Sean Kelly is Chef Patron of Station Road at The Lovat in Fort Augustus, which he co-owns with his wife, Caroline Gregory. His cooking is deeply rooted in the Scottish Highlands, drawing on the region’s landscape, history and abundance of wild, seasonal ingredients.

Originally from Essex, Kelly began his career at The Bell Inn before spending time working abroad, including a formative stint in Paris under Albert Roux. Since arriving at The Lovat in 2011, he has shaped Station Road into a restaurant that puts local produce and thoughtful sourcing at the heart of each menu.

Much of Kelly’s inspiration comes from the land around him. He regularly forages for wild ingredients, is introducing foraging experiences for guests and looks to historic preservation techniques to make the most of each season’s harvest. Alongside the restaurant, he’s also passionate about encouraging young people into hospitality, regularly visiting local schools to inspire the next generation of chefs.

In our interview, Kelly talks about why patience matters in the kitchen, and the ingredients and dishes he looks forward to cooking and eating.

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When did you first fall in love with cooking?

I grew up on fish fingers, and my first kitchen wasn’t exactly inspiring — the desserts came out of a box and the food was about as basic as it gets. The change came at twenty, when I was working as a commis chef. My mentor there was the one who ignited a spark; he showed me that simple ingredients handled the right way, could become something amazing. That’s when it really started for me.

How would you describe your culinary style?

Local, honest and simple.

What is your culinary vision for the menu at Station Road?

I think of it in two seasons. The first is forage, grow, gather — getting out into the landscape and bringing it back to the kitchen. The second is preservation: using what we’ve foraged, grown and gathered to carry us through the rest of the year. Together, they’re a reflection of the Highlands themselves.

Do you have a favourite dish on the menu?

The fermented oat sowans, flavoured with meadowsweet picked from the riverbank, served with a blackcurrant sorbet made from fruit out of my in-laws’ garden. It’s a dish that’s rooted entirely in place.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your career?

Patience and understanding that we’re all different. This has taken time to adopt but it has served me well both in the kitchen and out of it.

What are the biggest challenges faced by the hospitality sector at the moment, and how are you tackling them?

Food costs, without question — and that’s exactly where foraging, preservation and fermentation earn their place, helping us extend the life of what we have. Employment costs are having an impact too, so we’re hyper-focused on sales and on looking after the team, so that in turn they look after the business and hopefully we retain them.

Accommodation is the other big one. There simply isn’t enough rented property locally to attract people up here. We bought a house eight years ago, which has helped enormously, and we try to support new staff with relocation and living-out wherever we can.

Which chefs have inspired you?

Gary Rhodes, for championing British cuisine at a time when everyone else was looking to France. And David Everitt-Matthias, for his use of whole animals and cheaper cuts, and for foraging long before it became fashionable in the nineties.

What is your approach to sustainability in your cooking?
It touches everything we do: composting, keeping food waste to an absolute minimum, building relationships with suppliers so we can cut packaging and send it back where possible. Preserving gluts of ingredients at their best, foraging and growing our own. Regular chats with the team so everyone’s bought into the same ethos, looking at alternative techniques to cut waste and keeping ancient recipes alive along the way.

What would you like your next project to be?
Aside from planning my retirement! I’d like to spend more time expanding the vegetable garden, building an outdoor smoker and properly embedding our two-season ethos into the business — with the whole team involved.

What is your favourite dish, and who cooks it?
Tom Aitkins’ pig’s head lasagne.