Michael Smith

When we filmed Michael Smith he was head chef at the “Three Chimneys” on the Isle of Skye, one of the most remote restaurants in the world. He started his career on the west coast of Scotland in the “Arisaig House” in the late 1980s. Three years later he went to London and worked with Jeremy Lee, among others. He returned to Scotland in 1998 and met the famous chef Shirley Spear in 2004, moved on to the “The Three Chimneys” and became head chef there a year later. Since 2012 he has been head chef and director at the same time. Frank Bruni (New York Times Restaurant) named the restaurant as one of the top 5 places worldwide. Guests would fly in from all over the world to indulge in the fine food of the friendly Scot at the end of the world for a few hours. Since our time with Michael he has opened his own Michelin Star restaurant, Loch Bay, at Waternish Isle of Skye.

For Michael Smith, the menu is the heart of his restaurant. His credo: “A menu makes a restaurant”. His work piece takes visitors on a journey and shows them the sources of inspiration and influences that make up his menu. To do this, Michael himself took up the Polaroid camera and photographed many things, incidents and impressions that have a meaning for him every day here at the end of the world, and he expresses them in culinary terms in the order of the dishes. In this way, visitors get to discover the remoteness and breathtaking nature of the Isle of Skye from the cook's point of view.