Royal Highland Show: Glorious food with a truly local flavour

Published on Monday 20 June 2011 14:03

Nowadays with the Food and Drink Hall being an integral part of any visit to the Highland Show it seems amazing that it was little more than 20 years ago that the show organisers first decided to showcase the quality food produced in this country.

• The Food and Drink Hall is a must-visit venue for all lovers of food and cookery. Picture: Jane Barlow

This year there are more than 100 Scottish food companies who now see the venue as an ideal location to showcase their wares. And to tempt buyers there are often free samples, which allows a certain amount of "grazing" to take place.

With everything from shortbread to seafood on offer, food lovers will find themselves truly spoiled for choice when they browse the events menu of the Scotland Food & Drink Theatre.

With the theme "A Celebration of Scotland" and under the supervision of Wendy Barrie, writer, broadcaster, demonstrator and director of the award-winning Scottish Food Guide, the theatre will stage nine demonstration sessions daily over the four days of the show.

One of the highlights will be a Friday slot for Lady Claire Macdonald of the Michelin-starred Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye. A winner of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, Lady Claire is a passionate advocate of seasonal food from Scotland.

Other top chefs appearing include Tom Lewis, proprietor of Monachyle Mhor at Balquhidder, Paul Wedgwood, from his eponymous restaurant in Edinburgh, the "kilted chef" Craig Wilson, proprietor of the Green Restaurant at Udny Green in Aberdeenshire, and Mikey Prentice from the First Coast bistro in the West of Edinburgh.

Food from the Borders will be celebrated with demonstrations from Angela Tyrer of Whitehouse, Ross Horrocks from The Caddy Mann and Katrina and William Reynolds from the Allanton Inn, culminating on Sunday with a Vintage Afternoon Tea with Lynne Hume.

Morven Hastie from the Wishingwell Farmhouse Coffee & Gift Shop at Drymen will be featuring her "Truly Tempting Whoopie Pies" while Catherine MacCarthy, a "goodfoodology" graduate from St George's School, Edinburgh, makes her debut at the show.

Also on the menu are demonstrations by trade organisation Seafood Scotland on Sustainable Scottish Seafood, Vion Food UK, and Paterson Arran of shortbread and oatcake fame, while Jo Macsween will be taking a look at "Hasty, Tasty Haggis".

Wendy Barrie will also highlight a celebration of East Lothian food and drink under the title Edinburgh Coast and Countryside as she "zeros in on waste" as part of the Scottish Government drive to reduce food waste and be thrifty.

Another foodie venue that cannot be missed is the Quality Meat Scotland stand where Lady Claire Macdonald and Hardeep Singh Kohli will demonstrate their skills with some of the best of Scotland's beef, lamb and pork.Dishes to be demonstrated include roast ham with rhubarb and ginger and shallot sauce, Scotch beef fillet with creme fraiche and chutney dressing and slow roast shoulder of lamb with onions, tomatoes and anchovies.

The Scottish Government has ambitions to see the Scottish food and drink sector grow to 12.5 billion by 2017, and a visit to the Highland Show gives an idea of the diversity and innovation now going into achieving that target.