Tony Borthwick ruffles the hairs of his magnificently bushy moustache. “Things happen for a reason,” he muses. “Who knows? Maybe it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

25 years ago, Borthwick was leading his horse when it took fright and kicked him. He broke his neck and was close to being killed yet, against all expectations, he made a full recovery. It was, however, a recovery that entailed nearly six months in hospital – and many more months recovering at home. He was 27 years old. He had a well-paid job repairing pipes for Yorkshire Water, but didn’t enjoy it. Lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, he had a lot of time to think. “It changed my life,” he says. “I decided I was going to cook.”

Borthwick always had an interest in food. “I used to have a Saturday job working in a village pub that did fantastic food. I used to trim the Dover sole, make ratatouille, that sort of thing. I loved it. I asked the chef to give me a full-time job but I was already working and he said ‘no – you’d have to go to college to get an apprenticeship, it would be years before you’d earn a decent wage; I couldn’t do that to you’.

“I’m a bit northern about food, I don’t take the piss. I like to give people something good for their money”

“After my recovery, I went to London, knocked on doors, got a couple of jobs, and taught myself to cook. I bought some really good pans. I’d eat in places like Le Gavroche, have their set lunch, then buy the ingredients and try to cook it myself. I went to college for about six weeks but soon realised that I knew more than the lecturers. So I spent lot of money on books and just cooked and cooked and cooked.”

Borthwick ended up working at the Savoy, an experience that proved invaluable, not so much in terms of what it taught him about food, but what it taught him about organisation and discipline. In 1990, he and his partner Ian Bruce moved to Scotland and, in 1998, he finally took the plunge and opened his own restaurant, The Plumed Horse, in the village of Crossmichael, Dumfries and Galloway.

They didn’t get off to the best of starts. Locals were scared off by rumours of fancy food and high prices, but that’s not Borthwick’s style. “I’m a bit northern about food,” he says in his deep Yorkshire brogue. “I don’t take the piss. I like to give people something good for their money.” Nonetheless, Borthwick was close to bankruptcy when salvation arrived in the shape of a Michelin star. “We were immediately booked out for weeks,” he smiles. “We had the world coming to our door. Three months of that and we were able to pay everything off.”

Borthwick readily confesses to being a chef first and foremost – running a business is not his first love, and even after the Michelin star, there have been plenty of ups and downs. The foot and mouth outbreak was hugely damaging to the economy in Dumfries & Galloway, which had an impact on the restaurant. Borthwick and Bruce decided to relocate to the Leith area of north Edinburgh in search of a larger audience. There were hassles with builders and Michelin stars have come and gone, but Edinburgh’s Plumed Horse remains one of the best places to eat in Scotland.

It’s an intimate restaurant with a small team who “muck in” with a bit of everything. Borthwick is ever present. If food is being cooked, he is in the kitchen – a charismatic force who affectionately cajoles his team with a combination of passion, humour and four-lettered abuse.

“I am driven,” he says. “I’ve got an addictive personality. I’ve never taken drugs – not because I haven’t had the opportunity but because I’m scared that I’d like them so much that I’d never be able to stop. It’s the same with booze. I can sit down with one really nice whisky all night and I’ll occasionally have one watching the telly with the cat beside me. I literally just wet my lips with it. But I have to watch myself, if I have a second glass, I’ll finish the bottle.”

Not that he’s a home buddy. Borthwick loves eating and drinking in the shoreside bars and restaurants of Leith when he gets a chance. “There are some great pubs for beer round here,” he says. “I like places like the Malt & Hops, and a decent IPA like Deuchars.”

Borthwick admits to knowing relatively little about wine when he first started out, but he and Bruce have worked hard to develop their knowledge and enthusiasm – and woe betide a wine supplier who underestimates them. “I’m always perplexed when someone who supposedly knows about wine will say ‘tell me what your menu is and I’ll match my wines to it’. My reply to them is how the hell do you knowwhat my food tastes like?”

Hot Rum Cow is fortunate to have an edge on that front. We now know exactly what Tony Borthwick’s food tastes like – and all the appropriate superlatives apply. Gintastic.

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For starters

To make the marinade, mix a couple of splashes of Hendrick’s Gin with a little stock syrup, lemon juice and finely chopped cucumber and dill. Borthwick opts for Hendrick’s because it’s flavoured with cucumber. Cut small slices of raw salmon and marinate for just five minutes, which is long enough to cure the salmon – you will see it turn a slightly lighter shade of pink. Drain the excess liquid, put the salmon on serving plates and top with a little caviar – Borthwick used Avruga. The saltiness of the caviar provides a lovely contrast to the sweetness of the salmon, the freshness of the cucumber and the kick of the gin. Serve with a well-flavoured salad garnish – if you can get hold of it, Borthwick suggests red amaranth, red vein sorrel and celery seedlings.

Main course

Borthwick cooked a loin of roe deer, which is smaller and more expensive than the red deer commonly served as venison. Cooked and seasoned to perfection it was accompanied by the potatoes flavoured with saffron and gin. The potatoes are cooked in a Boulangère style – sliced, immersed in venison stock with a generous pinch of saffron and pan-fried. The pan is then deglazed with a splash of Gabriel Boudier Saffron Gin, and the liquid poured over the potatoes. If you like the taste of saffron, you will love these potatoes – and the gin again cuts through the flavours without overpowering them. Borthwick served the venison and potatoes with cubes of swede, baby carrots and baby onions fried in rapeseed oil and salt.

Dessert

Simple to make, this wonderfully refreshing sorbet has already featured on The Plumed Horse menu. Mix Hendrick’s Gin and Schweppes Tonic Water as you would for making gin and tonics. Borthwick strongly recommends Slimline tonic rather than the standard version which is “too sweet”. Add a little stock syrup, some lime juice and lime zest. Place in an ice cream-making machine. Devour.

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What to drink?

Borthwick doesn’t recommend drinking gin before or during a meal – it just dulls the palate. He suggests a chilled Chablis to go with the salmon and a light pinot noir to accompany the venison. The sorbet is a dessert and a drink in itself.