Star chef from Ardgay cooks up a great reputation in London

A FORMER ghillie from Ardgay is taking the London restaurant scene by storm – and is now set to beat a new foodie trail to the Highlands.

Just six years ago Andy Waugh was selling venison burgers from the back of pubs.

Now the 34-year-old from Ardgay has two top London eateries – one of which was hailed by leading food critic Giles Coren as “the best restaurant in the world” – and whose patrons include TV presenter Jeremy Paxman.

And the former BBC Newsnight inquisitor certainly knows his Scottish larder as he regularly fishes in the north.

Coren was certainly won over. Of Andy’s Mac & Wild in the UK capital’s Great Titchfield Street, he wrote: “I loved this restaurant. Loved the vibe, loved the people, loved the attitude to food, loved the whisky.”

And it is certainly a family success.

Andy’s restaurants source their venison and game from Ardgay Game at Bonar Bridge, run by his parents Les and Lesley and his 32-year-old brother Ruaridh.

Sister Kirsty, 27, helped out on Andy’s market stalls and is “one of the best bakers I know,” he says.

He opened his first Mac & Wild in 2014 – after first starting the Wild Game Co – with the 65-seater Great Titchfield Street eatery and then last year added another 135-cover outlet in Devonshire Square.

All his restaurants, where venison is the main dish, even have the name on the menu of the stalker who culled the deer.

Now Andy plans to start a Mac & Wild school which will see foodies, chefs and others involved in the industry head to the Highlands for the whole “hill to plate” experience.

With his Wild Game Co, which was set up to principally supply raw meat, Andy was a winner of the Young British Foodies Award for best street food in 2012.

Andy, who became a father four months ago with the birth of daughter Iona, said: “Having grown up in venison and game and I know pretty much everything there is to know about the meat. I grew up learning about the family business. I was born the year my father set it up and I could not have a better teacher.

“I owe my parents everything – it’s all down to them. One of the great things about them is not only do they know their stuff, they have great people working for them and they have kept their staff. Head butcher Ali Polson has been with them for 20 years for example.

“When I left university, where I started a degree in biology, I went and worked for my dad for two years.

“My first official day of trading on my own was at Broadway Market in late August 2010. I drove down from Scotland and took however many thousands of pounds worth of meat.

“By the end of the day we’d sold around £300 worth – I was chuffed to bits. But I then had to work out what to do with the rest of it and sent it all back home.

“My dad told me never to let that happen again. After that I was pretty careful about the way I was ordering meat, taking only what I knew I could sell and a bit more on top of that. Anything I couldn’t sell, I would take home and eat.

“It was at Camden Market that we started selling the hot food and that enabled me to use the bits I couldn’t sell.”

Andy became a regular at street-food get-togethers and festivals with his pop-ups.

Then he took the plunge into restaurants – with his parents supplying the venison and game.

“The Highlands has the best larder in the world. I want the world to appreciate what we’re producing – maybe even encourage a few people to visit,” said Andy, whose wife Holly works for the BBC. “I am very much into the seasonality of the food too, and venison is the crux of the menu.

“The family company also supply pheasant, partridge, grouse, pigeon and rabbit.

“It is all about quality. I know where it has come from, even who has shot it. The name of the stalker is on our menus.

“We also stock 150 whiskies.

“I worked as a ghillie on a couple of estates so I grew up with our suppliers. I know what’s involved. It’s all about the produce, it makes our job a lot easier.

“We are not trying to be pretentious, just serve delicious Scottish food.

“One of the most important features of our food is knowing where it comes from. I know where ours comes from – I don’t eat meat if I don’t know from where it originates.

“The venison is hung for about three weeks and I work closely with the chefs. I would like to have about half a dozen restaurants in London and a couple of international sites and hope to start the Mac & Wild school this year.

“Our first year trading was better than we imagined. It’s going well.”

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