HE once vowed he'd never cook again in a commercial kitchen but now Nick Nairn, Scotland's first celebrity chef, is to open a restaurant in Aberdeen - and has two further ventures in the pipeline.
Situated in Aberdeen city centre at the Hilton Garden Inn, Native will use locally-sourced ingredients and will offer a range of heritage dishes.
Potted heid pate, cullen skink and proper seafood cocktails will be among his starters, while unusual cuts of beef, upmarket burgers and his signature monkfish curry will feature as mains.
Nairn, 54, who was the youngest Scottish chef to gain a Michelin star, has had restaurants in Aberfoyle and Glasgow but vowed he'd never again return to cook in a commercial kitchen.
He opened a highly successful Cook School in Aberdeen last year and admits that the city has been a "revelation" to him.
"I once said I would never again cook in a restaurant kitchen, but times have changed and there's a new excitement around food in the north-east," he said.
"Aberdeen's economy is very robust, supported by oil and gas, and it is emerging as a powerhouse of excellence in the industry worldwide.
"People are enthused by good food here, and while we're not aiming for Michelin stars, it feels good to be back in the kitchen."
He has headhunted Gary Leishman from the rival boutique hotel Simpsons as his head chef, but says he will cook at Native at least once a week. Nairn also runs the Kailyard restaurant at the Doubletree by Hilton at the Dunblane Hydro.
He said: "Kailyard has gone from being almost empty to feeding 340 people a night, so we have proven our formula works. I look forward to opening new restaurants in Edinburgh and the Highlands after Aberdeen in October."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article