SCOTLAND

What characterises most Scottish food is the canny frugality of a Northern European peasant tradition. The inhospitable terrain and climate made oats the staple grain, meaning that oatcakes, bannocks and porridges became the heart of Scots’ eating. Warming and filling broths based on barley and lentils flavoured with mutton; offal dishes like mealie pudding and the world-renowned haggis; preserved fish like smoked salmon, kippers, finnan haddies or Arbroath smokies, all speak of the need to preserve and conserve food for harsher times.

It probably goes without saying, that the Highlands are rich with many types of game birds, such as the red and black grouse, capercaille, partridge, pheasant and snipe. There is also magnificent venison in season from the free-roaming deer, while the fast-flowing rivers and burns teem with salmon and trout. The livestock here is more than world-renowned with Galloway beef, the famous Aberdeen Angus and the Scottish Black Face sheep all thriving, and not forgetting the Shetland sheep of further North. There are perhaps surprising amounts of market gardening taking place, like the cultivation of fruits that thrive in a cooler climate, with long summer evenings, such as raspberries, tayberries, loganberries, strawberries, blaeberries and bilberries.The very best chanterelles come from Scotland. I know of one potato farmer near Crieff who grows 350 varieties. Not all are grown for commercial use but the varieties that are have a fantastic taste.

The seas around Scotland have some of the finest fish and shellfish. There are dived scallops, langoustine, mussels, lobsters, halibut, turbot, cod, haddock, gurnard, mackerel, the list goes on - this country really is a chef’s paradise, a food heaven. I only wish this wonderful fruit of the sea was not sold in such vast quantities to Spain and France so more could be eaten where it should be!

Scotland also has a strong tradition in baked and sweet goods, and all things sweet from Forfar bridies (the Scottish ‘pasty’) to delicate shortbread and the glorious Dundee cake, oat cakes, dropped scones, tattie scones, not to mention Atholl brose and Cranachan, enhanced with the delightful taste of wild heather honey. It has become very clear to me while researching Scottish cookery that the French, over many years, have affected the way Scottish cookery has evolved from the time of the Picts, well before Scotland as we know it was conceived.

Finally, Scotland has given the world the ‘water of life’: Whisky. Ask yourself what more can
a country give its fellow mankind?

David Cavalier - Food Director, Charlton House Catering Ltd