An executive chef has left his role at a St Andrews hotel with a parting shot at a top food critic who claimed it “smells of newly pumped testosterone”.
Billy Boyter has stepped down from his position at Rusacks, in Pilmour Links, after just eight months.
The 42-year-old arrived in February after 10 years in charge of The Cellar in his hometown of Anstruther.
Billy left on Thursday for a job he “couldn’t say no to” – but not without responding to a stinging review from a high-profile food critic.
Jay Rayner claimed 18 was ‘filled with a certain kind of middle-aged man’
Jay Rayner, who won the 2023 MasterChef: Battle of the Critics special, slated 18 – one of three restaurants at Rusacks.
In a review published in The Guardian on Sunday, he wrote that it “smells of newly pumped testosterone.”
He also noted that “on a weekday night the place is filled with a certain kind of middle-aged man, most of them American.”
Mr Rayner’s article noted Billy’s achievement in making The Cellar a Michelin-starred venue.
“His appointment here signified culinary ambition and commitment,” he wrote.
“It just seems that the core clientele didn’t get the memo.
“What this lot want – and what they get – is cow.
“An awful lot of grilled cow.”
Rusacks ‘completely different’ from Michelin-starred The Cellar
Billy hit back, stating that as Rusacks executive chef he also oversaw the Bridge Mediterranean restaurant and One Under Bar pub and restaurant.
“He might have thought there could have been glimpses of what I did at The Cellar,” he told The Courier.
“But there it was a very, very small operation and I was hands-on with every dish that I cooked.
“The Rusacks is a completely different operation.
“As the executive chef, I was in charge of 22 chefs and I looked after the whole building.
“There is a head chef at each of our restaurants who I work with but I was not in the kitchen every day.”
On Mr Rayner‘s observation about the American diners, Billy added: “The 18 restaurant is for the American market who like steak and things like that.
“You need to know what type of place you are coming to.
“It was really disappointing to read.”
Billy Boyter says St Andrews hotel ‘short-staffed’
The reviewer claimed staff were unwelcoming and that the starters included dry toast, lack of promised piccalilli, “softened” pork scratchings and overcooked scallops.
“There is the suspicion that these dishes are ordered so rarely the kitchen has completely forgotten how to make them,” Mr Rayner wrote.
His claims about the mains included no smoke in smoked butter sauce, overcooked and oversalted grilled lemon sole, and excessively pink and spongy duck breast.
He enjoyed the strawberry-baked Alaska but likened this to “a consolation prize, which is simply unequal to the wider offence it is trying to mitigate.”
Billy felt the review lacked perspective.
“He didn’t enjoy his experience and as the executive chef at the hotel any bad review falls on my head,” he said.
“Like a lot of places we are short-staffed.
“You have a lot of guests to cater for, with not as many guys as you would want.
“This is the challenge with hospitality now and it is not an excuse.
“But those are the things that have to be taken into consideration, with how much everyone is struggling at the moment.”
Executive chef on the move after eight months
Billy said he handed in his notice two months ago.
“It was a really good opportunity for myself and my family,” he added.
“I am going a little bit further afield but once I am allowed to reveal it I will put up a post about it.
“For the sake of my career, it was something I couldn’t say no to.”
A spokesperson for Rusacks said: “‘After a busy and successful summer at Rusacks, Billy will be moving on to pursue a new opportunity later this month and we wish him all the best in the future.
“This departure was planned ahead of the review’s publication.”
The hotel declined to comment further on the review.
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