Food and Wine Festivals and Events Around the World

Chapter 5

Case Study on the Use of Scottish Food Events in Promoting Scottish Tourism and Food

Wendy Barrie

Thanks to cheap airfares, we can now travel almost to the ends of the earth, feasting our eyes on all the wonders of the world. Save enough Airmiles and Virgin Galactic will even shoot you into space. But if good food opportunities are scarce, all holiday memories will fade sooner, along with the ozone layer.

Fortunately, we have European neighbours a short hop from home, where we can indulge our passions to the full. What’s more, by consuming the local food in its country of origin, we will be saving food miles and the planet! Ideally, and in the spirit of European unity, Scotland should be offering reciprocal excellence, but do we? There is no doubt that discerning travellers seeking exceptional food experiences in Scotland will find them, but are we perceived as a good food destination?

I am proud to be Scottish, and my home from home is Aberdour, in the Kingdom of Fife. We are in a seaside village, across the Forth estuary from Edinburgh, our capital city and round the coast from St. Andrews, the ancestral home of golf. Before we Scots discovered holiday hot-spots like Spain’s Alicante, Aberdour was a favourite Victorian and Edwardian resort. The paddle steamers, works outings and miners galas are now long gone, but the railway still provides excellent communications with the city, award winning beaches are safe and pleasure sailing with a host of other leisure pursuits and a clutch of art studios are the popular attractions. Thankfully the river estuary is cleaner than before and the waters are home to fine crabs, lobsters, sea trout and a crustacean endearingly known as the Pittenweem Prawn.

As kingdoms go, Fife’s footprint on the planet is not very large. Travelling its entire length or breadth is only an hour’s drive, but here you will find a fertile landscape with mixed farming, large and small units, producing root vegetables and greens, prime beef and lamb with soft fruits, game and seafood worthy of any royal table. Organic producers are well represented and the best restaurants attract custom from all over the UK and beyond. Tourism is a thriving industry providing valuable employment in an area that, hitherto, has been too reliant on coal mining, aluminium processing and naval dockyard activities, all now defunct with scars removed.

All regions in Scotland can be justly proud that ‘Produce of Scotland’ is recognized the world over as a hallmark of quality, not least by internationally famous chefs. We can be equally proud of our own skilled and dedicated chefs and cooks, who use our local larder to great effect and acclaim, but alas they are the exception and not the rule. If only food on the plate, as served to the majority of our visitors, could be held, universally, in the same high regard as our produce. Fellow Europeans must wonder how a country so well endowed in the larder department, can be a disappointment in the dining room. When millions come each year to enjoy the Scottish experience, how many more would come if indifferent food was off the menu?

Historians may argue whether it was the warring Picts or the voracious midges that sent the Romans packing, but perhaps the legionnaires just wanted home for Mamma’s cooking. We can’t do much about midges, but we can about food. What seems obvious to most of us, holidaying at home or abroad, is that eating contributes as much to our enjoyment as any other activity. For some destinations, good food is the attraction. In Scotland, we have relied successfully on our scenery, heritage, whiskies and tartans, to pull the visitors and too often allowed Big Macs and their ilk to feed them. Not surprising then if surveys reveal much of our served food to be the least attractive feature of a Scottish holiday. Increasing numbers of cultural tourists who appreciate our music, our history and our ways are also hungry for equally good food experiences. Too many are missing that added value and we are missing the very trick at which our European rivals excel.

What frustrates all our best efforts to feed our visitors well is, we no longer feed ourselves or our children well. Lifestyle changes and fast food have seen to that. A generalization of course, but we are in serious danger of losing the plot, especially in our own kitchens. Like so many others, I deplore the decline of family eating and taste education for youngsters and its consequences for food offered in Scotland. If the locals, who are eating out in greater numbers than ever before, are not demanding higher-quality food on the plate, what incentive is there for everyday caterers to raise their game?

We are not the only country to be in the thrall of fast food, but the UK is ‘credited’ with consuming half of all ready meals manufactured in Europe. Some EU countries saw the danger signs earlier and culturally were better disposed to resist it. In Italy, where familial eating is a way of life, Carlo Petrini went further and counterattacked with Slow Food, which is now an international movement with 80,000 members. There are seven Convivia so far in Scotland. Perth is our first city to be awarded ‘Cittaslow’ status and in 2005 the inaugural UK Slow Food Congress was held on the enchanted Isle of Skye, accompanied by much Highland dancing!

I attended the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre in Turin (see Chapter 20), where Scottish Food Guide was selected as a Food Community and I was invited to speak on Food Tourism. I also revisited the local school lunch scene that had greatly impressed me at the previous Salone. Attendance ran to 8.5 thousand at the Congress in Turin and many thousands more at the Salone, all with support from an enlightened Government, alive to the rewards state-sponsored food tourism can bring. Research in other countries shows that customers can respond favourably, where seasonal fresh food is valued as part of the business matrix. Visitors have an increased awareness and appreciation of local food, and likewise interest in local culture with benefits for the economy through employment, trade and return visits.

Scotland has a strong culture of regional dishes and specialities but, sadly, it is more in evidence in glossy cookbooks than in contemporary family kitchens. Recent generations have drifted away from kitchen-lore, leaving our present youngsters, badly served with role models and with little understanding of basic cooking, provenance or seasonality to pass on to their families. Not a happy trend for a nation with good food destination aspirations. Even less so for the long-term health of the population. Fortunately the condition is reversible. Thanks to the media and the popularity of TV celebrity chefs, the subject of food, where it comes from and what to do with it, is ever topical, creating favourable conditions for many positive initiatives-individual, collective and Governmental, many of which I have had a hand in and which I am pleased to report, are showing promise. The following list shows some of these initiatives:

The Food Standards Agency (Food Standards Agency, 2007) maintains permanent watch on a sometimes fallible food industry and the nation’s dietary excesses with new legislation to ban certain junk food advertising aimed at children.

