The Kitchin

The Kitchin is a restaurant with a Michelin star on Commercial Quay in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh. Tom Kitchin and his wife Michaela run it, and Lachlan Archibald leads the kitchen as head chef.

The couple, then still engaged, opened it in June 2006 in a former whisky bond on the waterfront. Kitchin had studied catering at Perth College and served an apprenticeship at the Gleneagles Hotel before working with Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire, with Guy Savoy in Paris and with Alain Ducasse at Le Louis XV in Monaco. When the doors opened, the tables were laid with cutlery and plates that had once been used at La Tante Claire. The Michelin star arrived within six months.

Koffmann's tie to the house went further: in 2008, while Kitchin was away filming Great British Menu for the BBC, the older chef left retirement for a spell and took charge of the stoves in his place. Kitchin sums up his approach as From Nature to Plate, which is also the title of his cookbook: French technique applied to Scottish produce through the seasons. Langoustine with lobster bisque is the dish most closely linked with the restaurant, and a shellfish served in a sauce made from another shellfish says a lot about a kitchen that builds a plate around one ingredient and its close relatives. Dark wood and grey tones by Cubit Design shape the room, and a window lets diners watch the cooks at work.

Observer Food Monthly named The Kitchin the best restaurant in the UK and Kitchin its Cook of the Year, and A.A. Gill gave it full marks in The Sunday Times. The AA rates it with five rosettes. Kitchin also wrote and published recipes from the restaurant, and together with Dominic Jack he opened The Scran & Scallie, a gastropub in Stockbridge.