The five-star luxury Edinburgh hotel with innovative new chef and 'beekeeper'

This chef has just taken a top job in the Capital

John Munro is unfazed at the thought of stepping into the role of head chef at Number One at The Balmoral, just before the Edinburgh Festival Fringe chaos kicks off.

Apparently, this five-star restaurant, which has just retained its four AA stars, has been fully booked all through June and July anyway, so the busy August month isn’t that different from the rest of the summer.

“I'm sure there are famous people that come in, but we just treat them like every other diner, really,” says Munro.

Up until recently, he’s been senior sous chef under Number One’s former head chef Matthew Sherry, who has now left to pursue a project with Lisa Goodwin-Allen of Michelin-starred Northcote. After three years in that job, Munro was a shoo-in to take over this Edinburgh kitchen.

“It was a natural progression. Executive chef Paul Hart just asked if I wanted the job, and I said ‘yes’ straight away,” he says.

The rest of the team were chuffed that he was taking the helm. They all rub along very well.

“We do actually, and I'm not just saying that. I think these are some of my favorite ever people I've worked with. It's a very diverse group. We’ve got people from Thailand, Italy, a few Scottish chefs, some French people. Everyone brings their own experiences from not just cooking, but from life. So it gives you a different approach to how you approach cooking, but also just in general how you operate as a person. It's really diverse and it's a lot of fun,” he says. “They were all very excited for me. They all gave me a lovely gift and some cards when I took over. So their support's been as important as anything to me”.

Munro is originally from Kinlochbervie - a small town in Sutherland.

His countryside home has informed the changes to the fine-dining menu.

“I'm from the real Highland Scotland, so I feel a real deep connection to Scottish food. I was a crofter myself growing up, so it was always food focused, with the natural landscape dictating what we ate”, he says. “So I just want to focus on bringing Number One back to its Scottish roots, I guess, and really focusing on the Scottish larder that we have”.

Munro has also been hugely influenced by his time working in Edinburgh Michelin-star restaurant Timberyard, back in 2015, when he was inspired by their ethos on sustainability and preservation.

“Seeing it in action was very new to me. It's all very well reading or watching a show, but when you actually see someone going out and foraging all the stuff, it is just entirely different to receiving produce from a supplier,” Munro says.

He also had a spell at another Edinburgh gem, The Little Chartroom, in 2022, where he especially enjoyed the interaction with customers.

“It's a really successful restaurant, but it also feels small. It's very family orientated with Roberta and her partner Shaun running it, and was just very casual,” he says. “The chefs served a lot of the food there as well, so you get an appreciation for what diners feel. You don't really get that as much in the kitchen. When you're talking to them directly and explaining, you see their eyes light up. It gives you a kind of new appreciation for what you're doing every day”.

Munro has already put his stamp on Number One’s food list, where, on the five-course tasting menu, you’ll find dishes including Pittenweem lobster, blue mussels and lemon verbena; Shetland halibut, elderflower, peas and Umai caviar; or beef fillet, short rib, green peppercorns and alliums. This features beef from a lesser-known producer, craft butcher Edgefield.

It’s one of a couple of new suppliers who are namechecked on the menu.

“They started operating last year. So that’s Simon Gilmour who used to be part of Gilmour Butchers, who are well known. He started his own thing. Edgefield is in Edinburgh itself, so they're really close to us, so we can pop along and have a chat whenever we want,” says Munro. “I also brought on Greenheart growers. That's a guy over in Fife. It's a community project where they grow a lot of herbs. But then the finished product is supplying restaurants, so it's a sustainable business for them as well”.

Number One at The Balmoral | Contributed

There are plenty of foraged ingredients on the restaurant menu, too. Some of this has been picked by Munro and his team, with other items sourced from Paisley-based Coeur Sauvage.

And, of course, there is honey on the menu, as part of a yoghurt parfait pudding, as well as a pork dish.

Munro is the resident head beekeeper here.

He looks after the hotel’s three hives, which are situated on its rooftop. Apparently, the bees get their pollen from all over the city, including Arthur’s Seat.

According to this chef, he fostered an interest in apiaries when he’d occasionally help out with the hives while working at Michelin-starred venue, The Black Swan at Oldstead.

So, when Munro heard that they’d stopped using the hives at The Balmoral, during and post Covid, he was keen to get them up and running again.

Executive chef Paul Hart was in agreement.

And, yes, Munro tells me that he has been stung many times. That’s despite the fact tha they smoke the hives to calm the insects down, and he uses his own foraged pine cones for that.

However, any resulting sticky sweet stuff is worth the effort.

As he says; “Each hive produces about 13 kilograms of honey a year. They do enough for us to last the year. We can just use just our rooftop honey through our dishes for the year. We just work out what we've got, literally divide it by 52, and plan our recipes around that”.

The busy bees might be oblivious to their grand and iconic home, but Munro certainly isn’t.

“Every day you come to work, look at the building, and it’s breathtaking,” he says. “There's so much history throughout the building, and in Number One as well, that you just kind of feel privileged to be here”.

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