The widow of Andrew Fairlie and the restaurateur widely considered Scotland’s top seafood chef have joined the judging panel of the country’s most prestigious hospitality awards.
New members of the Advisory Board of the Catering Scotland (CIS) Excellence Awards also include a leading hospitality educator and the managing director of last year’s winner of the Independent Hotel title.
Kate Fairlie, a graduate in Business Studies with Travel and Tourism Management, met her husband Andrew while guest relations manager at Gleneagles, later joining the team at his eponymous restaurant in 2014. She helped develop the restaurant’s famous Secret Garden, which supplies the hotel with fruits, vegetables and herbs. A CIS judge for over a decade Andrew, who died last January after a long battle with a brain tumour, was Scotland’s only double Michelin Star holder.
Roy Brett, proprietor and executive chef of Ondine Restaurant in Edinburgh, trained at the Savoy before becoming Rick Stein’s head chef in Padstow, Cornwall. Moving back to Scotland as chef director for Dakota Hotels before opening Ondine in 2009, he has since forged a reputation as a champion of Scottish seafood and advocate of sustainable sourcing. His awards include AA Restaurant of the Year, the Good Food Guide’s Scottish Restaurant of the Year and CIS Excellence Chef of the Year 2010.
The managing director of Glenapp Castle in Ballantrae, south Ayrshire, Jill Chalmers, and Gordon McIntyre, Associate Head of Hospitality and Tourism at City of Glasgow College, have also accepted invitations to become members of the Advisory Board. Now Chair of Hospitality Health, a charity that supports employers and staff within the hospitality industry, McIntyre was named CIS Hospitality Educator of the Year Award in 2016 and won the Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT) Scotland Industry Award in 2018.
They become part of a line-up of 16 distinguished experts from the Scottish catering, hospitality and tourism sectors.
Advisory Board Chair, Andrea Nicholas, commented: ‘These new appointments underline the CIS Excellence Awards’ pre-eminent position as the ultimate accolade for Scotland’s chefs, hotels, restaurants, gastro pubs and educational institutions.’
Entries are free of charge and close at midnight on 27th February. The ceremony takes place at the Doubletree by Hilton Glasgow Central on Thursday 28th May. Visit cis-excellenceawards.com or call 0131-557 5767 for more information.