result represents a historic moment for Scottish food and drink. At last we have broken through the glass ceiling and proved we are not third-best but the best.

The accolade is a huge honour for Andrew Fairlie and his team to add to their two Michelin stars.

What’s perhaps most remarkable is that this isn’t a trailblazing new restaurant just kicking up a storm following its launch. Restaurant Andrew Fairlie opened at Gleneagles in Perthshire a decade ago and last year was placed seventh in the same annual list.

In the last 12 months it has done enough to leapfrog Michel Roux jr’s Le Gavroche, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and last year’s winner, the acclaimed Ledbury.

Since all those restaurants are in London or the Home Counties, Andrew Fairlie’s success represents a seismic shift in British food.

We’ve come a long way, but then so has Andrew Fairlie. Educated at Perth High School, he started his career in a local hotel before winning the first Roux Scholarship aged just 20.

That took him to the great kitchens of France where he learned the skills that inform his cooking to this day. It’s that marriage of precision and technique with the best ingredients that has taken him to the top of the pile.

I first met Andrew 10 years ago and I’m now proud to call him a friend.

He is a brilliant chef and an amazing authority on food and wine, but there is another side to Andrew Fairlie that few people see.

He is a passionate supporter of the catering industry at all levels and devotes a great deal of time and effort to encouraging the kitchen staff of the future. That’s what is potentially most exciting about this latest accolade.

Andrew’s name is above the door, but as of tomorrow all his chefs will be able to say they work in the best restaurant in Britain and will carry that ability and confidence with them in the years to come.

On top of that, all his suppliers will be able to say: “We deliver produce to Britain’s top restaurant.” The knock-on effect could be huge.

So the best is here, but the rest is yet come.