Stage at Core

Our 2025 Andrew Fairlie Scholarship winner was Michael Sutherland, Junior Sous Chef at Gleneagles, and for one of his prizes he spent a week at 3 Michelin star restaurant Core by Clare Smyth.  We caught up with him to find out how he got on.

Michael said:  “What an amazing week, the restaurant was brilliant, I’m really thankful to all of the team at Core for their hospitality and for showing me so much over the week.  I got to move around the kitchen - starting my week on garde manger, or cold larder, working though garnish, sauce and finishing my week over on the pastry section.

“In terms of day to day jobs, there were a lot of herbs! Throughout the kitchen and plating Chef Clare uses a lot of freshly picked herbs as garnishes, usually an element that ties into ingredients already in the base of the dish such as carrot tops on her lamb dish. During the services I spent time between garnish and helping to plate on the pass.”

A 3 Michelin star restaurant provides “exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey”, and is the highest accolade in the guide, meaning everything has to be perfect every time.  Michael commented:  “I think the level of detail that they look for was the biggest difference for me, they don’t accept anything unless it’s the absolute best version it can be.  And the pace they work at definitely surprised me, I knew that they would work fast at that level and with that amount of pressure, but to keep up with it for as many hours a day as they do was impressive!”

Every kitchen is a bit different, Michael said: “The idea of having ‘team jobs’ where the whole team is involved in doing either a large task or a time consuming task to both split it up and make it smaller, but also to share the work throughout the kitchen is definitely something I will take with me.”

“Spending the service plating at a 3 Michelin star is definitely up there as a highlight, but they launched a new seasonal lamb dish while I was there so seeing the process of how that gets onto the plate in a kitchen of that level was very interesting.”

As part of the experience, Michael got to sit down and enjoy a late dinner at the end of his week!  He said:  “The meal was, without a doubt, the best meal I have ever had!”

We are very thankful that the team at Core by Clare Smyth are happy to have our winner join them for a stage.  Head Chef Nik Jones said: “Michael joined us for a week as part of his Andrew Fairlie Scholarship, and from the outset he showed a genuine willingness to learn and contribute. He approached each section with focus and humility, took feedback on board quickly, and showed a solid grasp of fundamental techniques. What stood out most was his attitude - calm under pressure, attentive to detail, and consistently proactive in supporting the team. We wish Michael the very best of luck in his career.”

Thanks to Clare and the team at Core for making this happen!