Sitting side by side beneath the glass ceiling and greenery at Aizle restaurant in Edinburgh are two chefs sharing remarkably similar stories of how they arrived there.
On the left is Phillip Roberts, head chef, who moved to the city with his partner late last summer after a two-year stint at Oncore by Clare Smyth in Australia.
To his right is Ashley Salmon, executive chef, new to Edinburgh this month following a move from Hong Kong, and position within the Simon Rogan Group, to be closer to his fiancée’s parents in her home country.
Both credit social media and ‘six degrees of separation’ with their new roles at Aizle, a restaurant from acclaimed Scottish chef, Stuart Ralston.
“I just sent Stuart a message,” Roberts said.
“A guy from Scotland I had worked with a long time told me Aizle was looking for staff.
“I came in for a trial on Thursday that week, and that was that.”
“It was a similar situation for me,” Salmon continued.
“I watched Stuart when he was on the Great British Menu, followed him off the back of that and then really enjoyed seeing what he was doing at Aizle so over an email to him.
“The world of chefs is so small that we’re all connected to each other in some way.”
The appointment of Salmon and Roberts in these senior roles is evidence of a shift at Aizle as the restaurant celebrates a decade in Edinburgh city centre.
The first of Ralston’s restaurants to launch in the city would later be followed by Noto, Tipo and most recently, Lyla, which opened just last year at the former home of 21212 by Paul Kitching.
After a flurry of rave reviews and recognition from the Michelin guide within just a few months, it’s there that the chef now hopes to focus his attention, allowing these two new talents to shine in his place at Aizle.
“I'm so proud of Aizle, it's given me everything I ever needed in life, the people I have met, the food I have cooked, and what I am today is all because of that little restaurant with no menu,” he told the Herald.
“The last 10 years have flown by, but without Aizle we wouldn’t be where we are today.
“I am really happy to see Ash and Phil running the kitchen now I am based at my new home Lyla, they are coming up with amazing new dishes.
“They care about the things I care about, so the DNA still runs deep of what we do.”
Pictured: Scottish produce takes centre stage at Aizle (Image: Supplied)
Despite only having worked with each other for a short while, Roberts and Phillip are clearly already tuned in to the same wavelength, joking about coming across as an old married couple after finishing each other’s sentences on more than one occasion.
So, when it comes to their love for Scottish produce, it’s no surprise that it’s a passion shared.
Roberts said: “I spent some time working in England, but the produce here is on another level from anything I’ve seen before.
“Things like fish, game or berries are of a quality you don’t get anywhere else.
“Then there are the wild or foraged ingredients like Sea Buckthorn.
“Getting to use them all in the kitchen is incredible.”
To mark 10 years of Aizle, the team has introduced a brand new menu as well as returning the original, shorter five-course tasting menu to run alongside its current offering, a move that its chef patron describes as “going back to our roots and doing it all again.”
Coming from humble beginnings in the Fife town of Glenrothes, Ralston went on to follow an extensive international career in the US and Barbados, working alongside legendary chefs such as Gordon Ramsay.
Aizle, his debut restaurant, opened on Edinburgh’s St Leonard’s Street in 2014, gaining acclaim for an ingredients-led blind-tasting menu revolving around “the best of the Scottish larder”.
In 2020 it relocated to its new premises in Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel, where it now occupies The Garden room.
As the team looks forward to the next 10 years, new head chef Roberts said: “Working with Ash under Stuart has been great because it’s a way for us to work out our ideas together and push forward with them while still having that infrastructure and Aizle brand already in place.
“There’s space to add our own style or approach to the food while still maintaining the core ethos of the restaurant.
“Our goal, first and foremost, is to maintain the reputation that Stuart has built for Aizle,” Salmon agreed.
“Then we can look at developing our own identity to go with that.
“Our dishes are all about offering something familiar and accessible, then elevating it with local ingredients and a little finesse.
“We’re very lucky to get to make use of fresh, Scottish produce…even if I do miss the sunny beaches in Hong Kong a bit.”
Aizle is located within the Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel at 38 Charlotte Square.
For more information visit www.aizle.co.uk
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