“Like all good things it happened by accident” - How a whisky visitor centre changed fine dining in Scotland

The award-winning Amber Restaurant at The Scotch Whisky Experience recently added a series of food and drink offerings to celebrate its 25th anniversary. To mark the milestone, the restaurant has launched two retrospective menus featuring some of Amber’s most memorable dishes from the past 25 years, alongside a specially created anniversary cocktail, the Amber ’25.

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Since opening in 2001, Amber has helped champion whisky pairing and whisky-led cooking within Scotland’s dining scene, pairing dishes with whiskies from all five whisky producing regions.

At the heart of the celebrations is the limited-edition ‘Taste of Scotland’ menu. Curated by executive chef David Neave, who has led the kitchen since the restaurant opened, the menu revisits standout dishes from the past 25 years. Each course reflects the evolution of Scottish seasonal ingredients and Amber’s distinctive approach to whisky-infused cuisine.

David, who always wanted to be a chef despite family expectations for him to become a journalist, explained how he came to Amber. Speaking on an episode of our award-winning Scran podcast he said: “It happened by accident, like most good things. All ever I’ve done is be a chef - it’s been about 60 years now - I’ve been cooking and doing various events.

Taste of Scotland Trio of Mains - Amber | contributed

“I’d been cooking at an event, it was the opening of the Seabird Centre in North Berwick, when I met Alastair McIntosh (the founding managing director of the Scotch Whisky Experience). He was quite taken with the food and asked me to come and see the Scotch Whisky Experience.

“I walked in and just got the feeling - something visceral - and I thought, ‘wow, this place, it could be everything.’ Back then it was not fashionable to try and do food of any standard in visitor centres but I thought we could do it here. It just had this feeling, the building, and it still does.”

David presented a plan for a 45-seater self service cafe, which has now evolved into 251 seats in various levels serving food with Amber being the restaurant and whisky bar space. And while whisky paired dinner and multiple course dining are commonplace these days, it wasn’t so 25 years ago, but Amber offered this and had a whisky sommelier as well as David who loved experimenting with whisky pairings.

Being ‘unfashionable’ was something David was used to when he opened a “small restaurant on the harbourside in Dunbar.” Having decided to move away from classic French cookery, David decided to cook with whatever was in season and hyper local. He said: “It was an 18-seater, and I just wanted to cook with things literally within five kilometres of the restaurant. We had the harbour, which was only 50 metres away. Then we had the hills, and we had all the lovely places, little glens and things that run about East Lothian.

“We had guys going out and collecting things, which once again wasn't that fashionable. It's foragers I think they call them now. It was just guys that did it for a bottle of wine, who’d collect the wild garlic and all the wild herbs and various bits and pieces. The fishermen would give me something that was a good particular type of fish and that's what we would cook. Roe deer, venison, that came in.

“I didn’t have a menu. I just cooked so many things. People came, and it was full for about, I think it was about six months ahead. Once I'd finished doing that I knew it was possible to use genuine Scottish produce, and then I thought: ‘can I do this on a larger scale?’ which is where Alastair came in.”

Amber Taste of Scotland Anniversary main | contributed

It was during the Dunbar restaurant days that Michael, David’s son and chef at Amber, started showing an interest in food. David recalled: “He was about two and a half, three years of age, and his mother used to come across because the restaurant we had in Dunbar had a gap in the pass. He would come in his little pram and he’d shout across to me. I think the first word I ever heard, it wasn't mummy or daddy, it was flames. Because he'd see me cooking and burning off alcohol and flames, and he loved the flames. He would shout across: ‘more flames, more flames, flames.’ That, that’s how it started with him.”

Now Michael is a chef alongside his dad in Amber. Having been a runner up of 2010’s Young Scottish Chef of the Year, Michael worked at Amber before heading off and setting up on his own before returning to the fold. Of his journey to becoming a chef, and his dad’s influence, he said: “ I do remember the harbour restaurant and meeting the fisherman and I quite enjoyed seeing the full process. From where it (the food) came from and seeing... I think probably the biggest thing for me was seeing the happiness from customers and people enjoying the food. That’s what drew me to it when I look back.”

Chef David and Wendy | contributed

Amber continues to be a family affair for the Neaves, with David’s daughter, Wendy heading up the events side of things. Of the milestone, she said: “Amber Restaurant is extremely special to our family. My father, David, has led the kitchen with real passion since the beginning, and my brother Michael has also played an important role in the kitchen over the years, following in his father’s footsteps, so it’s something we’ve all been closely connected to.

“Our team have always been passionate about showcasing the very best of Scotland to our guests, and that’s what led to the creation of our Scottish tapas concept. We wanted visitors to have the opportunity to experience a wide variety of Scottish dishes and flavours in a small plate format.”

The Taste of Scotland Anniversary menu at Amber is available to book for 23 - 30 November. To find out more and listen to this full episode, search Scran wherever you get your podcasts.