Andrew Fairlie obituary

Andrew Fairlie, who has died aged 55 after suffering from a brain tumour, is credited with leading the transformation of Scotland’s culinary scene and inspiring a generation of chefs to follow in his footsteps.

In 2001, he opened Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, in Perthshire, which in 2006 became the only establishment in Scotland to be awarded two Michelin stars.

Fairlie was the antithesis of the high profile television chef. His watchword was to “let the cooking do the talking” and he was more interested in providing young chefs with the same opportunities from which he had benefited than in boosting his own profile or maximising commercial opportunities. His style was calm and courteous with an unfailing eye for detail.

The great and good of Scotland coveted the outstanding experience that Fairlie guaranteed as well as the personal attention he brought to the tables. In 2005, he cooked for world leaders when the G8 summit came to Gleneagles and in 2014 for the Ryder Cup golf teams.

However, Fairlie was equally at home with the many for whom a visit to his restaurant was a one-off experience, truly believing that serving them was a privilege. As the former Gleneagles general manager Peter Lederer said: “They looked at the bill, blinked and then invariably agreed it was worth every penny.”

Fairlie’s career began as a schoolboy waiter at the Station hotel, Perth. He later recalled the “tarragon moment” that shaped his future: “One Saturday afternoon, I nicked a spoonful of beef chasseur. ‘Oh my God,’ I thought, ‘what the hell is that?’ I went straight into the kitchen and asked the chef who explained I was tasting fresh tarragon.” He knew then what he wanted to do. “I sat my last exam and started work in the kitchen the next day.”

He followed the head chef Keith Podmore to Boodle’s club in London and in 1984 became the inaugural winner of the Roux scholarship at the age of 20. As part of the prize, he spent three months working under the three-Michelin-starred chef Michel Guérard at Les Prés d’Eugénie, in south-west France. This was a highly influential period in the development of Fairlie’s cooking and it also instilled in him a love of fresh, local ingredients, which remained a hallmark.

There followed a two-year stint at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris, where the learning process left deep distaste for the macho kitchen culture there, which he described as “brutal, horrible, violent”.

He travelled extensively and his early career included posts in Africa and Australia before two seasons as chef de cuisine on the Royal Scotsman train and a spell at Hotel Disneyland in Paris, where he set up the fine-dining restaurant.

In 1994, he returned to Scotland as head chef at Ken McCulloch’s townhouse hotel One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow, where he won his first Michelin star. After seven highly successful years there, he wanted to run his own restaurant and the opportunity presented itself through an old friend, Alan Hill, by then food and beverage director at the Gleneagles hotel.

This great Perthshire institution wanted something transformational to challenge generally negative perceptions of Scottish hotel food. The idea – then quite innovative – emerged of Fairlie operating his own restaurant within the hotel. Lederer recalled: “We carved out the space and he designed his own kitchen. It was a classic win-win.”

With 50 covers, the Fairlie restaurant was small enough to be intimate within the overall grandeur of Gleneagles, an atmosphere enhanced by his personal care and amiability. The food owed much to his French training, without bending to gimmick or extremes. As the Guardian food writer Matthew Fort put it: “It is classic and French in technique and tenor, structure and saucing, but it has a distinctive, precise character that comes from balance and restraint.”

Fairlie achieved his first Michelin star at Gleneagles in 2002; when the restaurant received its second four years later, it became one the few in the UK to hold that status. Other accolades included the AA Chefs’ Chef of the Year, in 2006, Chef of the Year at the inaugural Scottish Restaurant Awards in 2008 and a Relais & Chateau grand chef in 2011.

Fairlie was born in Perth, one of the five children of Jim, an economics lecturer, and Kay, who worked in a shoe shop. He went to school at Perth Academy, leaving at 15 to start his culinary career. In the 1980s, Fairlie’s father was deputy leader of the Scottish National party, and at the time of the Scottish referendum in 2014 Fairlie himself was an adviser to the pro-independence campaign.

In 2005 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent major surgery. In spite of his health challenges and the intermittent need for treatment, he continued to work until last November.

He was married first to Ashley, with whom he had two daughters, Ilona and Leah; the marriage ended in divorce. His partner from 2008 was Kate White; they married last year. He is survived by Kate, his daughters, two stepdaughters, Kitty and Rosie, his parents and siblings.