I became a restaurant critic for this newspaper right at the moment when the world was thrust into the Covid pandemic. Not exactly perfect timing, because since then the trade has been decimated. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs or seasonal employment, staff and produce shortages continue and the list of restaurants closing down keeps growing.
However, I’ve seen high levels of ingenuity from the people who have clung on like crabs on a surf-thrashed rock. People such as Orkun Cevik, who left his job as an executive chef at Dunkeld House Hotel during the pandemic to open what must be the tiniest burger bar in Perthshire.
The Craft Diner operates out of a forest-green shipping container outside Dunkeld & Birnam railway station.
