“TASTYNESS”

The journey north to Inverness is always beautiful and although half of it was in darkness you can still feel the huge open spaces as you hammer up the A9. It was the day that the ski slopes opened at Aviemore, not that I saw any snow!

Tastyness is a great little food festival organised by Shearwater events at the Mercure hotel in Inverness. It combines good local suppliers with cooking demos from local chefs and yours truly. There was even a room set aside to entertain children in. I did two demos; one using beef to promote my The Whole Cow book with meat from Grants of Speyside stuart@grantsofspeyside.co.uk which was excellent and a shellfish work shop which was a pleasure to give. Orkney Scallops were amazing with shells 18 cm’s across! Lovely firm meat. Mussels and jumpingly fresh langoustines from Alasdair Allen ali.jpl@btinternet.com www.jplshellfish.co.uk the local fish man. The demos went really well superbly compared by Nicola McAlley @NicolaMcAlley Also there was the Cromarty cheese co. with some well aged Dutch cheese and a cake lady! Elizabeth Brown from bake@capabilitybrowns.com Duncan Chisholm from La Tortilla Castle street in Inverness @latortilla1. whose tapas looked superb.
Over all a great wee celebration of local and seasonal produce , watch out for next year and well done Carole and Fiona!