Good to speak exclusively with chef Graeme Cheevers’ former mentor and my long-term professional contact, Martin Wishart - for whose eponymous restaurant at Cameron House Cheevers gained a Michelin star and retained it for seven consecutive years - and to hear him support his protege’s ambition to attract a Michelin Star for his home city. Here’s my exclusive interview with the Glasgow chef just before he went public:
Graeme Cheevers at Unalome, his first solo venture in Glasgow set to open next spring
EXCLUSIVE first published by The Herald, Dec 5, 2020
One of Scotland’s top chefs is set to open his own restaurant in Glasgow – raising hopes of the city gaining its first Michelin Star since 2004.
Graeme Cheevers, 32, gained a Michelin star for Restaurant Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond at the Cameron House resort and retained it for seven years until it closed following the hotel’s devastating fire in 2017. He went on to gain another Michelin Star at the luxury Isle of Eriska near Oban in Argyll last October, and left just before lockdown earlier this year.
Martin Wishart and Graeme Cheevers in the kitchen at Wishart’s Cameron House restaurant when I interviewed them in 2016. Photo credit: Jamie Simpson @jamiesimpson.photo
Now he is set to fulfil his dream of opening Unalome, his own 50-cover restaurant in a Victorian townhouse on the site of the former Sisters restaurant in Kelvingrove near Finnieston in the spring. He describes it as “like nothing anybody has seen before” - and makes no bones about aiming for a Michelin Star in its first year. It’s an ambition backed by his former mentor Martin Wishart.
“Unalome translates as ‘the journey to enlightenment’ and after 18 years in the business I feel this is where I should be, because this has always been my dream,” he told me. “I definitely want a Michelin Star in the first year of opening, and then aim to progress to two Stars for Glasgow because the city deserves it.”
Although he has yet to confirm his ever-changing A La Carte and Tasting menus, chef Cheevers described his food as “relaxed, unpretentious, of the highest seasonal quality but most importantly really tasty”. Unusually, he will personally serve dishes direct to diners at the table with the aim of increasing interaction with and focus on the food.
“I want to refine what I was doing at Martin Wishart at Cameron House, and to elevate the flavours while simplifying the plate,” he said.
“I want people to feel comfortable, not threatened, as if they’re walking into someone’s dining room - and there will be no fancy words on my menus,” he said, although he is classically French trained. Four bar stools will be available close to the kitchen where diners will be served what he is cooking that day in a move he described as “kitchen dining”, as he dislikes the formal phrase “chef’s table”.
The existing kitchen prep and pass areas are being pivoted so that diners will be able to see the chefs - a brigade he has yet to recruit - in action, while the dining area is being expanded. The look is to be “modern European” with lots of natural stone and shades of brown, green and black.
Glasgow has not had a Michelin-starred restaurant since 2004, when Gordon Ramsay closed Amaryllis at One Devonshire Gardens, citing as the reason a lack of interest in fine-dining in the city. Scotland currently has nine Michelin-starred restaurants and one two-starred restaurant.
Cheevers aims to open Unalome in February or March next year. “If I get a Michelin Star for Glasgow it would be the greatest thing. It would attract more people into the area because people travel for food; food tourism is a big thing.
“I see nothing wrong with having ambition. I don’t want to sound immodest, but if anyone can do this for Glasgow it is me.”
HIs determination is supported by his mentor Martin Wishart, whose own Edinburgh restaurant has a Michelin star and who first employed Cheevers as a commis chef at Cameron House in 2010, promoting him to Head Chef.
He told me: “This is very exciting news for us all. It gives me enormous pride to see Graeme fulfil his dream and open his own restaurant. He is a real chef, with not only a natural talent but also a fundamental understanding of taste and gastronomy.
“I have no doubt he will become the very best Scotland has to offer. I wish Graeme success and am sure it will only be a matter of time before he gives Glasgow the Michelin stars it deserves.”
[Text and main photo ©CateDevine]
My exclusive published in The Herald @heraldscotland