Roberta Hall-McCarron's Edinburgh

Edinburgh-born to a family famed for its bacon, sausages and black pudding, Roberta Hall-McCarron is now treading a similar path, albeit at the forefront of the city's burgeoning gastronomic scene.

Words by Alex Mead.

This article was taken from the Reader Awards 2025 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.

Scotland has changed. It may look the same in the mountains of the Highlands, on the banks of the lochs, on the shores of the isles or even in its big cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, but look closer and there’s a definite shift. Take the plates coming out of the kitchens of Roberta Hall-McCarron, one of Edinburgh’s finest culinary daughters. ‘I’m making hare black pudding,’ explains the multi-award-winning chef behind The Little Chartroom, Eleanore and Ardern, ‘and we’re making it gluten free and dairy free; we do as much as can like that now. We’ve got the usual onion, garlic and spices, we get dried blood from the hare and mince some of the leg meat. While you traditionally use oats, we use rice and then put a little dairy-free cream in it.’

Getting your head around allergens is key to the success of modern restaurants – you can’t afford to leave anybody out, and it’s reflective of a food scene that knows its onions and makes sure they don’t get accidentally dusted with the wrong flour. ‘It makes it easier if we consider allergens when thinking up new recipes,’ says Roberta. ‘We have to ask, “Does it tick those boxes?” first, rather than afterwards. It’s a good way of challenging us, making us explore different methods – I think it’s quite interesting and exciting.’

Making black pudding is something of a birthright for Roberta. ‘My dad is from a line of butchers that goes back to his great-grandfather,’ she explains. ‘They specialised in pork products and had three butchers and a factory. It was quite a big business, supplying supermarkets. They sold it when I was about 15, but it had been a huge part of my life.

‘Dad worked a lot,’ she continues, ‘and when me and my older sister spent time with Dad, it was often going to the factory and being surrounded by all these pork products: circle, bacon, sausages, pork pies, black pudding and lots of haggis. Now it’s gone full circle and we make our own bacon, pies and black pudding – though we’re not selling to supermarkets yet.’

Only a matter of time, perhaps. These days, Roberta is one of the pre-eminent names in Scottish food. She grew up in Barnton – ‘a really residential suburb, very much outskirts, and it was lovely’, she says – and eventually found her way into food.

Work experience in a kitchen at 15 (at The Tower, Edinburgh) was enough to persuade Roberta to pursue a culinary career. ‘I then worked at a place called Slaley Hall ten minutes from Hexham in Northumberland, which has quite a lot of incredible restaurants now,’ says Roberta. ‘Albert Roux would come because he had a connection with the chef and I cooked at one of his dinners. But it was quite remote, so I decided to move back to Edinburgh. I went to the Balmoral Hotel for a year and then got an opportunity in Dubai.’

After being wowed by the glitzy world of truffle menus, gold beef and caviar served in ice-carved scallop shells, she got ‘a bit sick of the desert’, and found work at Tom Kitchin’s The Kitchin. ‘That changed things a lot,’ she admits. ‘When I joined, they were only nine months old, but had already got a star, so it was an exciting place to be. ‘Edinburgh really needed it; it had good restaurants, but not amazing ones, and it hadn’t had anything new or exciting until Tom burst on to the scene. He was produce-led and he changed the landscape in terms of putting Scotland on the map as well.’

She spent over three years in The Kitchin, then became part of the team that opened up Kitchin’s Castle Terrace. ’Even though I wanted to go further afield, there were more good places opening in Edinburgh. I’d already learned so much and felt I didn’t need to go far to learn more.’

Like many chefs, Roberta was keen to open her own place – so she did leave briefly to run a restaurant with rooms in Cambridgeshire with husband Shaun, who was front of house at Castle Terrace, before returning to her beloved home city to search for a site. Eventually they found one. ‘It was teenytiny,’ she says. ‘You had to be clever: you could only have so many people working in it, and only 18 seats – 20 if you rejigged it.’

