Edinburgh chefs to attempt a most daring culinary challenge for Doddie

From Gordon Ramsay's beef Wellington, Hélène Darroze’s tandoori lobster and Ainsley Harriot’s jerk chicken to Heston Blumenthal’s bacon and egg ice cream, chefs all over the world have their signature dishes.

While some may pay homage to another chef’s food every now and again, most would surely balk at the idea of cooking a rival’s entire menu instead of their own. And yet this is the feat that, for one night only, two Edinburgh restaurants are about to attempt.

The profits from the restaurant swap will go to the late rugby legend Doddie Weir's MND charity (Picture: Tom Hevezi/ Allsport) | Getty Images

On February 9, the staff of The Palmerston and Sotto, led by their respective chefs, Lloyd Morse and Frank Ascrizzi, will swap restaurants and deliver their own interpretations of each other’s cuisine, with all the profits from the night going to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, the motor neurone disease charity set up by the late, great and much missed Doddie Weir, who died from MND in 2022.

It is a decision that may flirt with disaster. However, it also just might produce an unexpected masterpiece like Massimo Bottura’s famous work of culinary art ‘Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart’. Fingers crossed.