Holyrood staff hold cookery competition

Published on Tuesday 10 March 2009 20:48

TOP Scots chef Andrew Fairlie yesterday praised staff at the Scottish Parliament for their innovative use of Fairtrade products.

MSPs and their staff were challenged to create a recipe using at least two Fairtrade ingredients.

Mr Fairlie, who helped to judge the contest, awarded the top honour to Pamela Wilson, office assistant to the finance secretary, John Swinney, for her banana bread recipe.

The other two dishes on the shortlist were for Bengali butternut squash and chickpea curry, submitted by Labour MSP Cathy Jamieson, and cereal bars created by Angela Ross, a procurement manager at the Scottish Parliament.

Presiding officer Alex Fergusson MSP and the parliament's executive chef, Mark Barker, joined Scottish Chef of the Year 2008 Fairlie to judge the event.

Mr Fairlie, who runs the two Michelin-starred Andrew Fairlie restaurant at Gleneagles, said: "I must admit I was quite excited when I was asked to help judge this interesting competition at the Scottish Parliament.

"Having cooked for a few politicians in my time, I thought this was too good an opportunity to put their cooking skills to the test for me to miss.

"I was surprisingly impressed by the range and quality of the recipes people working in our nation's parliament created," the chef said.

"The winning entry got the edge because it ticked all the boxes – creative, clever use of Fairtrade ingredients and, above all, incredibly tasty."

The competition was organised as part of Fairtrade fortnight – an annual campaign urging people to buy goods with the internationally recognised mark designed to ensure producers from poorer countries get a fair price and long-term security.

Mr Fergusson said: "The Scottish Parliament was delighted to run this competition to support the Fairtrade cause to promote fair and ethical trading."