Acorn Awards 2024: Tomás Gormley, 29, chef patron, Skua

Age 29

Position Chef-patron, Skua, Edinburgh

Nominator Abie Dobie, account manager, Sound Bite PR

Having learned his craft at the stoves of the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie and Le Roi Fou, Tomás Gormley has gone on to become an award-winning chef-patron on the Edinburgh restaurant scene. Most recently he and fellow Acorn winner Sam Yorke gained a Michelin star for their second restaurant, Heron, making them the youngest chefs in Scotland to win that accolade.

Gormley opened Skua a year ago to rave reviews and it is already listed in the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland and The Good Food Guide, while Scottish magazine The List included him in its Hot 100 for 2023.

Skua draws on Gormley’s skills as both an ambitious chef and businessman. He launched the restaurant to fill a gap for a local late-night bar with a small plates menu, but it has also given him the chance to hone his signature dishes and use fermenting and pickling to reduce wastage and create unusual textures and flavours. At his recently opened fourth business venture, Cardinal, almost all dishes are cooked on a wood-fired combi grill, which Gormley will be training the team to use.

Gormley has created his “dream team” at Skua, and he supports their development. For instance, Skua’s general manager is to become operations manager, which will offer her the flexibility of office hours and remote working.

Outside the kitchen, Tomás volunteers with Scran Academy, a social enterprise that supports young people transitioning from school to the workplace, providing work experience and skills training for qualifications and accreditation in hospitality.

How do you get the best out of your team?

"It’s about making sure they feel like they are contributing, making decisions and even making their own mistakes. I find that by not micromanaging people they have more opportunity to step up and push themselves, for themselves."

What excites you most about the future of your role and/or hospitality?

"The varied nature and unpredictability of it, I never know what curveballs are going to be sent my way each day. Sometimes that’s a good thing; sometimes not so much. But being kept on my toes keeps me engaged."