GLASGOW'S food fans are too savvy to pay £150-a-head for dinner, claims one of the city's top chefs.

Asked to explain Glasgow's lack of a Michelin star, Peter McKenna said diners are simply not interested because they "live in the real world".

Peter and his colleague Ivan Stein, are the duo behind the Gannet restaurant, in Finnieston, which was recently selected as one of the world’s top 10 restaurants by Conde Nast Traveller.

Peter said: "Glasgow doesn’t judge its success against whether it has any Michelin star restaurants or not; that’s not the way the city thinks.

“If you look at what’s on offer now compared with 10 or 15 years ago, the eating-out scene has changed immeasurably for the better, both in terms of choice and quality.

“There are some terrific restaurants with consistently high quality here, but Glaswegians are not prepared to pay £150-a-head for dinner, just so that they can say they’ve eaten in a Michelin star restaurant.

"They want quality, but they also live in the real world.”

This week 19 of the country’s top chefs will gather at the Gannet for a six-course taster menu with accompanying wines for an event organised by The Staff Canteen, a website for the UK’s high-end restaurant industry.

Among those attending the event are Jamie Scott, 2017 winner of Masterchef The Professionals and owner of The Newport restaurant in Newport-on-Tay; Helen Vass, part of the winning team of Bake Off; Crème de la Creme; Brian Maule, owner and head chef of Le Chardon D’or, in Glasgow; John McMahon, executive chef of Prestonfield House, in Edinburgh; and Robert Montgomery, operations chef of the G1 Group.

Peter says the internet, the expansion of budget airline travel and even the popularity of TV cookery programmes have all had an impact on the city’s tastes.

He added: “Glasgow restaurants in the past had a reputation, perhaps unfairly, for piling it high and selling it cheap but that’s no longer the case.

“Glaswegians are no longer satisfied with a big plate of pasta or a bowl of curry; they’ve experienced lots of different types of cuisine and have become much more adventurous.”

Those changes coincided with a revival of interest in Scottish produce and small, independent producers supplying restaurants with fresh meat, poultry, fish, fruit and vegetables and dairy produce.

Peter said: “We get butter milk and crème fraiche delivered daily from a dairy in Ayrshire, whole mutton and rare breed pork from Stirlingshire, game and free-range ducks from Clackmannanshire and wild herbs and shore vegetables from our own forager who scours the coasts of Scotland to supply us.

“Our customers are, by and large, extremely discerning diners who recognise and demand quality and whether we have a Michelin star, an AA rosette or nothing at all is not something they think about.”

Ivan and Peter, who met while working together in the kitchen of Michael Caine’s Glasgow restaurant in the Adobe Hotel, have grown The Gannet from scratch to an £840,000 turnover business since its launch in 2013.

Their menu for the Glasgow Champions event will include slow roasted grouse with confited legs, hand dived scallops as well as rare wild ceps, hand-picked by Peter.

Mark Morris, founder of The Staff Canteen, said: “Our networking lunches, which are held at different venues each month around the UK, offer valuable face-time for a group of hand selected chefs from the region, plus a group of exclusive partners who attend to network and build lasting relationships.

"All guests get to enjoy excellent food, wine and great service, held over lunch in an informal, non-hard sales environment.”