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Edinburgh's reputation as a city for top-end dining will swell when Paul Kitching's restaurant opens in May. Donald Reid talks to the capital's latest arrivals
ext month. chef Paul Kitching and his partner Katie O'Brien complete their move from Juniper. Manchester‘s only Michelin-starred restaurant. to a ftill townhouse on Royal Terrace on Edinburgh's (‘alton Hill. A Um project. this 38-cover restaurant — plus three bedrooms — will open under the name 2l2l2 — a description of the choices available at each of the five courses on the evening menu: two starters. two main courses and two desserts with single ‘taster dishes' in between.
Their decision to leave Juniper aroused the curiosity of many commentators who had admired Kitching as one of the country’s more creative and original chefs. What surprised most of them was their decision to come to Edinburgh. The couple. however. had long admired the city's dining culture and its capacity to support four Michelin-starred restaurants.‘People assumed I was dragging Paul up to Scotland.‘ says O'Brien. who grew tip in northeast Scotland. 'But being from Newcastle. Paul was probably more familiar with Edinburgh than I was.’
They moved tip last August to plan. design and set up the restaurant. It will incorporate a number of features that flow front Kitching's instinctive creativity. such as a glass pass that separates dining area from the open kitchen allowing light to travel from one side of the Georgian townhouse to the other. His approach to cooking is left—field but. despite his history of odd-ball dishes such as Branston pickle ice- cream and beef with lemon curd. he‘s not a molecular gastronomist like Heston Blumenthal. nor the kind of chef who pulls on wellington boots to view cattle in a field.
‘There are two things cooking is definitely not.‘ says Kitching. dispelling expectations of celebrity chefdom. ‘Cooking is not an and it‘s not passionate. Cooking is a horrible job and
Plumod Horse
50-54 Henderson Street, Leith, Edinburgh, 0131 554 5556, www.plumedhorse.co.uk
Tony Borthwick was a late starter as a chef and self- taught: his restaurant in tiny Crossmichael near Castle Douglas in Dumfriesshire was locally admired before a Michelin star thrust it into the limelight. In 2006 he relocated to an unlikely site in Leith - and regained his star earlier this year.
10 THE LIST 30 Apr—14 May 2009
UPPING STICKS - RESTAURANT RELOCATION
‘THE FOOD HAS TO BE BETTER THAN IT WAS AT JUNIPER'
it's a tough job. We‘ve got to think about it a different way. We’re compiling things. we‘re building things. making things. We're not artists. We’re tradesmen. trained as cooks.’
The location of Juniper encouraged an approach he now regards as ‘gimmicky‘. 'We had to put things on the plate to say. “We know it‘s not the best restaurant in the world. it‘s a shop-front conversion. but look what we're doing as well." Here. we don‘t have to try as hard in that way.’
Instead. he believes Edinburgh will inspire him to reach even higher. ‘lt will be my style of
Arlulq
1 Merchant Square, Glasgow, 0141 553 1010, www.arisaigrestaurant.co.uk
Arisaig's recent move from St Vincent Street actually marks a return to the Merchant City for Naveed Rachid and Stephen Bonomi's west-coast inspired restaurant. which began life at 24 Candlen’ggs. The 2009 relocation has allowed them to offer both a brasserie and more formal balcony restaurant.
3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh Bookings on 0845 2221212 for lunch and
dinner Tue—Sat.
Five-course dinner £60.
cooking. but it won‘t be Juniper's food. it will be Edinburgh's food.’ he says. ‘The food has to be better than it was at Juniper. because that was just not good enough. It will be a more sophisticated version.’ Yet. as much as Edinburgh is excited by what 2|2l2 will bring. it's Kitching himself who seems most enthralled of all. “To be part of this city. to serve it — wow. it's a great. great feeling.‘
21212 opens Wed 20 May.
Ubiquitous Chlp
12 Ashton Lane, Glasgow, 0141 334 5007, www.ubiquitouschip.co.uk
Ashton Lane is regarded these days as the centre of Byres Road nightlife, with the Chip right at its heart. But Ronnie Clydesdale's iconic Scottish restaurant actually began life across the road in Ruthven Lane in 1971 , only moving to the then uncharted territory of Ashton Lane three years later.