For almost a decade, Michael Smith has built one of Scotland’s most distinctive restaurants from a small dining room on the Waternish peninsula of Skye.
Now, as Michelin-starred Loch Bay prepares to serve its final guests, the chef is embarking on a very different challenge.
Smith will join independent Scottish hotel group Perle Hotels as Culinary Director and Brand Ambassador next month, taking responsibility for the development of food and drink across its growing collection of properties.
The newly created role will see him work with hotels in Skye, Oban and Glencoe, as well as a new Edinburgh property due to open in 2027.
Smith will work with individual teams to develop concepts rooted in their location, local produce and the character of each hotel within the group.
It marks a major change of direction for the chef, who opened Loch Bay with his wife Laurence in the village of Stein in 2016.
The intimate seafood restaurant went on to win a Michelin star and build an international reputation for cooking centred on ingredients from Skye and the surrounding west coast.
Its final service will take place on 31 October after the couple announced in August that they had decided to bring the restaurant’s ten-year story to an end.
Smith said: “Loch Bay has been the realisation of a lifelong dream. It was a huge personal challenge for my family and me, and I’ve learned so much.
“I feel like I’ve achieved everything that I’d ever hoped to, expressing a version of what we believed to be a magical little restaurant. So now I’m ready for a new challenge.
“The opportunity that Beth has created for me was unexpected, but having given it serious consideration with my family, I know this will be an incredible opportunity for me, going into the next stage of my career and doing something I’ve never done before, at a new level. That is a privilege.
“This new role allows me to call upon almost 40 years of experience, and I find that extremely exciting. It is also an opportunity to pass on what I’ve learned to the next generations coming up through Scottish hospitality.”
Smith already knows Perle Hotels well. More than a decade ago, he helped to develop Dulse & Brose at The Bosville in Portree, creating a restaurant focused on provenance and seasonal ingredients from Skye, the Highlands and Scotland’s west coast.
When he formally takes up the new position on 10 November, his first task will be to spend time inside each hotel, getting to know its restaurant, staff and customers before deciding how it should develop.
Menus and sourcing will be part of that process, but Smith says the wider ambition is to give each restaurant a clearer identity of its own.
“Hotels and restaurants are living entities - they have their own energy,” he said.
“There will be existing narratives in each location, and it takes time to uncover all these things.
“I’d like to take time to experience each venue, feel the different energy of each one, and look for opportunities to tap into new markets or new visitor experiences.”
At the heart of his approach will be the philosophy that has shaped much of his cooking on Skye – start with good Scottish produce and avoid complicating it unnecessarily.
Smith said: “Good food is really simple to achieve. You use the best ingredients that you can get hold of. You apply a little bit of skill, and you don’t overthink it.
“We have such a rich natural larder, and it should be celebrated, supported and enhanced. Perle Hotels has been doing that quietly and admirably for the last 10 years, and that’s something that I’m very happy to be a part of and continue to support.”
Perle Hotels owner Beth Rehman described Smith’s appointment as an investment not only in the group’s restaurants but in the people working inside them.
She said: “We’ve known Michael for many years and what has always stood out is his understanding of what makes a restaurant work - the food, of course, but also the people, the place and the experience around it.
“Our hotels are all very different and we want their restaurants to be different too. We don’t want to impose one concept across Perle.
“We want to give each restaurant a much clearer identity and make them places that local people and visitors want to come to whether they’re staying with us or not.
“Michael brings an enormous amount of experience, but also real enthusiasm for working with our teams and developing what is already there. We’re delighted he’s joining us and very excited about what we can achieve together.”
For Smith, the move brings one defining chapter of his career to a close while opening another with a much larger canvas.
After ten years concentrating on one tiny, utterly beguiling restaurant in a remote corner of Skye, he will now be helping shape restaurants at locations across some of Scotland’s best-known destinations.