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David Haetzman is head chef at the first floor restaurant in Edinburgh’s Rutland Hotel. For years, it had been a landmark bar and club in the city’s West End but, by the mid-Noughties, it was beginning to show its age. The Signature Pub group took The Rutland over and gave it a ginormous, glitzy overhaul. The new look Rutland re-opened in 2008 and has deservedly scooped plenty of awards, gongs and glowing reviews ever since.

Here, David tells 5pm about his career, the importance of simplicity and how he fell in love with his pastry chef. Despite some tough competition, he has also given us the daftest customer complaint so far in our series of Chewing the Fat interviews.

Q: How would you describe the food you do at The Rutland?

DH: Simplicity and seasonality are the two things that we concentrate on a lot. Most of our dishes have no more than four or five ingredients on the plate. Seasonality is very much in vogue now but it’s something that I’ve been striving for ever since I was a head chef.

I spent a few years in Italy and Spain when I was growing up and I think a little bit of that seeps through into the cooking. We use great Scottish produce but often give it a Mediterranean style treatment. We have some great veal from Sunnyside Farm and, at the moment, we are using that in a Saltimbocca.

Q: You must have good suppliers?

DH: Our food is ingredients led. We speak to our suppliers about what’s good, what’s in season and what they are recommending and we don’t try to mess around with it too much. We add a bit of flair and a bit of skill but we still think it is very accessible and tasty and looks great on the plate.

Many of the suppliers are people that I have been working with for the last ten to fifteen years and I’ve got a good relationship with them. We’re just about to start with Iain Mellis cheeses. They have got a new salesman in. He is very passionate and we are going to use him to try to improve our offering.

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Q: Where did you start your career?

DH: I started off at Gleneagles when I was nineteen. I had done a hotel management course in Oxford and then took a job in a small hotel working one day in each department. After a year and a half I realised that my passion lay in the kitchen so I wrote away to some five star resorts. Gleneagles took me on and I did two years in every section at Gleneagles except for pastry.

After that, I worked at Dalmahoy with a chef called Gary Bates. He left to go work with Paul Heathcote in Lancashire and he took me, the pastry chef and another guy with him.

I worked in the restaurant there which, at the time, had two Michelin stars. That was a massive eye opener for me. At Heathcote, it was all about the best ingredients and cooking everything to order rather than in hotels where you might be working two days ahead.

It was great but I was missing Edinburgh. Happily, I spoke to Andrew Radford just as he was about to open Blue and joined up as sous chef. Amanda, the pastry chef who had gone to Heathcote from Dalmahoy became my partner and she still is. We opened Blue with me as sous chef and her as pastry chef and then I took over as head chef the year later.

Q: So you met your partner in the kitchen?

DH: I did a stint in The Tower where Amanda didn’t work with me but apart from that we’ve worked together since Dalmahoy some fifteen years ago. She works as the pastry chef at The Rutland now.

Sweets aren’t my strongest point but having Amanda as my right hand man probably helps explain that.

Q: What would improve Scotland’s restaurant scene?

DH: More child-friendly environments would help. When we go on holiday, our kids like to try different things. I guess partly because both their parents are chefs. Having kids eat in restaurants and try different things isn’t always as encouraged here as much it is abroad.

Q: Do you think there have been big changes in the Scottish restaurant scene?

DH: Off the top of my head, I could probably name thirty decent restaurants in Scotland whereas five or ten years ago I might have been struggling to do that.

Five years ago, you would hear that all the good produce was going abroad or was going down south and hopefully that is not the case so much anymore. Scottish chefs are getting to use the great seafood, beef and other products that are produced here.

Q: What gets you out of bed and bouncing into the kitchen?

DH: What I like about my job is people loving what we do. There is nothing better than people saying that they have just had some lovely food. That’s what really motivates me. I love using great ingredients and I love working with my team and having the kitchen banter. Those two parts of the job are enjoyable but having people appreciate the food is our raison d’etre.

Q: Where do you like to eat out?

DH: Sushi-ya on Dalry Road does amazing sushi and the food Stuart Muir is doing at Harvey Nichols is pretty special. I’ve also got a special place in my heart for Blue and Atrium because I worked there for a while.

I like simpler offerings when it comes to food. I think Martin (Wishart) and Tom (Kitchin) are doing great jobs but I like simpler things. First Coast is very good. Also, I haven’t been yet but I have been hearing great things about Tony’s Table. I had some of their food at the Taste festival and would like to go there in the future.

Q: You can have any chef prepare you a meal. Who will it be?

DH: The best meal I had was cooked by Gordon Ramsay. I had just taken over at Blue and Andrew had very kindly paid for me to go to London for a couple of days. Ramsay had just taken over at Hospital road and that was the most impressive meal I’ve ever had.

One of my biggest influences is Simon Hopkinson. I love his books and his ideas. One of my biggest regrets is never having been to one of his restaurants.

So, Simon Hopkinson would be my choice of the chef on the stove, probably assisted by Gordon Ramsay but I’m not sure how he would take that.

Q: What’s the daftest customer complaint you have ever heard?

DH: Someone asked for a risotto without the rice. They wanted to have chips instead. That one sticks in my mind. We had to explain that we would be happy to do some chips but taking the rice out of the risotto was not going to work all that well.