Sea

MANY chefs have "fallen" into the industry but few can have stumbled on it quite as Tony Pierce did. "When I left school, my mate and I decided to check out college to see what courses were being run," he says. "When we saw all the totty on the catering course - 18 in a class of 24 - we decided to sign up and I stayed there for two years." So it comes as some surprise to learn that someone who joined the industry by chance is now, 13 years on, one of only seven Michelin-starred chefs in Scotland.

Few could ask for a more picturesque working environment than Knockinaam Lodge, where Pierce is based. The former maritime residence stands at the end of a three-mile drive near Portpatrick, Galloway. Surrounded by cliffs, the property looks out on to the Irish Sea - on a clear day, Ireland, which is just 23 miles away, is visible on the horizon.

Owned by Canadian husband-and-wife team Michael Bricker and Pauline Ashworth, Knockinaam is a 10-bedroom country inn which has been operating as a hotel for 27 years. Although neither Bricker nor Ashworth come from a hotel background, they worked closely with the industry in their previous careers in marketing. When they decided to join the industry and run their own property, they spent two years looking at more than 45 hotels on both sides of the Atlantic.

They came across Knockinaam three years ago, and it immediately met the profile of their ideal property. But despite the Michelin star held by the hotel, its new owners believed Knockinaam's food was not forward-looking enough. So two months after their arrival in Scotland, they appointed Salford-born Pierce as sous chef. Knockinaam's head chef left within a year and Pierce was asked to succeed him. He has since retained the property's Michelin star and three AA rosettes and, he claims, the hotel has been tipped for a fourth.

Pierce, who will be 30 in March, is modest about his talents. He hails from a background far removed from the life he now lives, which perhaps explains why he is far from self-congratulatory about his achievements. "My parents don't really understand what I am doing," he says. "I send them articles, but I don't think they have any idea of the standard I am cooking at. They probably wouldn't even know what a scallop was," he adds with a smile.

After completing his catering course, Pierce found work locally in Manchester as a waiter. "Then it suddenly hit me," he explains. "We'd borrowed money from a friend of my mum's so that I could become a chef. So I thought it was about time I became one." He landed himself a job as a first commis in the main kitchen at Gleneagles, in Auchterarder, and it was here that his future finally crystallised.

where eagles dare

At that time, Gleneagles operated a fine-dining restaurant called Eagles, which, Pierce says, everyone in the main kitchen aspired to work in. With a brigade of six serving just 35 covers, the restaurant used ingredients that were new to Pierce, such as truffles, foie gras and squab. One day, when one of the Eagles chefs was taken ill, Pierce was asked to move to that kitchen. "I was really excited by the opportunity," says Pierce. But, unfortunately for him, the restaurant was closed two weeks later.

Nevertheless, it had steered Pierce on the right course. He wrote to 30 leading hotels and restaurants in the UK, including the Waterside Inn at Bray, Berkshire, and eventually took a post as junior pastry chef at Mallory Court in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Subsequently, Pierce learnt that he had been offered a job at the Waterside - but the letter was not forwarded to him from his previous address until it was too late.

Pierce then spent a year at the Box Tree in Ilkley, Yorkshire, two years at Inverlochy Castle, Fort William, and two years at Llangoed Hall in Llyswen, where he held the position of sous chef, before joining Knockinaam. His work experience also included stages at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire; Harveys in Wandsworth, London; and Sharrow Bay, Howtown, Cumbria.

Since taking over the reins of the kitchen at Knockinaam, Pierce has totally changed the food, says Ashworth. Previously, Knockinaam offered guests a three-course, table d'hôte menu that favoured classical, French dishes. Pierce chose to offer customers a five-course "tasting" menu, which enabled him to expand his repertoire. Customers are given canapés in the bar before their meal; followed by an appetiser, such as tian of aubergine discs and avocado purée with lemon oil or melon consommé; a pre-starter, for example, cappuccino of autumn cabbage and dried morels or asparagus and quail-egg salad with a warm truffle dressing; then a starter; main course; and dessert.

Pierce admits he is spoilt by some of the produce that surrounds him, although being situated so far off the beaten track can have its downside. Such is the hotel's remote location that, two years ago, one supplier who had come to deliver just 1lb of cheese was snowed in for three days.

Bubble bath

The recipes Pierce has chosen to share with Chef are popular dishes from his daily-changing menu (£35 for dinner, £25 for lunch). Scallops, used in his ravioli of West Coast sea scallops with globe artichokes and citrus nage bubbles, feature regularly as a starter. Pierce's citrus bubbles have been likened by some restaurant inspectors to cappuccino, but the idea is they should look like bubble bath, he says.

Lamb cutlet with pommes Anna, elephant garlic beignets and grated truffle uses one of Pierce's favourite ingredients. "I love lamb for its versatility," he says. For this recipe, he seals the lamb on both sides in a hot frying-pan before leaving it to rest in the fridge. He then makes a chicken mousse which is piped on top of the cutlet and wrapped in crepinette. The lamb is returned to the frying-pan and placed in the oven for five minutes. It is served on top of the pommes Anna, drizzled with thyme jus and garnished with the garlic beignets, grated truffle and watercress oil.

Although guests at Knockinaam stay an average of only three or four days and Pierce works hard to ensure ingredients are not repeated too often, he says it is impossible to offer a different dish for every day of the season. So soufflés, which appear on the menu every week, usually feature once during a guest's stay, although the accompaniments - such as black cherry ice-cream, strawberry sorbet or honey and cognac ice-cream - change constantly. The idea for Pierce's recipe featured in Chef came, of course, from the great Sharrow Bay dessert. However, he is not aware of anybody else using this dessert in a soufflé. Pierce uses the same recipe for leftover Christmas pudding.

Ironically for a man who joined the industry because of the abundance of women training for it, Pierce says he finds life in Portpatrick lonely. "The hotel's situation is unique," he says. "There aren't many places like this, right on the edge of the beach with great views out of the kitchen window. But you get off at night and there's nowt to do." Pierce has always been a horse-racing fanatic so Ayr comes in handy, and he is mad for Manchester United. "But you need more than that in life," he says. However, he is in no rush to leave his present employment, he says - not while that fourth rosette is still out there. n