Post by Leanne on Oct 19, 2009 14:46:44 GMT -5
Skye’s the limit
Cate Devine discovers how a new generation is turning up the heat at Kinloch Lodge.
When Lady Claire Macdonald’s grandsons have their photograph taken, they don’t say plain old “cheese”. Rather, as the camera clicks they shout “tortellini!” and “passata sauce!” and “banana fritters!” with all the joyful vigour of the seasoned gourmet. Their culinary sophistication is hardly surprising, really, when you consider that six-year-old Billy Eveling and his four-year-old brother Luke are the descendants of one of Scotland’s best-known cooks and food writers. They’re also best friends with the sons of Macdonald’s award-winning head chef, Marcello Tully.
The two boys live at the clan seat of Kinloch Lodge at Sleat on Skye along with their grandparents, Lady Claire and Godfrey, and parents Isabella and Tom. The boys’ friends, nine-year-old Max Tully and his seven-year-old brother Alex, live just along the road at Drumfearn – within easy reach of the Kinloch kitchen, which is run by their father and his sous chef wife Claire.
You wouldn’t know it from looking at him playing after-school football in his school uniform, but Billy also happens to be third in line, in theory at least, to the high chiefship of one of the oldest and largest Highland clans. Luke is fourth in line. Their 62-year-old maternal grandfather Godfrey is Lord Macdonald Of Macdonald, high chief of Clan Donald, and 34th hereditary chief of the clan. Meanwhile, the boys’ aunt, the Honourable Lady Alexandra, is married to Baron Philipp Franz Guttenberg, and has become a member of one of the oldest families in Austria. Their uncle Hugo, who is next in line for the Donald clan chiefship, has a first-class honours degree in Middle Eastern history from Cambridge University and is now a journalist in London.
Not for these children, though, an ivory-tower life of privilege and isolation. The older boys attend primary school in Broadford, where they are taught in Gaelic, while Luke attends the local nursery. They have lots of friends in the area. Mother and father drive them to and from school and they spend much of their free time together as a family. Frequent visits to Edinburgh to see their grandmother Eveling satisfy their occasional desire for a pizza treat or a trip to the cinema.
We needed a chef to build on mum’s ethos of working with local seasonal ingredients. Although I’m a real foodie, I’m not a cook or a chef Isabella Macdonald
But while the children enjoy as normal a life as possible, the pressing business of making a living keeps mother and father busy. After all, no clan chief in waiting, or his family, can afford to sit around just waiting for the call. For Isabella and Tom, this means taking over the family-run hotel founded 36 years ago by Isabella’s parents in the clan’s original 17th-century hunting lodge hung with portraits of Macdonald ancestors, and steering it firmly into the 21st century.
Isabella, a former British Airways press officer and events manager at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, was born in the capital and brought up at Kinloch Lodge. She was made a director of the business when she moved there from London with Tom in 2002. Earlier this year, Tom and chef Tully, who arrived from London in 2007, were also made directors.
While the family’s inter-generational set-up is probably unique in Scotland, it doesn’t preclude bringing in the odd expert from outside to help crank up the ante. In the current economic climate, and with customer expectations being raised ever higher, relying on Kinloch’s long and solid reputation as a country hotel with fabulous food in an unrivalled setting was simply not an option. The first major change was to find a new chef to take over from Lady Claire.
“That was a real turning point,” says Isabella, “ because all three of us, being relatively young directors, show a commitment to the business, but it also underlines our faith in Marcello.
“He is a hugely important part of what we’re doing. It’s good to have a non-family member in the team.”
Cutting edge of food tourism
The first thing they did was install a new £30,000 professional stainless-steel kitchen designed by Tully – a substantial outlay that was deemed not only necessary but long overdue. The kitchen hadn’t been touched since the late 1970s, and housed Lady Claire’s much-loved 32-year-old Aga. “It had to go,” says Isabella. “It simply wasn’t going to perform to Marcello’s standards.”
Food tourism is, of course, the buzz phrase of the contemporary travel scene, and while Lady Claire has firmly established Kinloch Lodge’s reputation as a foodie destination, she has always described herself as a cook rather than a chef. Brazilian-born Tully, on the other hand, quite firmly describes himself as a professional chef with ambition. His menu changes daily and, with the help of his handpicked team of six young chefs, he serves up to 90 covers over breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week, using locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. “Our goal is to gain as many accolades as we can,” he says. “The modern customer wants a fine-dining experience, a restaurant-standard meal rather than dinner party food.” Tully trained for seven years with the Roux brothers (Michel and Albert) at the two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche restaurant in London, becoming head chef of their catering business Home Rouxl at the age of 23.
