Hugh Millar

by Dr. Iain Corness

Anyone who has been to a Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner will immediately recognize the melodious brogue spoken by their ‘Charge de Missions’, local restaurateur Hugh Millar, the man behind the Symphony Brasserie restaurant on Second Road. Hugh is one of the more interesting folk in Pattaya and probably the only one who can lay claim to having lived with ‘Nessie’, the Loch Ness monster for 12 months.
He was born in a small place called Holytown, near Glasgow, in Scotland, but according to Hugh, “There was nothing holy about it.” His father was a train driver, and his mother worked in a grocery shop, so neither of them had given Hugh the love of fine food that he later was to demonstrate.
At school, the first inkling of his developing character came through. He hated it! “I absolutely loathed it. I am not a great lover of strict regimes giving no avenue for self-expression.” However, despite the loathing, he was a very much an above average student and after graduating went to technical college to study Science and Technology. “I was always a mad scientist at heart,” said Hugh. After two years, the “mad scientist” received his diploma, majoring in organic and inorganic chemistry.
However, there was more than test tubes, Bunsen burners and reagent bottles in Hugh’s life. There were also plates, cutlery and detergent bottles, because nights and weekends he used to work in hotel kitchens. What Hugh called “hotel stuff” came about from financial necessity and there was always plenty of work available on a part time basis in hotel kitchens.
With his science diploma, he went off to work in a rayon factory, continuing his education by studying at night to complete a degree course, ending up with a Bachelor of Science degree. But the interest in science was starting to more than just wane – it was being extinguished. “I worked there for nine months. It bored me to tears. I was offered a full time job in a hotel and the salary was better.” The die was cast. Hugh moved into the hospitality business.
Having become more involved in hotel work, he applied himself to something he was enjoying and when a major hotel company offered him a job as an assistant manager, he took it. He was still very young, only just turned 21 years old, but he was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. After five years with them, he had risen to the position of deputy manager.
His next job offer came from a very large steakhouse chain which was looking for a hotel manager, and it was time for Hugh to continue to advance. Three years with them and he was looking for something with more of a challenge. That was when the Loch Ness monster came in.
He had been touring around the north of Scotland and met a man who owned the Loch Ness Monster Exhibition Centre at the quaint-sounding Drumnadrochet. He wanted someone to open a steakhouse there, and in Hugh’s words, “I thought about it, and why not!” So he fired up his grill and cooked steaks for all the “Nessie watchers.” I asked Hugh if he had ever seen the famed monster himself, and he replied that he had often seen Nessie after a heavy Thursday night at the local pub. He also saw lots of green men in kilts and the famous Scottish mountain sheep with two short legs on the left, and two long legs on the right, so they can run around hills more easily, and other visual hallucinations, by the sounds of it. They make some very strong single malt whiskys in the north of Scotland!
The weather in Scotland is also not known to be very balmy, and with the idea of beaches, sunshine and palm trees, he booked a holiday to Thailand, which included 14 days in Bangkok. After three days there, finding no sun, beach or waving palm trees, he left to go on a private tour which included Pattaya, Koh Samet and Phuket. Unfortunately he forgot to inform the tour guide in Bangkok who listed him as missing with the Thai police and the British embassy! On his return to the capital, there was some explaining to do.
On his return to the lack of sun over Loch Ness, he sat down to do the sums with his steakhouse. The high season was excellent, but the winters were dreadful. He did not take up the offer to renew the lease, and sat back to see what was offering. “I was looking for something interesting to turn up, when I got an offer to come to Pattaya for three months to assist in the Ambience Hotel.” Those three months were to eventually become 17 tears, but Hugh admits that this was truly serendipity. “If I’d never got the phone call, I’d never have been here.”
He enjoyed his time at The Ambience, but nurtured the desire to have his own restaurant again. He had a room full of cookbooks and recipes he wanted to try. He also knew that this would be an onerous task, and would involve 12 hour days. “People are under the misapprehension that if the restaurant opens at 5 p.m. then you start working at 5 p.m.” That is not the case. “I knew that if I was going to do something on my own, it had to be while I was strong enough to do 12 hour days.”
When the opportunity came up nine months ago to open the Symphony Brasserie, he took the plunge, and obviously, other than the long working hours, does not have any regrets.
Hugh seems very relaxed in his Symphony Brasserie, and while I was there, the phone rang constantly with people reserving tables. By the time the interview was over, he had bookings for a full house. I think Hugh will be doing his 12 hour stints for many years yet.