MICHAEL SMITH - Head Chef, The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye

“Undeniably, a huge part of The Three Chimneys is the food and I have enjoyed the challenge of taking over the reins of a restaurant with such a high quality, international reputation. I feel very fortunate to have access to such a wide variety of high quality produce. My relationship with Shirley is very important to the continued success of the restaurant as is maintaining the high standards she has set over the past 24 years. Like her, I am extremely passionate about the Scottish food and restaurant business. I believe that we serve the most genuinely seasonal, local fresh produce available in Scotland and do so at a very high standard.”

Michael was born in 1971 in Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands, where he grew up and was educated. The son of a local GP, he was encouraged to leave school and secure qualifications in hospitality management. However, from an early age he was determined to become a Chef. He worked in a local hotel as a kitchen porter, during the school holidays and at weekends. Owner, Adrian Pieracini, encouraged him to become involved in the industry and upon leaving school, he was employed at Arisaig House Hotel on the west coast of Scotland near Mallaig. In 1990, Arisaig won the Taste of Scotland Award for Best Country House Hotel. Michael’s early career took shape and he rose to the position of Second Chef before moving to London in search of the bright lights and to further his experience.

Michael joined the staff of Le Pont de la Tour, one of Terrance Conran’s new restaurant group, very much in vogue at that time. Conran restaurants were renowned for their large, fashionable interiors and wonderful brasserie style cooking. During his time there, Michael rose to the position of Senior Chef de Partie and the restaurant won a Michelin Red M, denoting its skilful, high quality cooking within a lower price range than normally attributed to Michelin starred restaurants. During his time at Le Pont de la Tour, Michael spent two-and-a-half months training at Le Gavroche, owned by the Roux brothers and deemed to be a truly classical French restaurant, the first of its kind to be opened in the UK.

After 3 years, Michael moved within the Conran Group, to work as Jeremy Lee’s Senior Sous Chef at Blue Print Café at the Design Museum. Blue Print also won a Michelin Red M during Michael’s time there. Chef Jeremy Lee hails from Dundee. His respect for first class ingredients cooked and served simply in traditional ways, appealed greatly to Michael’s developing style. As Jeremy stated himself recently on the BBC TV series Great British Menu, although more formally trained in the past, his cooking became more and more produce-led with the food being the most important factor in the customer’s dining experience. Jeremy describes Michael as having “marvellous enthusiasm and great spirit”. He also accredits him with being an “excellent organiser” and having the ability to “build a great team”.

In 1999, Michael was head-hunted by Andrew Radford and his close colleague, the late James Sankey, who were about to open the Blue Bar & Restaurant in Glasgow’s stunning new Lighthouse Centre. This was to be the sister restaurant to Andrew Radford’s long-established Atrium Restaurant and Blue Bar in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, the business did not succeed, due to Radford’s personal and financial difficulties at that time. Michael, now married with a baby daughter, had been extremely enthusiastic about returning to live and work in Scotland as Head Chef of this exciting new venture. He was described by Andrew Radford as being “a very, very good and competent cook, passionate about what he does, enthusiastic and keen”. The failure of Blue Bar was a bitter disappointment to Michael, but he was soon swept-up by local Glasgow businessman, Stefan King.

Michael moved on to be Head Chef at King’s newest ventures, Arta at the Old Cheese Market in Glasgow’s Merchant City and also, Gong, in the West End in the year 2000. He designed and developed both kitchens and the menu concepts of each restaurant. He trained and installed a Head Chef at Gong, while he worked from Arta, Scotland’s first fashionable Spanish restaurant, offering authentic tapas. He took on this role with his usual professionalism and all-round enthusiasm, proving his versatility by researching ancient Spanish recipes and importing high-quality specialist ingredients when they were required to complete his dishes. Arta was an immense success and Michael’s reputation began to grow in Scottish circles. He was described by Andrew Fairlie, now holder of two coveted Michelin Stars at his own restaurant within Gleneagles, as one of the Chefs he most admired. “His cooking is hard to beat,” said Fairlie – a most flattering testimony to Michael’s intrinsic talent.