A fan of the sous-vide technique pioneered by the Roux (where individually prepared portions are vacuum-sealed before cooking to retain their flavour, moisture and texture), Tully has been pivotal in the food development industry and helped develop gourmet ranges for Waitrose, M&S and Tesco. Headhunted by Lady Claire to take over at Kinloch because her writing and cookery demonstration work was taking her away from the daily business in the kitchen, Tully, whose paternal grandfather was Scottish, was recently voted Rising Star chef of the year at the 2009 hotel awards. He won Kinloch a third AA rosette earlier this month and doesn’t deny that he would be delighted to attract a Michelin star.
According to the AA guide, three rosettes take a restaurant into the big league. “Expectations of the kitchen are high: exact technique, flair and imagination must come through in every dish, and balance and depth of flavour are all-important,” it says. Sample dishes include roast Mallaig monkfish with Moray pork cheeks and caramelised passion fruit jus, or wild pigeon breast wrapped in Parma ham with Perthshire beetroot, sauteed wild mushrooms and citrus puy lentils.
“We needed a chef to build on mum’s ethos of working with local seasonal ingredients,” explains Isabella. “Although I’m a real foodie, I’m not a cook or a chef. I was brought up in the hospitality business and was answering the door and making tea here from the age of seven, and I’m now focused on the day-to-day management. When Marcello arrived with his family, it was a such a relief, like having friends come to stay.” Isabella’s father Godfrey did most of the front-of-house duties but his role as clan chief takes him away for much of the year.
Change of lifestyle
Edinburgh-born Tom, a classics graduate from Bristol University, married Isabella at St Duthac’s in Dornie in 2000, and gave up his job as a presenter with Sky Sports in London to move to Skye with his wife shortly after she became pregnant with Billy who, like his brother Luke, was born at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Tom is now a respected, self-taught sommelier and has recently attracted a Michelin Guide Grape for his remarkably varied wine list, an award shared with just seven other restaurants in Scotland. Tom’s wine flights, which match two small glasses of wine with each course, have become such a success that he has extended the idea to include unique whisky, beer and beer chaser flights.
“When my in-laws were changing the structure of the business I was given the project of looking after the wine, and it’s been a steep, if enjoyable, learning curve,” he says, smiling. “But it’s difficult to pigeonhole what Isabella and I do because with this size of business we do everything, from building fires to meeting and greeting.”
Both say the move to Skye was the ideal lifestyle change. “In London I had to drive around from story to studio several times a day,” recalls Tom. “I crashed six times in three years and was ditched by my insurance company. I loved my job but it was very stressful and highly competitive. If we’d had our family in London, I wouldn’t have seen them much at all. Here, I get to see them all the time and even get to take them to school in Broadford. For quality of life, this beats London hands-down.”
Claire Tully adds that the school class size in their previous home town of Aylesbury was 30, and the school roll was 250, while at St Joseph’s primary in Broadford it’s just 23 and 170.
However, there are, you’ll be glad to know, certain challenges in their remote idyllic lifestyle. Providing broadband and wifi internet connections in all rooms can be tricky, as can the installation of under-floor heating in 17th-century bathrooms. But this is easy to overlook when you’re lying in a roll-topped bath gazing out to the Cuillin or munching on home-made tablet while watching flat-screen TV.
These delights have been enjoyed by jetsetters such as William Hurt, Kevin McKidd, Sydney Pollack, Sir Bobby Charlton and the odd Russian oligarch. (And legend has it that Sir Sean Connery had to be refused because there was no room at the inn.)
But for all the attractions this part of Scotland has to offer, it’s the recruitment of good staff that is the greatest concern. For Tom and Isabella, providing excellent service is paramount to retaining a serious foothold in their highly competitive industry.
“Service is the biggest challenge in hospitality right now, and is right up there with maintaining consistently high standards in food,” says Tom. “People come here to get away from the pressures of their hard lives, so a sunny, open and warm personality is vital in the staff.
“We need to create a wonderful team. We actually prefer to recruit people who are not highly trained because that can be learned.”
Tom and Isabelle say they are constantly learning different aspects of their family business and hope their own personalities will set the tone. Since they are not aiming at the five-star market, these personal qualities become ever more important.
But Isabella says: “It’s a dream situation. Mum and Dad spent 36 years building up this business. They’ve made it really easy for us. We’re merely developing what they created.”
www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk.
www.heraldscotland.com/life-style/food-drink/skye-s-the-limit-1.927186
Cate Devine discovers how a new generation is turning up the heat at Kinloch Lodge.
