‘There’s nothing like working there’ Yorke begins. ‘I was working in a small pub in Edinburgh while I was doing my cooking course, but through the course, I was able to secure a stage at Castle Terrace’.

The restaurant was essential in Edinburgh at the time. It was one of only a handful of Michelin-starred restaurants in the city and it would go on to become something of a national standard bearer for a kind of French-meets-Scottish fine dining. Dishes like lobster ravioli in a lemongrass broth, wood pigeon ballotine with foie gras, gurnard tartare with geometrically arranged pickled mooli: this was the de rigeur menu that had evolved at the time, showcasing guests’ ongoing desires for French fine-dining met with seasonality, lightness and a newfound consideration of local produce. 

Castle Terrace had a reputation. ‘It was notoriously one of the toughest kitchens in Edinburgh’ Yorke remembers. ‘It was full on, everything was old school. My head chef at the time had trained at some top restaurants and kitchens across Paris and he took that to the restaurant. It was proper hardcore, old-school stuff: very long hours, meticulous cooking, and it was just relentless.’ That intensity was too much for Yorke who was still a teenager at the time. ‘I would have been 18 or 19 years old at the time. That first time round, I only lasted a few months’. 

Despite a short initial stint, Sam Yorke doesn't seem defeatist about his time there. The opposite in fact: he presents as a chef who has come to terms with the stage as a learning period, perhaps a learning of how not to do things. ‘I went off and worked in a few places in Manchester, even working with my brother at a hotel in south Manchester. Over the years I hit a few different kitchens until I bumped into the chef at Castle Terrace. He happened to be in the city and, eventually, he convinced me to come back to the restaurant.’

A return to Edinburgh would prove fateful. Then, Sam Yorke was in his late teens but would rise from Commis to Sous Chef at the then-Michelin starred restaurant in just two years. 

Had the restaurant changed? ‘It was still a full-on kitchen’ concedes Yorke ‘We were running from the minute we came through the doors’. But it wasn’t all work. Sam met his partner Kate while working there, and looking back, remembers this return to Edinburgh fondly. ‘It was hard, but I loved it.’’

In 2020, the Castle Terrace restaurant closed; a result of the pandemic which shuttered restaurants across the country. Sadly the restaurant had lost its star two years before, and perhaps some of that lustre along with it. Eating habits changed as people were forced perennially indoors. 

Yorke recounts that in the run up to opening Heron, ‘me and my former business partner started “Bad Seeds”, these delicious pre-made meal boxes. They went down really well, but it was a hell of a lot of work to do it. We’d curate a playlist alongside each meal that we’d prepare and deliver it around town. It was just the two of us and eventually we got enough money and exposure from doing it to open Heron’. 

But the opening of Heron didn’t come easy. Leith, where the restaurant is located, isn’t the heart of Edinburgh. Being slightly out of the way poses unique risks and challenges, not least convincing people to come just outside of town. Alongside being entirely self-funded, the notion of opening a relaxed fine-dining destination restaurant was a mammoth task. 

‘We opened on a complete shoestring budget’ Yorke is quick to clarify. ‘I had family members coming up from Rochdale to help with the fit out – there’s a joy in some ways with that, it’s like a family restaurant, but it’s hard because the guests don’t see that, they don’t see what’s gone into making the space’.  

And the food in those early days? Times were changing and cuisines were evolving across fine dining. Foraged ingredients and hyper seasonality, once the reserve of only the most progressive restaurants, were becoming commonplace and an inquisition into what ‘Scottish food’ meant was happening at a quicker pace than ever. 

‘When we started off we were a la carte only. We wanted to do this accessible fine-dining menu and make this relaxed but refined food. We had some good seafood dishes, a classic lobster ravioli dish with a classic bisque. There was a moment maybe 10 years ago when every fine dining restaurant had that lobster ravioli in a broth! It was very Castle Terrace.’

‘We were huge on foraged things in the beginning which was quite on-trend at the time; same with edible flowers. We use those things less and less now. We try not to be too pretentious here, it’s got to look good and taste good.’

Looking back on Yorke’s time at Castle Terrace, there’s no sense of nostalgia, instead it’s full of admiration and respect. Yorke is visibly indebted to the kitchen that shaped so much of his early career and pays a subtle homage with the menu at Heron. ‘The food we do here is so different to what we did at Castle Terrace, but there are some nods: the veal sweetbread dish has a spelt risotto, a play on one of the classics on the menu. There are a couple of little things like that, but [at Heron] we refine and make it light.’

Yorke is humble about the accolade, still the dream of so many chefs. ‘We were in the [Michelin] Guide in our first year. It was funny, that classic lobster dish was in the Michelin Guide, but we changed so much.’ The cooking at Heron has evolved over the years from the classical versions of what ‘modern and accessible’ fine dining was in 2021 to a locally focussed contemporary restaurant which prioritises elegance in its flavour combinations. 

‘Now the food is very different’ Yorke says, discussing how things have changed. ‘Slowly we evolved and added a tasting menu as time went on. I don’t like any of the dishes from back then! We’re still super local but [now] we focus on refined and more interesting flavours, and trying to make each individual element as good as it can possibly be. Instead of that lobster dish, we now have things like hand-dived scallop tartare with a pickled cream and caviar. It’s slowly become our signature dish.’  

The attraction of a Michelin star is seemingly irrepressible, both to chefs who seek validation of their craft and a dining public still searching for engaging, high-end dining experiences. 

‘We got the star about 18 months in, it was a surprise for sure! We had no backers, no angel investors, we were financially on a knife edge at that time. The star helped us really turn things around: I’d say our star saved us.’

Sam Yorke is a chef who, despite having achieved much, consistently seeks to learn and add to his experience, most recently completing a stage at the three Michelin-starred restaurant Jordnær in Copenhagen. Jordnær taught him much about operational success at the three star level. ‘It was interesting to see everything, I still think about their ways of working. It really took me back to school.’ 

While completing stages, Yorke’s focus remains in Leith. ‘There’s a lot of things we want to do: we want to invest a bit more in the restaurant, improve the space a little, create a central station. We’ve been playing with the idea of making the restaurant tasting menu-only in the evening, but we’ve got to balance that with the business and what’s sometimes the tyranny of a tasting menu.’

But while consistency and gentle improvements are key for Sam Yorke and Heron, he’s still conscious that what has been built is worthy of celebration. 

‘We’ve got such a great front of house team, they’re personable and a few have been with us since the beginning. Shaun, our restaurant manager, is the best storyteller I know and the room is bustling when we’re full. The atmosphere is great, the music gets turned up, it’s jumping. It’s not for everyone, we don’t have white tablecloths – some people see Michelin stars and expect certain things – but I’ve designed it for how I'd want to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant.’

In many ways, Sam Yorke’s career will be recognisable to those who have spent time in hospitality. A weekend job which became a passion, which slowly grew, over time, with hard work and commitment, into a restaurant realising the dreams and ambitions of chefs across the country. Sam Yorke’s career is remarkable for its ordinary-ness. It is typical of so many cooks who’ve worked in both good and great kitchens across Britain and around the world. 

What sets Yorke apart is the clarity of his execution. His quiet focus and determination, his thoughtful delivery of dishes driven by flavour and the seasons, creating a kind of menu that hits big on every level. It’s as though the restaurant was destined to have a Michelin star.