That became The Little Chartroom, which then moved to a bigger site, with a second restaurant, Eleanore, taking its place on the original site. The Little Chartroom’s new home was ‘more luxurious, with a prep kitchen, storage, office, and three toilets instead of one’, she explains. ‘Eleanore is a well-oiled machine, though,’ she adds. ‘The food they do is incredible – you can see into the kitchen and people often think it goes back to a building that doesn’t exist. When they realise it ends where the wall stops, they’re blown away by the meal they’ve had. And Hamish, the head chef, is 6ft 8in, so it’s incredible how he does it.’

Just as Roberta’s stable has grown, so too has the city’s gastronomic scene. ‘It recently won an award for best food destination,’ she says. ‘I know I’m biased, but I honestly think even since we opened seven years ago, the whole vibe has changed. The idea of a good neighbourhood bistro was missing, and now there are so many. Street food? There wasn’t really any. Now there are trucks everywhere.

‘There are places such as Bonnie & Wild, at St James Quarter, where there are maybe 12 different food outlets in one place, and you can sit at a table, as group of ten, and all order from different places. There’s also Edinburgh Street Food, which is a bit more casual, but has lots of different vans.

‘The bakery scene has blown up too, and we’ve got endless places to go for coffee and baked goods. When me and my husband have a day off, I love nothing more than trying a new place – one of my daughter’s first words was ‘pain au chocolat’, which is terrible, and entirely my husband’s fault, but it says a lot about how many bakeries we can now go to.’

She name-drops Lannan Bakery and then endless restaurants, from Stuart Ralston’s quartet from the Michelin-starred Lyla, to the newbie Vinette. There’s Mirin, a modern Japanese favourite in Leith, and Little Capo, a tiny Italian in New Town. She also gives a nod toTimber Yard, which has been around for a while but now has a Michelin star; Montrose, its wine-bar sibling, which does ‘incredible food’; and The Finch, one of the best bars to go for a cocktail. There are good places to stay too, such as The Hoxton and Gleneagles Townhouse.

‘Everyone is saying Edinburgh is having a moment, but when you live there you don’t see things in moments, it’s a gradual process,’ says Roberta. ‘I honestly think it’s one of the best places to come and visit. There’s something special about getting a train here: you come out of the station and there’s a bloody castle in the centre – that’s unique.

‘This time of year is one of my favourites,’ she adds. You have the same things to do as at any other time, but it’s different when you go to the narrow closes and do the ghost tours in winter. It’s the atmosphere – being dark and very, very cold, but having warm, cosy places to go to. I love it. Edinburgh in winter is pretty magical.’

ROBERTA HALL-McCARRON'S HOTSPOTS

MIRIN

They serve Asian-influenced small plates that are full of flavour. It’s an interesting, cool combination because although it’s Japanese, the chef trained in France and uses old-school techniques but with Asian ingredients. So he’ll finish things in an unexpected way – the balance is brilliant – and the food is super punchy. mirin.uk

LYLA

Stuart Ralston’s super-high end restaurant is stunning: incredibly refined, delicate, thoughtful, balanced and it all looks beautiful too. It captures Stuart’s style and what he does. Everything is really good – everything they need is on the plate, but it’s really light. lylaedinburgh.co.uk

MONTROSE

I really like this place, not just because the food is delicious and seasonal, but it also has a lightness to it. I love the décor and whole vibe of the place too – it’s really relaxed with an interesting drinks menu and a focus on produce-led food. montroserestaurant.co

NORAH

This tiny place is very new. It used to be open only during the day, but now they do dinner – just ten seats – and the menu changes all the time. It’s all very seasonal, quite simple, well executed; just a lovely space and place to eat. norahnewhaven.co.uk

GLENEAGLES TOWNHOUSE

This is beautiful and grand but also accessible. It’s as lovely as the original Gleneagles in Perthshire, but more affordable – a stunning place to stay. gleneagles.com