The sun is beaming through The Little Chartroom’s front windows, casting thick shadows across the restaurant and kitchen. We’ve somehow picked the hottest day of the year to come to Bonnington, but as far as Edinburgh goes, this is a pretty good spot - this easy-going quarter of Leith has become a hotspot of great bars and restaurants, and just five minutes down the road, the Water of Leith drifts lazily out into the Firth of Forth, diligently patrolled by seagulls.
For a long time, Leith felt rather separate from the rest of Edinburgh - a little stranded and downtrodden perhaps. To our great joy, you can now jump on a tram at the airport and ride it all the way to Newhaven on the coast - a long-awaited move that opens up more of the city to visitors. It’s another sign of Edinburgh’s growth, particularly in the north where many of the city’s best restaurants are. Edinburgh’s old and new schools sit side by side up here - you have The Kitchin, of course, on the docks, and Restaurant Martin Wishart, but also the likes of Heron and Borough. At the front of the pack, Hall-McCarron’s Little Chartroom and Eleanore are leading the way into a new era for Edinburgh’s resurgent dining scene.
Champagne AYALA: Celebrating over 160 years of history, Champagne AYALA was one of the original twenty-six Grandes Marques Champagne Houses. The House received a Royal Warrant in 1908 and became a part of the Bollinger family in 2005. With its longstanding commitment to the restaurant industry, Champagne AYALA is known for its chardonnay driven, low-dosage wines, crafted with precision and delicacy in a boutique scale. These wines are the ultimate epicurean pairing, it’s no wonder they have been served in the UK for over 100 years in many of London’s most prestigious establishments.
What’s the secret to their success? It’s all about the experience, says Roberta. ‘We’ve had the same front of house teams since we opened Eleanore,’ she explains. ‘Those teams have built incredible relationships with our guests. We’ve always said that we want the restaurants to be fun and informal, like someone is coming round to your house for dinner.
‘There’s still room for formal dinners too,’ she adds, ‘but I think in general that’s how people prefer to dine. The food is good, of course, but we want our restaurants to be fun places to come to.’
![roberta in front of kitchen]()
Roberta’s start in food is similarly humble - her journey began with simple suppers on the family boat on Scotland’s west coast, and ‘intense baking days’ at her gran’s house, where she’d make full use of the kitchen to bang out eight or nine different treats in the space of a day. ‘We’d only take half of it home so I guess gran was left with all this stuff,’ she laughs, ‘but we used to have an absolute blast!’
As is often the case, it’s the small forks in the road that lead to big things. Roberta was already an accomplished dinner party host as a teenager, but it wasn’t until she spent a week of work experience at an Edinburgh restaurant - James Thomson’s The Tower restaurant, now sadly closed - that she realised her passion could also become a career. She came back to school buzzing, and worked part time at the restaurant until she finished school, when she went straight into the kitchen full time. ‘At the time it was one of the best restaurants in Edinburgh, so I started in a really good place,’ she says. ‘That kick started things for me.’
'Going into [The Kitchin] felt like I was starting all over again...'
Roberta worked in a few other Scottish restaurants - Number 16 in Glasgow and The Balmoral in Edinburgh, before heading to Dubai to spend 18 months at the Burj Al-Arab. She returned to Edinburgh adamant that it would be a temporary stopover: ‘I was planning to go to Canada,’ she says, ‘but then I got a job at The Kitchin with Tom Kitchin.
‘Going into that kitchen felt like I was starting all over again,’ she says. ‘His approach, his drive, and his passion were things I hadn’t experienced before - it was amazing. It was a really hard place to work, I’m not going to lie, but it really opened my eyes and that was a massive part of my career.’
In three and a half years at The Kitchin and another six years at sister restaurant Castle Terrace with Dominic Jack, Roberta’s cooking was forged in the blistering fires of two of the country’s most demanding, highly respected restaurants. Although Eleanore and The Little Chartroom are more relaxed than her alma maters, there’s a meticulousness and attention to detail that speaks to Roberta’s upbringing in those kitchens. Both restaurants have an easy, serene way about them, but take a look into the open kitchen and you’ll see rigorous, clockwork precision. Relaxed fine dining asks a huge amount of restaurants - the best are able to keep staff well-looked-after; develop new, innovative, seasonal dishes from week to week; and make guests feel like VIPs. Few restaurants in the country manage all of that as well as Eleanore and The Little Chartroom.