When Lady Claire Macdonald’s grandsons have their photograph taken, they don’t say plain old “cheese”. Rather, as the camera clicks they shout “tortellini!” and “passata sauce!” and “banana fritters!” with all the joyful vigour of the seasoned gourmet. Their culinary sophistication is hardly surprising, really, when you consider that six-year-old Billy Eveling and his four-year-old brother Luke are the descendants of one of Scotland’s best-known cooks and food writers. They’re also best friends with the sons of Macdonald’s award-winning head chef, Marcello Tully.
The two boys live at the clan seat of Kinloch Lodge at Sleat on Skye along with their grandparents, Lady Claire and Godfrey, and parents Isabella and Tom. The boys’ friends, nine-year-old Max Tully and his seven-year-old brother Alex, live just along the road at Drumfearn – within easy reach of the Kinloch kitchen, which is run by their father and his sous chef wife Claire.
You wouldn’t know it from looking at him playing after-school football in his school uniform, but Billy also happens to be third in line, in theory at least, to the high chiefship of one of the oldest and largest Highland clans. Luke is fourth in line. Their 62-year-old maternal grandfather Godfrey is Lord Macdonald Of Macdonald, high chief of Clan Donald, and 34th hereditary chief of the clan. Meanwhile, the boys’ aunt, the Honourable Lady Alexandra, is married to Baron Philipp Franz Guttenberg, and has become a member of one of the oldest families in Austria. Their uncle Hugo, who is next in line for the Donald clan chiefship, has a first-class honours degree in Middle Eastern history from Cambridge University and is now a journalist in London.
Not for these children, though, an ivory-tower life of privilege and isolation. The older boys attend primary school in Broadford, where they are taught in Gaelic, while Luke attends the local nursery. They have lots of friends in the area. Mother and father drive them to and from school and they spend much of their free time together as a family. Frequent visits to Edinburgh to see their grandmother Eveling satisfy their occasional desire for a pizza treat or a trip to the cinema.
We needed a chef to build on mum’s ethos of working with local seasonal ingredients. Although I’m a real foodie, I’m not a cook or a chef Isabella Macdonald
But while the children enjoy as normal a life as possible, the pressing business of making a living keeps mother and father busy. After all, no clan chief in waiting, or his family, can afford to sit around just waiting for the call. For Isabella and Tom, this means taking over the family-run hotel founded 36 years ago by Isabella’s parents in the clan’s original 17th-century hunting lodge hung with portraits of Macdonald ancestors, and steering it firmly into the 21st century.
Isabella, a former British Airways press officer and events manager at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, was born in the capital and brought up at Kinloch Lodge. She was made a director of the business when she moved there from London with Tom in 2002. Earlier this year, Tom and chef Tully, who arrived from London in 2007, were also made directors.
While the family’s inter-generational set-up is probably unique in Scotland, it doesn’t preclude bringing in the odd expert from outside to help crank up the ante. In the current economic climate, and with customer expectations being raised ever higher, relying on Kinloch’s long and solid reputation as a country hotel with fabulous food in an unrivalled setting was simply not an option. The first major change was to find a new chef to take over from Lady Claire.
“That was a real turning point,” says Isabella, “ because all three of us, being relatively young directors, show a commitment to the business, but it also underlines our faith in Marcello.
“He is a hugely important part of what we’re doing. It’s good to have a non-family member in the team.”
Cutting edge of food tourism
The first thing they did was install a new £30,000 professional stainless-steel kitchen designed by Tully – a substantial outlay that was deemed not only necessary but long overdue. The kitchen hadn’t been touched since the late 1970s, and housed Lady Claire’s much-loved 32-year-old Aga. “It had to go,” says Isabella. “It simply wasn’t going to perform to Marcello’s standards.”
Food tourism is, of course, the buzz phrase of the contemporary travel scene, and while Lady Claire has firmly established Kinloch Lodge’s reputation as a foodie destination, she has always described herself as a cook rather than a chef. Brazilian-born Tully, on the other hand, quite firmly describes himself as a professional chef with ambition. His menu changes daily and, with the help of his handpicked team of six young chefs, he serves up to 90 covers over breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week, using locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. “Our goal is to gain as many accolades as we can,” he says. “The modern customer wants a fine-dining experience, a restaurant-standard meal rather than dinner party food.” Tully trained for seven years with the Roux brothers (Michel and Albert) at the two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche restaurant in London, becoming head chef of their catering business Home Rouxl at the age of 23.
