Escape KILLIECRANKIE HOUSE

It has stylish rooms, a splendid setting and a laidback vibe, but it’s the food that really sets this Perthshire newcomer apart

- Catherine Coyle

It all started with a bagel. Matilda Ruffle and Tom Tsappis met when they were working in Tokyo, in advertising and finance respectively, and Tom especially was missing tastes of home. “I was craving a salt beef bagel but I couldn’t get it anywhere,” recalls the Londoner who has Cypriot family heritage. “Japanese cuisine is incredible but there are some things you just can’t get. So I decided to make it myself.”

The pair, now married, are as big on adventures as they are on food and drink, so back in London they hosted fancy supper clubs, with Tom taking care of the menu (he’d retrained as a chef), and Matilda, who is Japanese-Scottish, as sommelier. Her father owns a vineyard in China, so she had a head start when it came to finding the right pairings for Tom’s dishes.

Fast-forward to 2020: the entrepreneurs relocated to Scotland to run a restaurant with rooms near Pitlochry in Perthshire. The place had operated as a hotel since the 1930s but their dream was to reinvent the five-bedroom venue as a foodie destination offering fine dining with a difference.