The Balmoral Edinburgh Names John Munro Head Chef of Number One

The Balmoral has named John Munro head chef of Number One, its flagship restaurant, after three years spent shaping the kitchen's direction alongside executive chef Paul Hart. Munro joined the hotel in 2022 and has since been selected for the Scottish Culinary Team heading into the 2026 Culinary World Cup, a credential that says a lot about the level he is cooking at even before his own name went on the door.

His approach leans heavily on foraging, with seaweed, sea buckthorn, and elderflower sourced from across Edinburgh and the East Lothian coastline finding their way into a menu that reads as genuinely regional rather than generically Scottish. The plan going forward is to build on Number One's existing identity while refining it through that same ingredient-led lens, evolution rather than reinvention for a restaurant that has spent years building its reputation the slow way.

The hotel itself retained its four AA stars and its Forbes five-star rating as of February 2026, a level of consistency that matters more in a castle-adjacent landmark like The Balmoral than any single new opening could. For guests who know Edinburgh's dining scene, Number One under Munro is worth watching closely over the next year, as the ingredient-led direction fully takes hold.

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