Catering Scotland

Graeme Pallister (above), the 2013 CIS Excellence Awards Chef of The Year, has joined a roll call of 18 well-known chefs including Albert Roux and Tom Lewis (pictured left and right, respectively) to promote Scotland as a Land of Food and Drink on the world stage during 2014.

Previous CIS Excellence-winning chefs Andrew Fairlie and Paul Kitching are also lending their support as ambassadors to the industry-led 2014 Food & Drink campaign.

As part of their work, the chefs will be encouraging hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés and producers to promote locally sourced produce and tempting the public and visitors to ‘eat Scottish.

Several chefs will feature on scottishfoodanddrink.tv – a new online TV hub dedicated to showcasing Scotland as a Land of Food and Drink – and attend key events throughout the year as well as sharing their favourite seasonal recipes.

The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead, commented: ‘By having such illustrious and respected chefs proclaiming their love of Scottish produce and taking our natural larder to people across the world, we are ensuring that Scotland’s food revolution continues to move at pace.

Meanwhile, Albert Roux, whose Chez Roux restaurants can be found in Greywalls Hotel, Inverlochy Castle and the soon-to-open Cromlix House, Dunblane, added: ‘I fell in love with Scotland 55 years ago. It is a country blessed by the gods, so signing up to support this campaign was an easy decision.

‘I’ll be championing the fantastic variety of high quality products Scotland has to offer the world.’

The campaign itself is a collaborative approach comprising Scotland Food and Drink; Scottish Enterprise; The Scottish Government; Scottish Development International; Highlands & Islands Enterprise; EventScotland and VisitScotland.

The 18 chef ambassadors include:

• Roy Brett
• Carina Contini
• Andrew Fairlie
• Neil Forbes
• Mark Greenaway
•   Tom Kitchin
• Paul Kitching
•  Tom Lewis
• Dale Mailley
• Ed Murray
• Ajmal Mushtaq
• Nick Nairn
• Jacqueline O’Donnell
•  Graeme Pallister
• Albert Roux
• Geoffrey Smeddle
•  Michael Smith
•  Jeremy Wares