The web, is a wonderful resource for all seekers and providers of good food, especially when information is free, constantly updated, personally vetted and recommended by a well informed and contactable ‘face’. Such is the award winning www.scottishfoodguide.com launched in 2002, making the positive connection between good hotels and restaurants and good food producers and suppliers, including Farm Shops and the Scottish Food Trail.
Scotland’s Tourist Board, VisitScotland (Visit Scotland, 2007) has recently introduced a national food appraisal scheme, which any food outlet from chip shops and ethnic restaurants to the grandest of fine dining establishments may join, subject to due payment and relevant criteria being met. This initiative aims to encourage everyone to raise their game.
As part of its education agenda Slow Food Edinburgh (Slow Food, Edinburgh, 2007) runs schools competitions and restaurant visits while encouraging chefs to work with their local schools to foster taste education and appreciation of seasonal produce.

Children at schools adopting the Soil Association’s ‘Food for Life’ (Soil Association, 2007) scheme are experiencing real organic, local and unprocessed foods at their lunch table and are blazing a trail for others to follow.

Healthy Living Award, the initiative of the Scottish Consumer Council (Scottish Consumer Council, 2007) and the Scottish Executive is aimed at place of work restaurants and canteens.

Although some food providers still believe the road to riches is to give the easily pleased what they shouldn’t have, others cook with their heart, are passionate about our produce and pragmatic enough to know that provenance lends quality to their brand. There is an ever-growing list of outstanding chefs, hotels and restaurants featuring local produce in cooperative, like-minded marketing, typically ‘Loch Lomond and Beyond’, in the West of Scotland and ‘Scotland’s Finest Flavours’ in the North-East, winning the coveted Catering in Scotland Tourism Award. (Catering in Scotland Tourism Award, 2007)

Scotland also now boasts an impressive collection of farmers’ markets; and food and drink festivals which all help to add value to the Scottish Tourism experience, as well as playing an important role in supplying and educating about local food. There are over 40 certified farmers’ markets, which belong to the Scottish Association of Farmers’ markets (Scottish Farmers’ Markets, 2007), spread throughout Scotland from Stornaway in the Isle of Lewis in the North to Ayr in the South.

The ‘Eat Scotland’ web site is a good source of information about other food and drink festivals in Scotland. (Eat Scotland, 2007). These range from traditional food events such as Burn’s Night suppers and feasting associated with Hogmany (New Year) celebrations to newer, more commercial food shows such as ‘Taste’ of Edinburgh (Taste Edinburgh, 2007).

Food events, understandably, reflect the wealth of products which Scotland is proud to be associated with throughout the world. There are a number of Whisky events including Whisky Live which attracts up to 5,000 visitors (Whisky Live, 2007), the Speyside Whisky Festival and the Islay Malt and Music Festival (Islay Festival, 2007). Porridge is celebrated at the Golden Spurtle World Porridge making Championships (Golden Spurtle, 2007) and Arbroath Smokies (a unique ‘name-protected’ type of smoked fish) are promoted at the Arbroath Sea Fest which attracts up to 30,000 visitors. (Arbroath Smokie, 2007). Some of the old traditions associated with food production are remembered at the Celtic Food and Drink Festival (Celtic Food and Drink, 2007), and there is even a food show, Healthy Highland, which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle (Healthy Highland, 2007).

International events like the Royal Highland Show also now major on impressive food halls, bringing in 146,000 visitors and many travelling great distances to attend (Royal Highland Show, 2007).

So, is Scotland yet up there with Italy and France as a universally perceived great food destination? Not quite. But our produce is already superb and there’s a new air of confidence about Scottish hospitality catering, if not yet our home cooking. There is a strong core of gifted chefs running established restaurants of distinction with new talent and new enterprises continually rising to the challenge. There are great smoke-free pubs serving great beer and great grub and who would have believed we could do pavement cafés like the continentals. Super delis in every town, farmers’ markets, farm shops and food festivals are springing up all over the place. With the stir-rings of a new food enlightenment in Scotland there is good reason to be optimistic for the future. Much has still to be done, but blessed with produce second to none and a passion for our task, how can we fail?

References

Arbroath Smokie (2007) at http://www.angusahead.com/VisitAngus/VisitEvents/SeaFestIntro.asp

Catering in Scotland Tourism Award (2007) at http://www.cateringinscotland.com/awards.html

Celtic Food and Drink (2007) at http://www.crannog.co.uk

Eat Scotland (2007) at http://www.eatscotland.com

Food Standards Agency (2007) at http://www.food.gov.uk

Golden Spurtle (2007) at http://www.goldenspurtle.com

Healthy Highland (2007) at http://www.healthyhighland.com

Islay Festival (2007) at http://www.islayfestival.org

Royal Highland Show (2007) at http://www.royalhighlandshow.org

Scottish Consumer Council (2007) at http://www.scotconsumer.org.uk

Scottish Farmers’ Markets (2007) at http://www.scottishfarmersmarkets.co.uk

Slow Food, Edinburgh (2007) at http://www.slowfoodedinburgh.co.uk/slow_food_edinburgh/Slow_Food_Edinburgh

Soil Association (2007) at http://www.soilassociation.org

Taste Edinburgh (2007) at http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/T/taste/edinburgh.html

Whisky Live (2007) at http://www.whiskylive.com

Visit Scotland (2007) at http://www.visitscotland.com