The head chef of a hotel in Rothes wants to encourage more Moray culinary talent after securing a national accolade.
The Station Hotel put in application for an accolade from AA, who later anonymously appeared on Valentines Day and gave them two rosettes.
Henry Lapington who is the hotel’s head chef revealed the AA inspector arrived anonymously on one of their busiest days.
And despite the pressure being on, the team delivered to receive top honours.
He said: “We put the application in late last year, then the inspector arrived on Valentines Day, which was one of our busiest days.
“He had the ten-course tasting menu, then he went off his room and did a quick assessment of the hotel, then the morning he had his breakfast and showed us his credentials and he’s a hotel inspector.”
‘Inspire other chefs’
Winning two rosettes out of a possible five now puts the Station Hotel in the top 40% of restaurants in the country.
Mr Lapington hopes the hotel’s achievement will inspire young culinary talent to practice in Moray rather than looking to the bigger cities for success.
He said: “The hospitality sector seems to be a bit of a dying trade at the moment where chefs are few and far between and hard to come by.
“Part of me thinks people feel like the only way to do it is to go to the bigger cities to work in the accoladed restaurants, but I’ve never left Moray, it’s good to show you can push yourself to achieve the accolades.
“The opportunity is there for junior chefs that are going to be coming out of the likes of Moray College.
“Ever since Covid, its dissipated a lot where chefs are really not interested in the trade, a lot of them have dwindled away.
“I think one of the most important reasons we went for (the accolade) was to try and inspire other chefs and put the spark back into them.”
‘You want to achieve the highest standard’
Receiving the two rosettes for culinary excellence has left Mr Lapington feeling emotional after his own years of hard work.
He said: “It was very emotional, a lot of hard work has gone into my career to build up to this point, when you train to be a chef you want to achieve the highest standard you can.
“I was working in kitchens when I was 15, then I left school when I was 16 and I started being a full-time chef from there and worked in the Moray area.
“I started at the hotel in 2019, then during Covid we were closed and when we reopened the current head chef decided to stand down and the head chef job was offered to me.
“This is my first head chef job, so it’s a pretty good achievement to get this,” he said.
Mr Lapington relies on fresh, local and sustainable produce which he believes has contributed to their success.
He explained: “We’ve tried to increase our sustainability and the local suppliers we use, we’re developing them so they can provide more for us.
“This has helped us achieve the accolade because we’re getting such fresh produce, we get milk that’s coming straight from the farm the same day it comes from the cow.”
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