Michelin Guide Awards Glasgow

The Scotsman

The Michelin Stars for 2025 were announced on 10 February at an awards dinner in Glasgow, and Scotland gained two new Stars.  A total of 1,147 restaurants – including 220 Starred ones – are included in the selection, with Moor Hall leading the way as The Guide’s latest Three-Star restaurant.

Transcript

00:00I'm Rosin Derskin, Food and Drink Editor for The Scotsman, and I'm here tonight at the

00:17Kelvin Grove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow for the Michelin 2025 Guide announcement.

00:22What that means is the top chefs from the UK and Ireland, who all run or own Michelin

00:26starred restaurants, are here to find out if they've gained stars. So we'll find out

00:31tonight if Scotland has gained any Michelin starred restaurants. And generally it's just

00:35a great night for the hospitality industry because they get to mingle and speak to each

00:39other and it's quite a coveted event, which is coming to Scotland for the very first time

00:43here in the beautiful setting of the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery and Museum. So we'll chat

00:48to some Scottish chefs to get their reactions from tonight's announcement, and yeah, just

00:52really looking forward to it.

00:56Well good evening ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to the 2025 Michelin Guide

01:09ceremony for Great Britain and Ireland. All of you, a very warm Scottish welcome tonight.

01:15And I'd really like to start first of all by thanking Michelin for choosing this year

01:20to bring the award ceremony to Scotland.

01:22Delighted to be in this country, a place where I definitely have profound memories

01:28of its wonderful hospitality.

01:41That does make me expect to feel that you really, you obviously really love what you

01:45do, is that right? And what is the secret to really good service?

01:50They're going to laugh and say, Alex, I thought it was you for my husband.

01:57Such great views of the Scottish lark.

02:03The first vegan restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star in Dublin.

02:09It means refinement in work, and this is certainly luxury at all levels.

02:17What makes that a success?

02:19I'm not sure, I think it's really refined, a lot of passionate people on the team, a

02:23beautiful building, a lot of history, and I guess a culmination of all the years I've

02:29been cooking.

02:30Right, so thank you very much and congratulations.

02:36So how does it feel to have one Michelin star?

02:39Yeah, amazing, obviously a bit of a culmination of a long time coming, I feel. Obviously amazing

02:45for Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole to get another Michelin star restaurant on the

02:49map, and just a really nice feeling for a personal achievement.

02:53What do you think it is about Lila that kind of caught the eye and got the star?

02:57I just think, you know, everything, the whole package together, it's a beautiful building,

03:01amazing team, obviously my head chef Lewis, Jade and Richie, and all the people that are

03:06contributing to the experience. It's very personal, it's across different levels of

03:13the building, so I think it has a lot of different diversity in the experience. Open kitchen,

03:18so you can see what we're doing, finishing things at the table, it's really interactive,

03:22so I think it has everything going for us. Obviously we take a lot of time to cook everything

03:27with a lot of care and precision and use only the best ingredients, which is probably a

03:31big difference. We spend an awful lot of money on really quality produce, I think all those

03:37things together is what makes it.

03:39And does the majority of that produce come from Scotland?

03:42Yeah, majority of it, yeah. I mean, especially, Lila's very focused on seafood, so all our

03:47fish is Scottish. Yeah, there's other stuff from Scotland, but not withstanding just Scotland,

03:53but definitely 90% of it is Scottish.

03:56And how does it feel to be awarded this tonight in Glasgow? I know you're from Fife, but you

04:00know, we're in Scotland, so...

04:02We're in Scotland, I mean, it feels like a sort of serendipitous timing, like, you know,

04:07it would be the first time it's ever been held in Scotland if I hadn't won a Michelin

04:11star, I would have felt very left out. It does feel a bit more special to be Scottish

04:16and having it here in Glasgow amongst all these people, it's a pretty amazing feeling.

04:21Well, I was rooting for you last year, so congratulations for getting it this year.

04:24Thank you so much, I really appreciate the support.

04:26As you know, this is the first time we've ever had this ceremony in Glasgow, and in

04:30Scotland, so that has been incredibly important for us. It's the 125th anniversary, it's a

04:35big, big year for Michelin, and it's obviously a huge year for Scottish food and drink to

04:39actually finally bring it, after 125 years, to Scotland is a huge thing. We've got an

04:44incredibly vibrant, incredibly ambitious, innovative, and provenance-driven food and

04:50drink scene in hospitality and restaurants in Scotland, and this is the opportunity to

04:54really, really showcase that, so we couldn't really pass it up.

04:57Well, obviously, the Michelin Awards are the lighthouse, you know, it's the pinnacle of

05:01achievement, it really demonstrates that what we produce in Scotland, whether that's

05:05, you know, produce from the land or the sea or wherever, or producers or manufacturers

05:10in Scotland, it just really shows the focus on quality, and that resonates throughout

05:15the whole of the UK.

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