Rick Stein loses his executive chef to Ken McCulloch

Roy Brett, executive chef at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, is to leave the fish supremo and return to his native Scotland.

Brett, who has been a significant figure in Stein's restaurant business for four years, will be taking on a chef-director role for hotelier Ken McCulloch, developing the food offering for Dakota and Columbus hotels.

He will be based at the new Edinburgh Dakota when it opens next summer in Queensferry. Brett will also be operating an 80-seat fine-dining restaurant at the hotel as chef-proprietor.

He commented: "I come from Edinburgh and always intended to go back one day, so this is perfect for me. I've had a great time with Rick and he's been really supportive of the move."

Brett, who developed the food operation for McCulloch's former hotel chain Malmaison when it launched in 1994, will leave the Seafood Restaurant at the end of this year.