Brian Maule at Chardon d'Or

For almost eight years, Ayrshire born Brian Maule was head chef at the world famous Michelin star London restaurant, Le Gavroche. In June 2002, with the full backing of le Gavroche's Roux dynasty, Brian fulfilled a lifelong ambition of opening his own restaurant in Glasgow, bringing with him an international reputation for preparing some of the best food in Europe.

Although we was only born in 1969, Brian has worked in top class kitchens for almost half of his life, travelling to Lyon, the culinary capital of France as a young teenager, where he worked for some the country's most respected chefs. His potential was spotted by the world famous Roux brothers, whose Le Gavroche has been a byword for unsurpassed culinary excellence since the late 1960s. He was appointed head chef at Le Gavroche aged only 24, in charge of a select brigade of 18 chefs.

Menus are very much French inspired, and set menus provide extra value for money, a lunch one could offer a choice of tartlet of chicken, flavoured with truffle and a lightly poached egg or cappuccino of creamed potato and leek; then fillet of salmon on a bed of leeks served with a light champagne sauce; braised spiced belly of pork with white beans or roast pheasant with cabbage, lardons and wild mushroom. Finally caramelised bananas with a toffee sauce or lemon tart with raspberry coulis to finish.

Already winning plaudits from the major guides, this is one to watch. Though Jan Moir of The Telegraph was not over-enamoured when she visited in July 2003: "Perhaps it is just bad luck that I visit Chardon d'Or when the place is creaking at the seams, but every night must be a bad night if they insist on this number of customers being crammed in. Any restaurant can be expanded with extra tables and chairs, but the kitchens that serve them are never quite so flexible."

Charles Fletcher of The Scotsman found room to praise it in Nov 2001: "The Confucius of the Kitchen says the chill wind of recession bites first at the top of the mountain. There's a bit of a churn going on above the tree-line in Glasgow's hotel and restaurant world at the moment. Glasgow's more susceptible to this attrition as the accepted wisdom is that it has overcapacity at the top end anyway. This is just brutal gastro-Darwinism at play. The unfit will sink back into the primordial bouillon. Only the fittest will develop legs, haul out onto dry land and scamper about stronger than ever." For the rest of his review, Click Here.