Alumnus of the Year 2019
Andrew Fairlie (Awarded posthumously)
Andrew’s appetite for cooking was evident from a young age, and at fifteen he began a classical apprenticeship in his hometown of Perth under his first mentor Keith Podmore.
It was Keith who encouraged Andrew to go to College, and so Andrew enrolled in a City in Guilds Course at UHI Perth. At twenty (having followed Podmore to London and the private Members Club, Boodles) Andrew become the first recipient of the prestigious Roux Scholarship and remains to this day its youngest scholar. Andrew further cemented his relationship with the Scholarship by joining the prestigious judging panel in 2006, and his role with the Scholarship gave him immense satisfaction.
The Roux scholarship radically altered Andrew’s perception of both his life and his craft, and with it came an unprecedented honour for a British chef – to work in the kitchen of Michael Guerard, one of the great masters of French culinary tradition. Pres d’Eugenie inspired Andrew for the rest of his career and drove Andrew to establish his own kitchen garden at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie. Guerard’s approach to cooking was inspirational and Andrew adhered to his mentor’s ethos of ‘simple food, brilliantly done’. After his time in the Landes with Guerard, Andrew moved on to world-renowned Hotel de Crillon in Paris for 14 months of gruelling training, which he referred to as his equivalent of military service. After a further two years in France (at Chez Nano in Megeve), Andrew returned to his native Scotland to spend two seasons aboard the luxurious 5-star Royal Scotsman train. He then journeyed south to the Ritz Hotel in London to take up the position of senior Sous chef, then west for a spell as Head Chef at Adare Manor under Executive Chef Ian McAndrew - before returning to France and the opening of Euro-Disney, specifically to take advantage of what he believed to be some of the best management training in the world.
Andrew returned to his native Scotland in 1995 where he both took up the mantle of Executive Chef at Glasgow’s One Devonshire Gardens Hotel, and received not only acceptance into the esteemed Academie Culinaire de France, but also his first Michelin star which he held till his departure in 2001. Edging ever nearer his Perth birthplace, 2001 saw the opening of Andrew’s eponymous restaurant within the heart of the iconic Gleneagles Hotel and Resort. Within its first year the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star and a stream of awards followed - along with the honour of being named in the US publication “Hotels” as one of the top ten hotel restaurants in the world, the only British restaurant to be included.
In 2005, Andrew was tasked with cooking both a state banquet and the dinner for Her Majesty The Queen and world leaders as Britain played host to the G8 Summit where he was proud to showcase the best of Scotland’s Larder. 2005 proved challenging outside the restaurant, when Andrew was diagnosed with a brain tumour. After successful surgery, and a period of recuperation, Andrew was able to return to the kitchen and cook for the dignitaries. Good news was to follow when Restaurant Andrew Fairlie was awarded its second Michelin Star in January 2006, despite Andrew’s enforced absence. It was and currently remains the only two-star restaurant in Scotland. The restaurant flourished from 2006 onward, with more awards for the restaurant and Andrew personally. Taking membership of Les Grandes Tables du Monde, following a period as a Grande Chef du Monde for Relais et Chateaux. The AA Chef’s Chef of the Year was one that gave him huge personal pride, to be recognised by his peers in the industry he loved.
Andrew retired from the kitchen in December 2017 to spend more time with his family, and passed on 22nd January 2019 - survived by his daughters Liona and Leah, and wife Kate, and step daughters Rosie and Kitty.
