Stefano Pieraccini, a graduate in marketing and commercial management, has taken the reins from long-standing owner Tim Butler after 14 years.
The restaurant, which occupies a glass and steel cube overlooking the North Sea, reopened this week as Seafood Ristorante and now serves seafood dishes ‘with an Italian twist’.
Pieraccini will be mentored by his restaurateur father Adrian, former owner of the Rocca restaurant in Fife town and the five-star Rocpool hotel and restaurants in Inverness.
The family are investing over £100,000 in the business to almost double the number of covers from 44 to 80, while the number of staff will rise to 30.
In the kitchen chef Davy Aspin, who previously worked with Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road in London, is heading up a team that includes Scottish Young Chef of the Year Jamie Mackinnon.
Aspin has been a long-time associate of the Pieraccini family business and previously worked at Rocca.
“I have been born and brought up in a family whose entire focus has been on the restaurant trade and from the time I worked in the catering industry as a kitchen porter at the age of 14 I have dreamed of running my own restaurant,” says Stefano.
“I consider myself very lucky to be in charge of a restaurant in such a spectacular location.”
Butler, who has owned the restaurant since 2003, is selling-up to focus on expanding his £1m St Andrews Brewing business.