Fairlie blasts Scottish food

One of Scotland's most accomplished chefs has branded his nation's food as "stuck in the dark ages" and "dire".

In a gloves-off attack on the state of Scotland's tourist industry, one-Michelin-starred chef Andrew Fairlie, who runs his restaurant of the same name at Gleneagles hotel in Auchterarder, told The Scotsman newspaper last week that Scotland's food heritage had been "bastardised and devalued" and that tourists were being ripped off.

The winner of last year's Newcomer of the Year Catey blamed restaurateurs for the situation. "The operators blame the tourist industry for not getting enough visitors to Scotland, but that's an absolute cop-out. The offering we give them when they're here is crap. The chefs who are working hard know that they're doing a good job. The others need to get their act together and they need to change."

Fairlie said Scottish chefs weren't making good use of Scotland's famed natural produce and were abusing its culinary traditions. "When you smother a haggis in batter, deep-fry it and serve it with chips and currey-sauce, you devalue it," he said.

David Young, proprietor of the Cross in Kingussie and a former chief hotel inspector with the AA, agreed. "There are number of good restaurants in Scotland centred round Edinburgh and Glasgow. Thereafter, you have to go a long way to get decent food. "At the lower end of the market, visitors didn't get a good deal, he added.

But Jeff Bland, executive head chef at Edinburgh's Balmoral hotel, which also holds a Michelin star, said Fairlie's comments had been unfairly directed. "It's probably easy to make such comments when you're sitting in your ivory tower. Andrew is lucky to have a first-class restaurant with plenty of investment and a select group of diners."

Bland said Fairlie should focus his blame on the "system" rather than the food in Scotland. "A lot of our products never reach the table here, because so much of it is exported," he added. However, like Fairlie he also blamed a general lowering of kitchen skill levels for demaging the quality of food cooked in Scotland.

• VisitScotland recently declared that 25% of tourists' spending goes on food and drink. Scotland's produce generates a food and drink market worth an estimated £417m a year.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 18 - 24 September 2003