Scottish hospitality legend Ken McCulloch has died in Glasgow at the age of 76.
Ken, one of Scotland’s most innovative and successful hospitality entrepreneurs, created some of Scotland’s most famous bars, restaurants and hotels, These included the city’s first boutique hotel, One Devonshire Gardens, Charlie Parker’s, La Bonne Auberge and hotel groups Malmaison and Dakota.
He was born in 1948 the son of well-known impresario Archie McCulloch, who had been a journalist in his early days, and was a founder of Scottish Television and Kathie Kay the well-loved singer who sang with the Billy Cotton Band.
Ken began his career with British Transport Hotels as a young Commis Chef, working in the kitchens at The Malmaison restaurant in Glasgow’s Central Hotel and then at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.
He then spent a short stint on the Isle of Cumbrae. Ken, in an interview with DRAM a few years ago said, “My dad had his finger in a lot of pies and he had clubs. I had been considering going to Paris, but then Dad told me his kitchen guy had walked out at the Cumbrae Club. So I said to myself, I could do that. I didn’t realise it at the time but it was the best decision I ever made choosing Millport over Paris! It was the making of me, and it let me earn some decent money.”
Following on from the Cumbrae Club his father introduced him to Reo Stakis and he joined the Stakis Group as a trainee Assistant Manager but it wasn’t long before he was made General Manager of his first hotel at the age of 23.
His first hotel was in Kirkcaldy, and his second was in Falkirk. Ken said in the interview, “BTH taught me to do things properly and Stakis to do it commercially.”
Before long he stepped out on his own and opened La Bonne Auberge, a wine bar in the Park Circus area of Glasgow, before making his way to Royal Exchange Square where he opened the famous Charlie Parker’s wine bar and restaurant.
In 1986 he put Glasgow’s name on the map as a global destination when he and his wife, award-winning designer Amanda Rosa, transformed the city’s Cavendish Hotel into One Devonshire Gardens. It was, at the time, the most luxurious hotel in Scotland. After Andrew Fairlie joined as Head Chef, the hotel gained a Michelin star in 1996. Ken once said of the hotel, “It is one of the things I am most proud of. I wanted to change people’s perceptions of Glasgow and I think we did that.”
He then went on to create the Malmaison Hotel Group, whose first hotel opened in Edinburgh in 1994, and after just 4 years incredibly successful years, he sold up and moved to Monaco, where he and Amanda bought the Abela Hotel with business partner racing driver David Coulthard. This became the Columbus Hotel, which opened to international acclaim.
He and Amanda then created Dakota Hotels, launching the now hugely successful hotel group in 2004 before returning home to Glasgow in 2009.
His passion for creating ‘hotels with a difference’ saw him become an ambassador for Scotland and for Scottish talent. He continually achieved critical acclaim for his innovative thinking, his meticulous attention to detail and his focus on the guest’s experience.
McCulloch once said that the best advice he ever received was from Fernand Point, chef of the Michelin-starred Le Pyramide near Lyon. “Success is the sum of many small things correctly done”.
In the DRAM interview when asked what, apart from his success in business, he was most proud of. He said, “Being one of the founder members of Connoisseur Scotland, and winning Hotelier of the Year from my peers.”
Today, his peers around the country will be raising a glass to Ken, because that is what he would have wanted!