In 2004, Michael was interviewed by Shirley Spear as a possible replacement for her Second Head Chef, with a view to becoming Head Chef of her kitchen at The Three Chimneys in the future. Shirley was immediately taken by Michael’s genuine enthusiasm for working with fresh, Scottish ingredients of the very best quality, such as he would be using daily in Skye. The food at The Three Chimneys and its outstanding reputation were most important factors in his interest in being considered for the position. His outgoing personality and added eagerness towards moving to the island and the lifestyle that would go hand-in-hand with the job, were also key factors in helping Shirley come to the decision that he was the special Chef she was looking for. Having joined her team in late-June 2004, Michael became Head Chef in April 2005. Over his first few months, he and Shirley worked closely together. Shirley was keen to pass on her twenty years of hands-on experience working in Skye, dealing with the large number of small suppliers, local growers, producers and fishermen. Everything from the vagaries of the weather to the seasonality of a tourism-related, rural business and the whims of local delivery and tradesmen, were all things that Michael began to realise had an effect upon the day-to-day working of The Three Chimneys kitchen. Recruitment issues were others, but over the first year or so, he and Shirley built a whole new brigade. Michael’s team leadership skills soon became obvious as he involved everyone in every aspect of work in his kitchen.

Michael and Shirley cooked the Taste of Skye dinner for the 120 delegates attending the inaugural conference of Slow Food UK, held in Skye in August 2005. Carlo Petrini, the movement’s founder was in attendance and showed great admiration for the simplicity and freshness of his meal that evening and the quality of the local ingredients. Having retained their 3 AA Rosettes for food under Michael’s leadership, The Three Chimneys kitchen has grown from strength to strength in recent months. Excellent reviews continue to appear in all the leading food guides and in the wider Press.

In March 2006, The Three Chimneys won an Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Location, being voted by readers of this national magazine as being the best-located restaurant in the UK. The Observer Food Monthly Awards are a celebration of the country’s most impressive and innovative contributors to the food industry. Food celebrities including Nigel Slater, Gordon Ramsay, Giorgio Locatelli and Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall, were among the judges.

In May 2006, Michael collected the Catering in Scotland Excellence Award for Best Restaurant. In February 2007, he added the Hotel Review Scotland Award for Best Restaurant with Rooms to The Three Chimneys’ long list of accolades. He was Highly Commended in the Scottish Chef of the Year Award in 2007 and 2008. In May 2007, Michael received a coveted EatScotland GOLD Award – one of only 6 such awards given to the elite of Scotland’s restaurants. At the 2008 Hotel Review Awards, Michael Received the Chef Medaille D’Or for Outstanding Taste of Scotland at Dinner, plus a Lunch and Breakfast Excellence Award – in other words, good food throughout the day!

Michael was selected to represent Scotland in the Regional Heat of the current series of BBC2 TV’s Great British Menu series. He was filmed in October 2007 working at The Three Chimneys and serving his competition dishes to Matthew Fort, one of the judges and a well-known British food writer and restaurant critic. He prepared a wonderful autumn main course dish of Wild Mallard Duck with Woodland Mushroom and Bramble Gravy, Curly Kale and Tattie Scones, together with a Taste of Skye Seafood starter of Oyster, Crab and Langoustine. Everything was locally sourced and as required, the dishes represented a true taste of the restaurant’s menu. Unfortunately, Michael did not go through to the UK final, despite proving a popular choice with viewers.

Bringing Michael’s achievements right up-to-date, it would be difficult not to mention that over the Summer of 2008, he introduced the 7 Courses of Skye Dinner Menu to the Three Chimneys. This is based entirely upon fresh ingredients from the Isle of Skye and showcases the island’s range of wonderful ingredients. Without doubt this influenced Restaurant magazine in placing The Three Chimneys on their definitive list of the Top 100 UK Restaurants in October. The Three Chimneys was also awarded a coveted Gold Award from EatScotland in 2008 and 3 AA red rosettes for food for the 9th year in succession.

Michael and his French wife, Laurence, their 10-year-old daughter Margot and three-year-old son, Oscar, have now settled into their new life in Skye, having bought a traditional cottage at Borreraig a few miles from the restaurant. He often cycles to work and in his spare time, enjoys activities such as fishing off the rocks at Neist Point, picking winkles on the seashore, or foraging for wild mushrooms, herbs and edible fruits and flowers. In his past, Michael has enjoyed painting, music and some serious Munro bagging – all pursuits that he hopes to take-up in the years to come with his wife and family on the Isle of Skye and Scotland’s west coast.