Lorna McNee was born in 1987 and raised near Forres, Scotland. She attended Dallas Primary School and Forres Academy, initially hoping to pursue photography before training in professional cookery at Moray College in Elgin after her first job washing dishes at a local Italian restaurant.
She spent 13 years at the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, rising from apprentice to sous chef under the mentorship of the late Andrew Fairlie, and won Game Chef of the Year (2016) and Scottish Chef of the Year (2017) along the way.
In 2019, McNee won BBC Two’s Great British Menu and was named Champion of Champions. She left Gleneagles in 2020 to become head chef of Glasgow restaurant Cail Bruich, earning it a Michelin star in January 2021 — the first for Glasgow in 18 years — and becoming the only female Michelin-starred chef in Scotland.
In 2025, McNee joined Great British Menu‘s judging panel on BBC Two alongside lead judges Tom Kerridge and Phil Wang, with Andi Oliver hosting.
