Superchef My new cancer hell
Double Michelin star winner Andrew Fairlie reveals brain tumour setback and pins hope on breakthrough
As he marks 15 years in the double Michelin-starred restaurant which bears his name, 2016 should be one big celebration for Andrew Fairlie.
But the superchef admits celebrations will be bittersweet because of his ongoing battle with a potentially fatal brain tumour.
After 10 years of living with the tumour, it has started to leak into his brain and tell-tale spasms have returned, a signal that further treatment will be necessary. Having already endured two bouts of chemotherapy and one of radiotherapy, his best hope for treatment lies with ground-breaking research.
Professor Anthony Chalmers, of the Beatson Cancer Institute in Glasgow, is leading studies which, if successful, could be used to treat the chef.
But for Andrew, 52, it could be a battle against time.
He said: “My brain tumour is leaking and the seizures are back. This treatment could be my best chance.
“Brain tumours don’t respond to radiotherapy twice. Prof Chalmers is trying to change that by developing a system where radiotherapy, in conjunction with new drugs, could almost double the cure rate.”
His previous treatment at the Beatson in 2010 and again in 2013 was a bid to halt seizures – sometimes up to 40 a day – caused by the tumour. But Andrew is confident the Beatson will soon have a breakthrough that could put Scotland at the forefront of cancer research in the world.
This optimism is typical of his response to the cancer, first diagnosed in 2005. He said: “I’ve never felt sorry for myself or asked, ‘ Why me?’”
The past decade has been the best and worst of times for the dad of two.
Despite living in the shadow of cancer, professional highlights include cooking for the world’s leaders at the G8 summit and becoming the only chef in Scotland with two Michelin stars.
Personal highs include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for charity and building a dream home in Perthshire, where he lives with his partner Kate White.
Today he looks the picture of health, tanned and relaxed after a recent holiday in Croatia. Living with a tumour has taught him to fully embrace life.
After 30 years in an industry famous for anti-social hours, he’s determined to savour time away with Kate and her daughters Kitty and Rosie, and his own daughters Ilona, 26, and Leah, 19, from his first marriage.
Andrew said: “I take time to eat in other restaurants and I’ve just had the most luxurious holiday that 10 years ago I’d have thought, ‘Can we afford it?’ Now I say, ‘ To hell with it, let’s do it.’
“I enjoy life much more and appreciate the people around me much more – my staff, my family, my friends. Life before cancer was just a blur. Now I have slowed down by 50 per cent.
“It hasn’t stopped me doing things other than I can’t drive or go swimming and I still drink, although it’s not the healthiest thing to do.”
In a few weeks he’ll raise a glass of wine when his friend and mentor Michel Roux visits to launch the latest Roux scholarship, of which Andrew was the
Life before cancer was just a blur. Now I’ve slowed down and enjoy life more
first recipient, aged 20. Although he cringes at the term “celebrity chef ”, along with Roux, Andrew is part of an elite group of superchefs whose influence is profound.
Now, after years of refusing requests to embrace a more high-profile role, he occasionally relents and will appear on TV’s Saturday Kitchen or MasterChef. He said: “I get to sit down with all my friends in the industry and have dinner”.
For someone whose highly tuned sense of taste defines everything, following a strict anti-cancer diet, as some patients choose to do, would be anathema to Andrew. He takes immune-boosting
vitamins and Kate is doing a course in nutrition but the chef admits to changing nothing else, adding: “I just love food too much.”
Nowadays Andrew also seeks solace in his walled kitchen garden, a few miles from Gleneagles, that stocks his kitchen as much as it offsets the frenetic energy of his workplace.
There are no outward signs of Andrew’s condition bar the scars he can feel across his scalp from a partially successful operation to remove the tumour.
The seizures, although dangerous in a kitchen, come with a few seconds’ warning, allowing him to put down the knife or step away from the hot
plate. But it’s had no impact on his success at his famous restaurant, recently awarded yet another accolade as the only Scottish establishment to make the Good Food Guide’s top 10 list.
Cocooned in the middle of five-star Gleneagles Hotel, it is often the setting for milestone moments in people’s lives, which makes it a fascinating place for people-watching.
Andrew said: “There are people who save for years to celebrate their 50th here or famous footballers, actors or hugely wealthy people.”
Naturally shy, Andrew prefers to remain behind the scenes but sometimes he’ll pause behind a pillar outside the kitchen to enjoy the scene before him.
None was more important than the dinner he hosted earlier this year with Tom Hunter, which helped to raise £ 25,000 that will go towards the Beatson research project and the search for further treatments.
Such is his devotion to his restaurant, Andrew has even tried to coincide chemo treatment with slow times in the restaurant’s calendar but even in his absence the restaurant receives accolades.
Head chef Stevie McLaughlin and general manager Dale Dewsbury remain steadfast in their devotion and support.
Andrew said: “Those two have probably been the two main guys from the word go and are still here now. They’ll realise the old man is in the back having a seizure so they just carry on, knowing I’ll be back out in five minutes.”
After a decade of living with cancer, Andrew thinks of the friends he’s met – and lost – along the way, some in the waiting room at the Beatson.
He added: “Going through treatment, you spend days in hospital with other people, some of whom are now gone.
“I’ve seen the time come when others say, ‘ This can’t be it – there must be something else.’
“So any advances Prof Chalmers makes might mean yes, there is one more thing we can do.
“That’s the stage I’ll find myself at some point and hopefully there will be one more thing.”