‘United Kulinary’ will serve as a talking point for these new formats in British cuisine, open to diversity and a philosophy of sharing and collaboration. Cuisine that continues to absorb cultural and culinary influences and techniques from around the world. Gastronomy with no borders. Roberta Hall-McCarron, from The Little Chartroom, in Edinburgh; and the celebrated Simon Rogan from L'Enclume de Cartmel, with three of the red guide's stars, along with Scot Isaac McHale, chef and owner of the two-starred The Clove Club in Shoreditch, London, will be explaining the UK's gastronomy on stage at the Kursaal. Chefs from a number of different communities in the UK, who will be explaining their experiences and the idiosyncrasy of a cookery format that has historically been enriched thanks to its relationship with countries forming part of the Commonwealth, such as India or Pakistan, or contributions by French, Chinese, Italian or Turkish cuisine.

Edinburgh's gastronomic leap

Roberta Hall-McCarron is Edinburgh's Revelation Chef. She opened The Little Chartroom in 2018 after serving her time at a number of restaurants and hotels in Scotland (including the famous Balmoral) and Dubai (Burj Al Arab). At The Little Chartroom, hailed as Edinburgh's best restaurant, Hall-McCarron cooks up her own Scottish coast, combining the best fish with the produce of local small-scale farmers. Following the consolidation of The Little Chartroom, last year the chef and her husband opened another restaurant, Eleanore, which also operates as a wine bar. Hall-McCarron forms part of a group of chefs who are consolidating Edinburgh as one of the UK's gastronomy capitals.

Simon Rogan is one of the pioneers of the "Farm to Table" movement in England. He started his career early, and focused on local produce when he opened L’Enclume in The Lake District in 2002, where he began by emphasising the local territory and its products. This served him well over the years, because he has now won over the general public, while Michelin awarded a third green star (making him the first three-star outlet in the north of England).

The Rogan empire

Rogan' ideas and empire moved out from the north of England to London (Aulis) and also Hong Kong (where he runs Aulis, The Baker & The Bottleman and Roganic, with a Michelin star), but his larder is still based in the Lake District. Here he has a plantation and a farm which give coherence to the chef's sustainability discourse. In addition to London and Hong Kong, Rogan, who heads up the Bocuse d'Or UK team, has other businesses on his own turf: Cartmel (Rogan & Co*, Linthwaite House and Aulis Cartmel), and a delivery service (Home by Simon Rogan).

The mark of Noma

A stint at Noma left its mark on Isaac McHale, who went back to the UK to shake up London with The Clove Club. Isaac McHale is the chef and owner of the two-starred The Clove Club in Shoreditch, London. McHale was born in northern Scotland and grew up in Glasgow, a city in which he learned a great deal about cookery as he served his time, before he upped sticks to broaden his horizons in Sydney (Marque) and Copenhagen (Noma). He went back to England to continue his training with Tom Aikens in Elystan Street, before joining the original Brett Graham team at The Ledbury, where he worked for six years and earned two stars.

Post-The Ledbury, McHale founded the “Young Turks” with Ben Greeno and James Lowe, and ran a number of experimental pop-up restaurants and nightclubs with them in London. In 2013 he seized the chance to open The Clove Club, a restaurant that has finally consolidated the Scottish chef with his own brand of cuisine and chiefly organic ingredients, clearly showing the influence of his time at Noma.