A fan of the sous-vide technique pioneered by the Roux (where individually prepared portions are vacuum-sealed before cooking to retain their flavour, moisture and texture), Tully has been pivotal in the food development industry and helped develop gourmet ranges for Waitrose, M&S and Tesco. Headhunted by Lady Claire to take over at Kinloch because her writing and cookery demonstration work was taking her away from the daily business in the kitchen, Tully, whose paternal grandfather was Scottish, was recently voted Rising Star chef of the year at the 2009 hotel awards. He won Kinloch a third AA rosette earlier this month and doesn’t deny that he would be delighted to attract a Michelin star.
According to the AA guide, three rosettes take a restaurant into the big league. “Expectations of the kitchen are high: exact technique, flair and imagination must come through in every dish, and balance and depth of flavour are all-important,” it says. Sample dishes include roast Mallaig monkfish with Moray pork cheeks and caramelised passion fruit jus, or wild pigeon breast wrapped in Parma ham with Perthshire beetroot, sauteed wild mushrooms and citrus puy lentils.
“We needed a chef to build on mum’s ethos of working with local seasonal ingredients,” explains Isabella. “Although I’m a real foodie, I’m not a cook or a chef. I was brought up in the hospitality business and was answering the door and making tea here from the age of seven, and I’m now focused on the day-to-day management. When Marcello arrived with his family, it was a such a relief, like having friends come to stay.” Isabella’s father Godfrey did most of the front-of-house duties but his role as clan chief takes him away for much of the year.
Change of lifestyle
Edinburgh-born Tom, a classics graduate from Bristol University, married Isabella at St Duthac’s in Dornie in 2000, and gave up his job as a presenter with Sky Sports in London to move to Skye with his wife shortly after she became pregnant with Billy who, like his brother Luke, was born at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Tom is now a respected, self-taught sommelier and has recently attracted a Michelin Guide Grape for his remarkably varied wine list, an award shared with just seven other restaurants in Scotland. Tom’s wine flights, which match two small glasses of wine with each course, have become such a success that he has extended the idea to include unique whisky, beer and beer chaser flights.
“When my in-laws were changing the structure of the business I was given the project of looking after the wine, and it’s been a steep, if enjoyable, learning curve,” he says, smiling. “But it’s difficult to pigeonhole what Isabella and I do because with this size of business we do everything, from building fires to meeting and greeting.”
Both say the move to Skye was the ideal lifestyle change. “In London I had to drive around from story to studio several times a day,” recalls Tom. “I crashed six times in three years and was ditched by my insurance company. I loved my job but it was very stressful and highly competitive. If we’d had our family in London, I wouldn’t have seen them much at all. Here, I get to see them all the time and even get to take them to school in Broadford. For quality of life, this beats London hands-down.”
Claire Tully adds that the school class size in their previous home town of Aylesbury was 30, and the school roll was 250, while at St Joseph’s primary in Broadford it’s just 23 and 170.
However, there are, you’ll be glad to know, certain challenges in their remote idyllic lifestyle. Providing broadband and wifi internet connections in all rooms can be tricky, as can the installation of under-floor heating in 17th-century bathrooms. But this is easy to overlook when you’re lying in a roll-topped bath gazing out to the Cuillin or munching on home-made tablet while watching flat-screen TV.
These delights have been enjoyed by jetsetters such as William Hurt, Kevin McKidd, Sydney Pollack, Sir Bobby Charlton and the odd Russian oligarch. (And legend has it that Sir Sean Connery had to be refused because there was no room at the inn.)
But for all the attractions this part of Scotland has to offer, it’s the recruitment of good staff that is the greatest concern. For Tom and Isabella, providing excellent service is paramount to retaining a serious foothold in their highly competitive industry.
“Service is the biggest challenge in hospitality right now, and is right up there with maintaining consistently high standards in food,” says Tom. “People come here to get away from the pressures of their hard lives, so a sunny, open and warm personality is vital in the staff.
“We need to create a wonderful team. We actually prefer to recruit people who are not highly trained because that can be learned.”
Tom and Isabelle say they are constantly learning different aspects of their family business and hope their own personalities will set the tone. Since they are not aiming at the five-star market, these personal qualities become ever more important.
But Isabella says: “It’s a dream situation. Mum and Dad spent 36 years building up this business. They’ve made it really easy for us. We’re merely developing what they created.”
www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk.
www.heraldscotland.com/life-style/food-drink/skye-s-the-limit-1.927186