Albert & Michel Roux Jr at Crossbasket Castle

Top-notch Albert and Michel Roux Jnr restaurant in splendid rural setting

There are no subsidies in the culinary arts: no state-supported primary lessons in preparing julienne carrots; no chefs in residence commissioned to create free street food. Every restaurant is dependant on private patronage for its survival – so it is a great credit to all involved that in the UK we keep producing wonderful and imaginative chefs. Some of the credit for this must surely go to the Roux family, who, in the form of Albert Roux and Michel Roux Jnr, have just opened a restaurant in Crossbasket Castle outside Glasgow. It’s the second in the country for the pairing, while father Albert has five Chez Roux operations dotting the country. Crossbasket is a noble setting in which to showcase the skills of this high calibre stable. Head chef is Mike Matieson who, having worked alongside the family for years, has set the bar very high at the outset with a set taster menu that changes daily (a lounge menu is available elsewhere in the hotel). The seven-course journey opens with canapés in the bar and ends with petits fours on the balcony overlooking the Calder valley. In between are some perfectly executed French classics such as a labour-intensive lobster bisque, dishes that showcase Scotland’s larder (rack of Borders lamb) and exhilarating and joyful combinations (treacle cured salmon in a liquorice consommé served under a smoke-filled cloche) served in the ornate dining room. Of course all this comes at a price: the taster menu is £67 with £30 more for matching wines. But when you consider that more than 30 – sometimes highly complex – elements make up the full menu, it feels like an art form well worth supporting.

• High point: Treacle cured salmon with liquorice consomme
• Low point: For most this is one only for very special occasions
• Notable dish: Treacle cured Loch Duart salmon

Listed in the Lanarkshire Larder – order a print copy (free + p&p).

The five-year renovation of this 14th-century building into a luxury nine-bedroom hotel and wedding venue also unveils a restaurant under the auspices of three generations of the Roux family: Albert, Michel Jnr and his daughter Emily.