Andrew Fairlie

And so we bid farewell to our first Drop 40er of the year… Andrew Fairlie began his career polishing glasses in a hotel bar aged 15, and ended it as arguably the most acclaimed Scottish chef of all time (even more than the pretend hardman who shouts at American restaurant owners). Training under Michel Guérard in Paris informed his approach to cuisine, an understated energy with a focus on local heritage and ingredients. His signature dish was Orkney lobster smoked over whiskey barrel chips, served with herbed butter. Although he appeared on TV occasionally in shows like “Masterchef: The Professionals” and “Saturday Kitchen”, he was uncomfortable with the limelight: despite being the only chef in Scotland with two Michelin stars, he refused to seek a third because he didn’t want his clientele to become more elite.
So he probably would have been uncomfortable with a spot on this year’s Drop 40 then, where he came in at 38th: an unsurprising place considering news that a brain tumour he’d fought for 13 years had finally turned terminal in November last year. His death sees the scoreboard start to take shape for the first time this year, with veteran outfits like The Living End and Going Underground having jokered Fairlie.

Andrew Fairlie
21 November 1963 – 22 January 2019
Died aged 55 (35 picks, six jokers)