Ambassadors for their country: top chefs gather in Glasgow to celebrate global gastronomy by Cate Devine for Bite

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum dressed for the occasion

As soon as it was announced that Glasgow was to host the prestigious Michelin Guide UK 2025 awards ceremony earlier this month - the first time the event would be in Scotland in the 125 years of the global restaurant guide - speculation was, naturally, rife. Was another Glasgow restaurant going to be awarded a Michelin star? Or would one of its 2-starred restaurants (Cail Bruich and Unalome) even get a second star? Rumours swirled, names were named. Why else would Glasgow have been given the honour of staging a starry ceremony that hundreds of chefs of top-rated restaurants would attend?

Mark Donald of the 2-star Glenturret Lalique Restaurant, Crieff, at the pre-party.

Cold weather and freezing rain couldn’t dampen the excitement on the night as Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum rose majestically to the occasion. Brightly lit and blissfully warm, and with just a hint of the distinctive aroma that hugs history, coats were shrugged off, selfies taken with the Michelin Man and champagne glasses clinked. Then the surreptitious eye-scan for celebrity faces began as anticipation grew. 

As the call came to leave the upstairs bars and take our seats in the packed-out main hall, the magnificent pipe organ - built in 1901 for the Glasgow International Festival - burst into life to begin a stunning duet with the bagpiper (though it was sometimes difficult to hear over the noise of the exuberant chatter below). I spotted Clare Smythe, Tom Kerridge and Sat Bains leaning over the balcony to watch the proceedings from on high. Then the ceremony began.

In the end, the host city got no new Stars, but it gained two new Bib Gourmands for GaGa and Margo. Edinburgh’s Avery and Lyla were each awarded a new Star, plus a Bib Gourmand for Roberta Hall-McCarron’s Ardfern and Tomas Gormley’s Skua. The fifth new Bib was awarded to the Fish Shop in Ballater. No Stars or Bibs were lost. Pam Brunton’s Inver at Strachur remains the only restaurant in Scotland with a Green Michelin Star for its ethical credentials. This brings to 11 the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Scotland, plus our two two-starred restaurants Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles and The Glenturret Lalique in Crieff.

The lack of new stars for Glasgow did nothing to curb its enthusiasm for grasping the golden opportunity - clinched and organised by Scotland Food & Drink and Glasgow Life - to showcase its gastronomic glories.

At the after-party at the funky Old Fruitmarket in the Merchant City, I was proudly informed that Jonathan McDonald and Rob Aitken of Margo restaurant had hosted a pre-awards lunch for some of London’s top chefs including Clare Smyth of the 3-star Core; Claudi Bosi of 2-star Bibendum; Sat Bains of the 2-star eponymous restaurant in Nottingham; Paul Ainsworth of the Michelin starred No6 in Padstow; Gareth Ward of 2-star ymyshir jn Wales, Brett Graham of the Ledbury, and others. Alain Roux and Stevie McLaughlin went there for dinner.

Meanwhile, Lorna McNee at Cail Bruich had hosted Raymond Blanc of the 2-star Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Tom Aikens of the one-star Muse, John Williams of the 2-star Restaurant at The Ritz, Jocky Petrie of 3-star Fat Duck, Bray, and Aktar Islam of the 2-star Opheem. 

Gary McLean and Andy Cumming serving up prime Scottish seafood at the queued-out stall at the Old Fruitmarket after-party.

And two blocks away from Kelvingrove, on the eve of the ceremony, Graeme Cheevers at Unalome had hosted for dinner Alice Bussie of 2-star Hide and Fox, Kent; Michael Viljanen of 2-star Chapter One in Dublin; Mike Tweedie of one-star Oak Room at Adare Manor, Limerick; and Stephen Toman of one-star Ox, Belfast.

At the excellent Michelin industry event at BAaD (Barras Art & Design) venue the next morning, organised by Scotland Food & Drink and hosted by Julie Lin of GaGa, it was good to hear panellist Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, acknowledge the benefits to Glasgow, and Scotland as a whole, of the Michelin presence.

“The impact a Michelin star has on a city is a ‘game-changer’ for the positive impact it has on the food industry as a whole,” he said.

“We’re also talking about the producers, the products, the ingredients. The choice of the product is the responsibility of the chef, but the ambience and presentation of his or her work is down to the front-of-house server. There are more restaurants opening than ever before, and Michelin now covers 50 different countries and is about to expand into Canada." And in that global picture Scotland has a lot to offer.

“Chefs and their teams are opening their own restaurants, bringing experiences that reflect their own personality and local community. That adds a lot to the culinary experience of a city,” he said. “Authenticity is key for Michelin. Chefs are raising the bar as ambassadors of their territory.”

Raymond Blanc of the two-star Manoir aux Quat’Saisons enjoying a scallop and caviar ceviche canapé at the after-party.

This “think global, eat local” mantra was emphasised by fellow panellist Jonathan McDonald of Scoop restaurant group, who described how the Southeast Asian menu at Ka Pao, for example, uses local produce as much as possible to recreate flavours that would otherwise be flown in. He cited Granny Smith apples for an acidic punch, and Arbroath smokies wrapped in locally foraged sorrel leaves to replace the iconic Bonito fish dishes that are wrapped in banana leaves. “It’s all about a sense of place,” he said, adding that he now employs 200 across his four restaurants.

Naming local produce, producers and provenance on menus may have gone slightly out of fashion but for those restaurants that do name them, the benefits to the producer can be significant. Panellist Katy Rodgers of Knockraich Dairy Farm near Glasgow said that every mention of her name on the menus at Cail Bruich, Old Course St Andrews and Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, for example, brings in more customers. 

The chefs brought along some team members to the awards ceremony and to eat in the city, echoing the importance placed by Mr Poullennec on front-of-house to any restaurant.

A burning issue was the lack of female chefs coming into the industry, and in a video presentation Clare Smyth, Helene Darroze and Lorna McNee were showcased as shining examples of how far it’s possible to go and to encourage more young women.

“You can do this!” said Chef Lorna.

And Glasgow proved her point by daring to aim high - and succeeding with honours if not more Stars