Culinary retreat in Perthshire

Like Gordon Ramsay, Chris Rowley is a fair-haired Scottish-born chef. But in contrast to Ramsay — especially a peak Kitchen Nightmares-era Ramsay — he’s an amiable, chilled-out character when dealing with amateurs in the kitchen.

It’s this temperament that makes his cooking class more a pleasure than a pain in the neck.

We’re at Ballintaggart, a rustic-chic farm retreat that Chris runs in partnership with his brother Andrew. Nestled above the River Tay in the hills of Perthshire, close to the whisky distillery town of Aberfeldy, Ballintaggart welcomes both day and overnight guests.

A converted stone farmhouse here can sleep up to 14 guests — 10 adults and four children — while the Rowleys manage other spruced-up cottages on site as well as accommodation, food shops and dining spots in the local area. This includes the riverside Grandtully Hotel, a five-minute drive from here, and the village store in Kenmore, by the shores of Loch Tay, 30 minutes away by car.

We’ve come to Ballintaggart for the food. After a caffeine boost with a slice of light, lovely lemon drizzle cake by the log burner in a wood-beamed, high-ceilinged converted barn, we’re invited into the adjacent sleek kitchen for our cooking master class.

It’s led by Chris, who was born in Edinburgh, where he retrained as a chef at the Leiths School of Food and Wine, having previously worked in financial services in London. He was, he says, attracted to Perthshire because he remembered happy family holidays here as a child and when the chance arose to start a culinary-driven retreat at Ballintaggart, where he could move with his wife and children, it was impossible to resist.

Whether it’s hosting weddings or other private events, “Slow Sunday” lunches or “Feast Nights”, seasonal ingredients play a key role at Ballintaggart with carnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans all catered for.

Herbs, fruits and vegetables grow at the farm’s meadows, gardens and orchards and produce is sourced from the surrounding area, which is blessed with plentiful fish and game from its lochs, rivers and moors. Being equidistant from both east and west Scottish coasts means seafood is also fairly easy to procure. “We get a lot of people coming here who are keen to go away for a food escape,” says Chris.

“They will either book a cooking class or one of our chefs will go and cook for them at the farmhouse one night and they’ll maybe do self-catering for the rest of their stay.”

Following Chris’ instructions, we prepare monkfish ceviche, marinating it with chopped chilli, citrus and pickled gooseberry. Then we season slabs of venison and new potatoes doused in a Highland rapeseed oil. We also conjure a salsa verde with sage, tarragon and chives from the Ballintaggart herb garden.

As the ceviche settles, we bring the venison out to Chris, who’s firing up the barbecue on the terrace. There are rousing views of the Tay Valley in the background and the cooking aromas and sizzles soon have our appetites raging. Fortunately, it’s not long before we’re back inside, seated at the dining table in the barn, enjoying these flavoursome and filling dishes. We compliment ourselves on our graft, but we know most credit goes to the produce, farmers, fishermen and chefs of bonnie Scotland.

+ Another local overnight alternative is Townhouse Aberfeldy, which has nightly B&B rates from around $200. See townhouseaberfeldy.co.uk + To help plan a trip to Scotland and Britain, see visitscotland.com and visitbritain.com

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Scotland and Visit Britain. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.