THE PRESS AND JOURNAL
Friday, March 17, 2023
WINNER: Edinbane Lodge on Skye, pictured, took the restaurant of the year title with Mingary Castle in Ardnamurchan named the best newcomer.
Highland restaurants
win excellence awards
KEITH FINDLAY
A
small restaurant
on Skye opened
less than five years
ago has been voted
the best in Scotland, beating
some of the country’s most
famous eateries.
Edinbane Lodge took the
title of restaurant of the
year at the Scottish
Excellence Awards,
presented at The Sheraton
Grand Hotel and Spa in
Edinburgh last night.
The result was another
triumph for 33-year-old
chef patron Calum
Montgomer y, who was
born and raised on Skye.
Edinbane was a 16 th
Century derelict hunting
lodge until he and his
family bought it in 2017
and transformed it into a
restaurant and four-
bedroom accommodation.
It is believed to be one of
only six restaurants in
Scotland to hold four AA
R o s e tt e s f o r c u l i n a r y
excellence.
The restaurant seats just
32 diners and customers
are told their table is
theirs for the evening or
lunchtime service.
Judges said: “Calum and
his team were above
exceptional in all aspects of
the criteria, including
benchmarking, innovation,
sustainability and ethics.
“With a very strong list of
finalists, all those who were
shortlisted made the final
call very difficult, such was
the calibre of applicants.”
Mr Montgomer y was
also a finalist in the chef
of the year category of
the prestigious industry
awards.
One of the five finalists in
the restaurant of the year
category was Station Road
at T he L ovat, in For t
Augustus, the three AA
Rosette business led by
head chef Sean Kelly.
Runner-up to Glasgow’s
Radisson Red in the group
hotel of the year category was
Calum Montgomery.
the 22-bedroom Duisdale
Hotel on Skye’s Sleat
Peninsula – part of Anne
Gracie Gunn’s three-strong
Sonas Collection of hotels.
Duisdale received a
“highly recommended”
rating, with Highland Coast
Hotels’ Royal Marine Hotel
at Brora in third place.
There was consolation
for Sonas when group
general manager Andreas
Maszczyk scooped the
employee of the year award.
Judges said he “obviously
goes the extra mile to
support colleagues and
clearly lives and breathes
hospitality”.
“We were impressed with
his entrepreneurial spirit,”
they said, adding: “He is a
great multi-tasker who
gives time to colleagues as
well as the core business.”
Banchor y Lodge, the
Georgian manor house on
the banks of the river Dee,
lost out to Rufflets Hotel
in St Andre ws in the
independent hotel category.
The title of best newcomer
restaurant went to Mingary
Castle in Ardnamurchan,
housed in a 13th Century
castle and run by Jessica
Thompson and Colin
Nicholson.
Amuse, which opened in
Aberdeen last summer, was
a finalist in the newcomer
category.
The Highlands provided
two out of three finalists for
the sustainable business
award, won by the Crannog
BUSINESS 31
Centre at Kenmore on
Loch Tay.
Visit Inverness Loch
Ness, the first carbon-
neutral tourism business
improvement district in
the UK, won a “highly
commended” rating.
The third finalist in this
category was Glen Mhor
Hotel and Apartments in
Inverness, which recently
invested in a £7 million
energy centre and has its
own distillery and brewery.
A highlight of the event
was the presentation of a
lifetime achievement
award to Ken McCulloch,
founder of the Malmaison
and Dakota hotel chains.
The 16 experts on the
awards advisory board
included lecturer and author
Gary Maclean, Lovat Loch
Ness owner and sustainability
specialist Caroline Gregory
and Andrew Fairlie protege
and Great British Menu-
winning Michelin-starred
chef Lorna McNee.
Royal Mail
referred
to Ofcom
by MPs for
breach
A committee of MPs
has referred Royal Mail
to regulator Ofcom
for breaching its
requirement to deliver
letters across the
c o u n t r y s i x d ay s a
week.
In a strongly worded
report, the Business,
Energy and Industrial
Strateg y Committee
said the company had
“systematically failed to
deliver” the so-called
universal service
obligation (USO).
The committee also
said Royal Mail chief
executive Simon
Thompson was “not
wholly accurate” in
answers he gave to MPs
on the use of technology
to track and discipline
workers.
“Royal Mail denied
having any knowledge
of the tracking of
postal workers using
technology and said
evidence of this
practice, and of
managers disciplining
postal workers using
such data, was due to
non-compliance with
Royal Mail policy,” said
the committee.
MPs said they “did
not believe that such
widespread errors could
happen without direct
or indirect approval of
management”.
MPs urged the Royal
Mail’s board to review
management of the
firm on grounds of
“negligence” if they
knew nothing about the
practices.
T he repor t called
on the information
commissioner to check
the legal basis for the
collection and use of
this data.
The committee said
Royal Mail “systemically
failed to deliver” parts
o f i t s U S O, c i t i n g
“widespread evidence
o f t h e c o m p a n y ’s
deprioritisation of
letters over parcels”.
The MPs called on
the postal services
regulator, Ofcom, to
open an enforcement
investigation into Royal
Mail’s USO delivery,
engaging with postal
workers, and to report
back by the end of the
year.