Identity was key when Mark first stepped into the restaurant's kitchen in February 2021. The Lalique Group – the owners of the French crystal makers – had taken over The Glenturret in 2018, bringing their trademark, polished style with them. ‘Everyone who knows me is aware that, while I’m very meticulous with certain things, I’m a bit rough around the edges,’ he says. ‘My first worry was that people would be essentially in the middle of a forest in a whisky distillery, but would feel like they’re in the middle of Bordeaux or Paris. There were some sharp edges I had to rough up a bit, you know.’ On the list was, of course, whisky. At home in a distillery – the first in the world to have a Michelin star – Mark was keen to avoid anything which felt gimmicky. The team figured out how to weave whisky into the menus in their own way, studying the process ('we were reading essays at two in the morning'), baking malted barley bread and peat smoking. ‘There are connotations of a whisky distillery just doing haggis bon-bons and whisky sauce,’ he says. ‘For me, it’s being clever with that and having a sense of place and location without it being contrived.'

Being home to some of the world’s finest produce hasn't helped Scotland's less than glowing culinary reputation, which has in the past been shaped by stubborn stereotypes around the likes of deep-fried Mars bars. How much, then, does it mean to add another two-star name to Scotland? ‘I got goosebumps when you said that,' Mark laughs. Joining Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in the honour is certainly something of a full-circle moment, given that Mark first approached Andrew – who died aged fifty-five in 2019 – almost twenty years ago to ask him for a stage, later working at the restaurant on two occasions. ‘To be the next person to take two stars, having worked with and known Andrew – it’s not sunk in,’ he says.

The potential to keep talented Scottish chefs in Scotland is particularly exciting, he says, pointing to the likes of Stuart Ralston's Lyla in Edinburgh as an example of Scottish restaurants setting the standard. 'People used to go and cut their teeth in other kitchens because the connotations of Scottish cuisine have not changed in fifty years, but I do genuinely think now there’s more Scottish people wanting to come back to Scotland,' he says. 'They realise that our produce is amazing. But it's tough – we’re a rural restaurant and in the UK everyone’s going to go to the city, especially younger chefs who want somewhere they can go after their shift for a pint. Here, it’s more isolated, so for us to have done it is, I think, even more of an achievement.' 

Culture is an increasingly important part of attracting chefs to – and keeping them in – kitchens, particularly when it comes to those out of the bigger cities. How does Mark hope his team would describe his kitchen? ‘Hardworking but fair,’ he says. ‘If you don’t break the cycle, you just complete it again and it just keeps going.’ Most of his team have been with him over a year, including head chef Alex Angelogiannis, who was named National Chef of the Year 2024 and who Mark is quick to praise. 'He's one of the best cooks I have ever worked alongside, I mean that,' he says. 'His knife skills are exceptional, and he's a very intuitive cook.'

Having achieved so much over the last two years, I wonder if and when Mark's mind will turn to what's next and what exactly that might be. Perhaps, I ask tentatively, three stars? ‘That’s like saying Voldemort around here,’ he laughs. For now, he says, he will enjoy the recognition of his, his team and Scotland’s cooking, and the freedom it gives him to explore. ‘We’re going to continue to be better every day and strive for excellence and make sure we’ve smashed every guest’s expectations. I’ll never say never, but three? Behave yourself. I just like cooking.’