It is 3pm on a Thursday afternoon when Lorna McNee slips into a booth at Cail Bruich, her Michelin starred restaurant in Glasgow’s West End. Outside the window the sky is Mediterranean blue and inside this gastronomic temple of pristine white table cloths and soft brown leather chairs, the outlook is equally sunny.
McNee achieved a Michelin star for Cail Bruich within months of becoming its head chef in 2021. She has recently wrapped a successful tour as the new judge on BBC2’s Great British Menu. For six weeks she and her fellow judges Tom Kerridge and Ed Gamble have been tasting the dishes of the nation’s top chefs and deciding who got cut off at the pass.
The grand finale was an elaborately catered banquet at Blenheim Palace where McNee had the opportunity to exchange her chef whites for a striking evening dress. Yet this afternoon, she is back in her traditional uniform, taking a break to talk before the staff “tea” of fish curry, rice and naan bread at 5pm, and service begins at 6.30pm.
As a former contestant and winner of the programme, which pits the finest professional chefs from across the UK against each other in high pressure but realistic culinary challenges, McNee thought judging would be a more relaxing endeavour.
“It is nerve-wracking in its own way. I’ve seen the other side of the programme as a competitor and so you think: ‘This will be great.’ You get to try all this great food, you think you can relax and enjoy it, but at the same time I can put myself into the contestant’s shoes as I’ve been there.
“It was very nerve-wracking as Tom and Ed have their own way and have known each other a long time, so I had to think how to integrate myself into the judging team. But they were great, it was very open arms and friendly. I’ve known Tom for years.
“The first few days I kept thinking that all these chefs have poured their hearts and souls into this and so when they came into the judging chamber one of them is going home. I know how that feels, standing where they are standing, thinking: ‘Please let it be me, please let it be me that goes through.’”
McNee, a young tomboy raised in Morayshire who once had to be dragged to see the Spice Girls by her mum and sister, had no interest in cooking. She had initially wanted to be a professional photographer but it was while working as a kitchen porter in a family-run Italian restaurant that she first began to consider a career in cooking. The chef pushed her to apply to study hospitality at Moray College, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, and there her tutors began to praise her work, particularly an early bechamel sauce and her elegant knife work. “I’d never been academic and so I was finally being encouraged and being told I was good, made me want to be better.”
When her lecturers took the students to dine at Andrew Fairlie’s restaurant at Gleneagles Hotel, McNee could see her future unfold one bite at a time.
“This was the first time I recognised how good food can taste. I had never experienced flavour like that. I can remember everything I ate.” (For the foodies the menu consisted of a canapé of parmesan cheese sablé followed by shellfish risotto finished with scallop roe butter, while the main course was a veal pie with bone marrow, a confit tongue in a deep red wine sauce, and the dessert was a chocolate assiette.)
McNee spent a few weeks at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant at Claridge’s Hotel in London and his was the first cookbook she ever bought. It was his singular passion and drive she most admired, not the famous hot temper and foul mouth.
“Growing up Gordon Ramsay, for me, was the person I idolised. It wasn’t about the shouting and swearing, it was about the fact that he was a determined person and he wanted to be best and that is what I was aiming for, that is very much in my character: I want to be the best. I liked that determination in him, the drive to strive for what you want.”
Unfortunately, he was only once in the kitchen during her spell in London. Instead it was her 12 years working under the late Fairlie at Gleneagles that shaped how she runs her kitchen today. “What I loved about [his] kitchen; it was calm, it was like a ballet, everyone was instructed and what really shone out for me was the real love of produce and doing the best … he had a gentle humane way about coaching and teaching that is what I fell in love with.”
Yet it also ignited a desire that she would eventually achieve. “When I started at Andrew Fairlie the goal was: ‘I’m going to be the first female to win a Michelin star.’ I had that from the beginning.”
It was a goal achieved in 2021 when, under the restrictions of the coronavirus lockdown, she was told of her success over Zoom. “I just burst out crying. It is a very surreal feeling because it is something you want for so long and you finally manage to achieve it.”
Today, McNee’s singular focus is on building on her success and achieving a second Michelin star. This year the Michelin Guide launched its annual awards in Glasgow in recognition of the city’s growing reputation for great food and fine dining. “Scotland is fantastic in general. Now we are being more recognised. We have the best produce in the world. Our shellfish goes down to London and China because it is the best you can get. It’s fantastic there is also recognition that we are a great culinary city.”
Yet no one in the hospitality industry is having an easy time at the moment, especially with price rises and higher national insurance contributions. However, McNee remains confident.
“It is difficult. Everyone is feeling the pinch in the pounds. I’ll only use the best ingredients and source and that comes at a price, which impacts our menu, which impacts people coming to dinner because it is a lot of money. It is a luxury. Anyone you speak to in the industry is feeling it and hopefully there will be a turn for the better.”
As our conversation draws to a close I ask if she will be returning to the BBC for seconds: “I’ve no idea. Hopefully, I would love to as I so enjoyed it and having now done it once I think I’d be in better stance for next time. I would love to be asked back.”
Cail Bruich is at 725 Great Western Road, Glasgow, www.cailbruich.co.uk. Great British Menu is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
