Matilda Tsappis was raised in rural Scotland, her husband Tom grew up near Romford in Essex, and they might never have met had they not both decided to spend a spell living and working in Japan. They bumped into each other while watching a Rugby match at an English pub in Tokyo.
Since then this risk-taking couple have continued uprooting their lives and careers, returning to London, setting up an at-home supper club, and then taking on a restaurant in the wilds of Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park. Along the way they have also become parents to Evelyn, now 18 months.
The couple, both 36, had returned from Japan to the UK in 2014. They started off renting in Shoreditch before buying a one bedroom flat in East Dulwich. Matilda worked in advertising, but Tom, who had been a broker in Japan, was keen for a change.
“I decided I wanted to be a chef — I love cooking, and I love eating at fancy restaurants and I wanted to do something I really cared about,” he said. “My dad likes to joke that I wanted a job with just as much stress but nowhere near as much money.”
As the couple settled into London Tom attended culinary school. Upon graduating, he decided to dip his toe in the restaurateur business by opening a supper club based in their flat, squeezing up to 12 people into their open plan living room and kitchen, and seating them on a communal fold out table. “It was a way to have a restaurant without any of the overheads,” said Tom.
He continued hosting dinners until the eve of Covid-19.
That first lockdown was a stressful time for the couple. Tom was twiddling his fingers and bored while Matilda, whose main client at the time was Dettol, was working flat out.
The enforced stay-at-home time accelerated Tom’s long-held plans to open a real restaurant, and Matilda wanted it to be in Scotland.
“My mum is here — I thought it would be nice to go home, and of course in Scotland you also get really good value for money when it comes to property,” she said. “After being in a one bedroom flat with no outside space the idea of having somewhere with more room was really idyllic.”
They began looking at potential businesses in May 2020 and by November they were the proud but slightly overwhelmed owners of Killiecrankie House, a Victorian manse on the southern fringes of the Cairngorms, three miles from the nearest town.
It was on the market for £1.2 million although Tom said they got it for a significant discount because the owner wanted a quick sale. Their flat in London is still in search of a buyer. “The market for one-bedroom flats with no outside space collapsed,” said Tom.
Their first winter was a harsh lesson of what life north of the border can feel like. “Scotland was in lockdown, it was -16 degrees Celsius and there was no central heating,” said Tom. “All the pipes burst and it was brutal.”
They spent those long cold early months planning how to renovate the hotel, work began at the start of 2021, and they were able to reopen as a fine dining restaurant with five guest rooms in October 2021. Tom, Matilda, and Evelyn now live in a cottage on the site, and the couple run the business between them.
Launching the business was a “terrifying” time of too many bills and not enough customers. “We were losing a lot of money, we were not sure whether it was going to work,” said Tom.
Today, however, as they have settled in and their reputation has grown, they find themselves busy with bookings, and things look far more positive. “I love it here,” said Matilda. “Because I came from the countryside I actually found London quite stressful. This is much more my natural habitat.”
Tom thinks they simply aged out of enjoying urban life and that Scotland is a better fit for thirtysomething parents. “I wake up to birdsong, not police sirens, and Evelyn runs around like Mowgli,” he said.
“I don’t think we have lost anything apart from access to really good Chinese food.”
