Great British Menu’s Orry Shand on opening his first restaurant

While Orry Shand prepares for his Great British Menu 2026 appearance to air next week, the National Chef of the Year winner is also gearing up for another major milestone - opening his first solo restaurant.

Falls by Orry Shand is set to launch this summer in his native Aberdeenshire, following his October 2024 Craft Guild NCOTY triumph and a rapid rise in industry profile.

Orry’s GBM Scotland heat airs on BBC Two next week, where he competes against Hannah Rose, Jun Au and Rohan Wadke.

Great British Menu 2026: A 'no-brainer' decision

“When they called and asked me to go on the show, it was a no-brainer,” Orry told The Staff Canteen, discussing his upcoming GBM appearance.

“I’ve watched it since it began about 20 years ago and I’ve always been a fan.

“Also, with opening a restaurant, going on and making a good account of yourself is obviously going to be very helpful.

“National Chef of the Year probably helped secure the place on GBM, if I’m honest. And in a way it was good because the dust hadn’t settled for too long before I was into another competition.”

He added: “I didn’t speak to other chefs or get advice beforehand. It’s how I work - same with National Chef of the Year, I didn’t really speak to anyone who’d done it before. I just have my own thought process on things.

“I found GBM was tougher than I expected it to be.

“Something like National Chef you go in, cook, do your thing – you’re fully focused. With cameras (on GBM), you have to stop during the competition to speak and do interviews, and that can distract you.

“Day one is probably the toughest, then you start to forget the cameras are there.”

The difference between NCOTY and GBM

There are many differences between competitions such as NCOTY and GBM – notably the additional storytelling element of dishes required for the latter.

Each year there is a specified theme, which chefs must create dishes around. And Orry admits his approach changed during preparation for the show.

“The theme is British film and movie makers,” Orry explained.

“My plan was to pick dishes I liked and then incorporate them into the brief, but I couldn’t do that mentally. I had to do the brief first and build the dish around it.

“If it was about a movie, I needed to know what my inspiration was going to be, then build the dish around that. That wasn’t how I thought I’d approach it, but it’s how I ended up approaching it.

“It’s very different because with National Chef, you’re cooking a restaurant-style or competition-style dish. Great British Menu is so different because they’re not necessarily dishes you’d serve in a restaurant — it’s very brief-led.

“You do see chefs go on and do a restaurant dish and try to slightly connect it to the brief, but I think you need to go full-on and connect it to the brief.”

Asked what he enjoys about competition cooking, Orry added: “I like challenging myself.

“If you get recognition from your peers, it’s like confirmation that what you’re doing is good, because it’s coming from people in the industry.

“I’ve always done competitions since I became a chef. I did my first one was when I was 16, local ones, I’ve always been encouraged to do them. I was involved with the Scottish culinary team and did competitions in Europe. It’s always been part of me.

“But it’s all going to stop now, because I’m opening a restaurant!”

From Michelin kitchens to Royal Deeside

Orry’s previous experience has seen him work in Michelin-starred kitchens such as Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at The Gleneagles Hotel and Number One at The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.

More recently he has been working as executive chef for Scottish independent catering firm Entier Ltd.

Now, he is opening up his own restaurant, taking on the site of former Falls of Feugh near Banchory, which closed its doors at the end of 2025.

A £500,000 interior makeover of the venue is now in full swing, with the view to create a destination riverside restaurant, opening this summer.

“It took us a year to find a site,” said Orry.

“We looked at lots, including in the city. It’s hard to have a vision of a restaurant until you have the site.

“This is a beautiful site in Royal Deeside and it’s got the capability of being a destination restaurant because of where it is. When we first looked at it, we fell in love with it.”

The team is taking shape with a front-of-house manager due to be in place by April and Craig Palmer, a former colleague of Orry’s at Number One more than a decade ago, coming in as head chef.

Why now is the right time

Asked why he has decided now is the right time to open a restaurant, Orry said: “It’s always something I’ve wanted to do, but now feels like the right timing.

“I’ve got two young daughters, who are not at the baby stage anymore. Off the back of National Chef and a few things, it feels right. I think I’ve got the right investment for the project.

“If I get over 40, I’m probably never going to do it. If I’m going to take a 10-year lease, I should do it now at 36. It just feels right.”

He continued: “If you wait for the right time, you could be waiting a long time - sometimes there’s never a right time.

“If this was opening in London, it might be more difficult because there’s so much competition. But because the area doesn’t have something like this, I’m hoping that plays into our hands.

“I think I’ve matured as a chef quite a lot over the last few years and come into my own style of cooking more. It’s funny - you always think you have a style, but I look at what I was cooking three years ago and think it’s shit. I’m sure in a couple of years I’ll look at the National Chef dishes and think they’re not all that.

“I always want to move and progress. Staying stuck on something too long isn’t good.”