![the kitchen at the little chartroom]()
As if that wasn’t enough, Roberta and partner Shaun (who runs front-of-house at The Little Chartroom) also welcomed a little baby girl into their lives in 2022. Incidentally, the pair decided to get married just ten days before they opened The Little Chartroom in 2018, so they’re no strangers to having lots on their plate. When the restaurant opened, Roberta and Shaun were two thirds of the whole operation; now, across both restaurants, the team is well into double figures, which allows Roberta and Shaun a bit of space to be parents. ‘We needed to get both restaurants to that place because I was pregnant,’ she explains. ‘If we’d have been chatting about that five years ago, my head wouldn’t have been there at all.
‘It’s been one of the best things that could have happened, because it’s allowed all the great people we have to grow and rise up to their full potential, and it’s taught me not to micromanage…’ she adds with a grin of self-awareness.
There are no further sites on the horizon - ‘baby is keeping us busy!’ she laughs - but there are always ideas floating around, and organic growth has worked for them up to now. In the meantime, Eleanore and The Little Chartroom still have room to grow, and when you consider that they’re both comfortably among the best restaurants in Scotland already, well - the sky’s the limit.
Roberta’s perfect match for AYALA's Le Blanc de Blancs 2016
![roberta cooking her dish]()
The dish: Barbecued asparagus, caviar, mushroom and chicken hollandaise, with chicken fat parker house roll
The Champagne: AYALA Le Blanc de Blancs 2016
![the final dish]()
Roberta explains: 'Champagne has such a broad spectrum of flavours, but I love the freshness of asparagus with this Champagne, I think it’s such a good pairing. It’s such a fabulous Blanc de Blancs - it has a bit of richness compared to a brut, which really holds up well against the chicken hollandaise. I thought caviar would be a good addition - Champagne and caviar are such good partners, and chicken and caviar too, all the flavours marry together really well and to be able to drink a delicious Blanc de Blancs alongside, you can’t ask for more!'
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Roberta's quick bites
Who or what have been your biggest influences?
Aside from Tom (Kitchin) and Dominic (Jack), from afar I would say Simon Rogan. I love the concept of his restaurants, but also how he runs his businesses - he clearly gives so much to his team and gives them so much autonomy. That says a lot about somebody and how they run their business - I admire that greatly and I strive to be more like that.
Which female chefs have inspired you in your career?
Angela Hartnett. She’s been flying the flag for a long time, and she’s never faltered or changed who she is. I met her once - she came to the restaurant and ate under a friend's name. It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Angela Hartnett just walked in, oh my god!’ But she was just so cool, so lovely, just a normal person eating out for dinner with her pals. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about how she is to work with, and that again is very much who I would strive to be to somebody else.
If you could give someone just starting out some words of wisdom, what would they be?
Write everything down! You think you do something every day and you’ll never forget it. Write it down.
Describe your cooking style in three words?
Punchy. Delicious. Seasonal.
Do you have a favourite cooking gadget?
Our Vitamix broke and we have been missing it so much. Thermomix is great because it does so many jobs but Vitamix does a different level of blending, and there are certain purees we do that really need the Vitamix!
What is your favourite thing to cook at home?
I keep it super simple at home… chicken and rice soup!
Do you have a guilty food pleasure?
After a hardcore weekend of working, we’ve definitely had McDonalds delivered to the house at 2am before. Chicken nuggets, double cheeseburger, milkshake, fries.
Where is your favourite foodie destination?
San Sebastien. I’ve only been once, but I didn’t even do any fancy restaurants, I just went to pintxos bars - so much fun. Copenhagen would be up there too.
If you weren’t a chef, what would you be doing?
I found all the behind the scenes television stuff really interesting when I did Great British Menu. If I’d known that was a career, I think I would have been really interested in TV production.
Read more about our AYALA Female Chef of the Year awards, including interviews with the likes of Pip Lacey, Sabrina Gidda, and Lisa Goodwin-Allen.