An Approach to Chocolate

I grew up on the East coast of Scotland and although my grandmother was a wonderful cook I could never have dreamt that I would one day carve out a career as a pâtissier-chocolatier. I left school with no formal qualifications and enrolled at a local college and was immediately drawn to cooking – bakewell tart, chocolate éclairs and Dundee cake... it was hard to resist. Two years later I became an eager apprentice at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire under the legendary Ian Ironside and my love affair with being a pâtissier-chocolatier had begun. My career was now in full flow and the kitchen of Pierre Koffmann’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant, La Tante Claire, beckoned. He really opened the door for me and sent my career in the right direction; from there the great chefs Raymond Blanc, Marco Pierre White, Anton Edelmann and Marc Meneau have all instilled the most important aspect of my work... never compromise.