PRESS STATEMENT
In the light of a recent story in the Daily Record newspaper, Managing Director Nicholas Russell has issued this statement: "Obviously we are concerned to hear of the allegations being made against James Stocks. Our company is built on process and procedure, therefore James Stocks has been suspended pending further investigations."
James applied for the position of head chef in October 2007 with a particularly impressive CV. A 4 hour interview then took place with the candidate and Balbirnie's Managing Director, the General Manager, and Operations Manager. Following this the applicant then informed the supplying agent, Berkeley Scott PLC, that he would very much like to proceed with the role, and this information was then passed to Balbirnie.
Balbirnie agreed to offer the job, subject in entirety though to receipt of satisfactory references being supplied by Berkeley Scott .In turn these were processed by the agent and the documentation then arrived at Balbirnie. References were spread over a period of 8 preceding years, fully backdated to the origins of the career. Lead referees for all of the most important references were an ex-Head Chef at Oak Room Marco Pierre White, a Head Chef level at Le Gavroche, and a French Michelin 3 Star Chef.
With all of the references fully received James Stocks was then offered the role at Balbirnie.
In late December The Sunday Times ran an article to coincide with the opening of our new restaurant James Stocks @ The Orangery. They did of course insist on absolute clarity prior to running the article, and personally rang and interviewed Marco Pierre White by telephone..The Sunday Times have today confirmed that they completely stand by this interview, which took place over 10 to 15 minutes and is all recorded in the journalist¹s shorthand notebook. In this interview, Marco praised James personally, talked about knowing his family, and about James' future career. Why he is now be denying this to another journalist from another publication a complete mystery to us.
A few weeks later The Orangery was given 10 out of 10 in The Sunday Herald, by leading investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman, Scotland's harshest restaurant critic.
On the back of simply tremendous guest and critic comments The Orangery then won the HotelReviewScotland award for Scotland's 2008 Hotel Restaurant of the Year.
James Stocks is a brilliant young cook who has brought a slightly different dimension to Scotland¹s offerings. His skills and foundations are completely obvious. Even if James is guilty of embellishing his CV somewhat, there is no doubt he has the skills to become one of the greats.
Perhaps he is a fantasist. A young man who fantasises about gaining michelin stars and becoming the best chef he can be is not a bad fantasy to have. Whether Stocks has learnt his cooking at 5th commis level with Alain Ducasse, as a Pastry Chef with Wolfgang Puck, or as a Saucier with Donald Duck, he now cooks like he does and he runs the tightest kitchen I have ever seen. Stocks is a walking talking bible of gastronomy, who has delivered a level of consistency in a timeframe which is truly remarkable.
