Poor food can be found anywhere
The state of Scottish food is under attack again. Not for the first time, a top-notch chef has criticised the culinary offering north of the border, damning it as "bastardised… devalued… and a rip off". The critic this time (there have been others before him) is former Roux Scholar, Michelin star holder and Catey winner Andrew Fairlie, quoted in an article about tourism in The Scotsman newspaper at the weekend.
He is right in what he says, of course. But he is also woefully wrong.
He is right because the food in Scotland can be greasy, stodgy and infuriatingly inconsistent. He is wrong - and The Scotsman is too - because he implies that the occurrence of poor food is something unique to Scotland. That is blatantly untrue; it is a problem that the whole of the UK suffers from. He is also wrong to make sweeping statements, ignoring the very good food that can be found in many restaurants in Scotland (and, of course, south of the border as well).
However, the problem is, wherever you go, it is easy to find a poor food offering if you look hard enough. It is the curse of the expanding eating-out market that rank amateurs are encouraged to set up business and serve poorly prepared, mass-produced, overpriced substitutes for a good meal. It happens all over the place, not just in Scotland.
One of Fairlie's major complaints is that "key dishes have been devalued". What he means - and I happen to agree - is that the best dishes are the simple ones made from natural ingredients well cooked. There is an abundance of natural produce in Scotland, and it should be used without complication. Why serve curry sauce with deep-fried haggis? It's just not necessary.
Most thriving regional chefs will tell you that using good local produce to cook traditional local dishes is the key to their success. Paul Heathcote in the North-west, Denis Watkins in Yorkshire, Rick Stein in Cornwall - they all take what's close at hand and keep it simple. If more chefs kept to this principle, then the standard of food found up and down the UK (not just in the Highlands) would improve immeasurably.
State of the art
What differentiates your hotel from that of your competitors? A swimming pool perhaps? A top-notch spa? Or is it the art that adorns your walls? Increasingly it appears that the answer is the art. Gone are the days when any old cheap print would do. In an ever-more competitive market, hoteliers whose attention to detail takes in the art on the walls are finding that they stand out from the crowd. Turn to page 30 to find out more.
Jenny Webster, Hotels Editor
Pasta imperfect Milan. Fashion capital of Europe. Place of the well-groomed, the well-heeled and the well-fed. Well, apparently not. When we sent former guidebook inspector and editor Simon Wright out there for some highly praised nosh, he came back rather disappointed and uninspired. Check out page 24 for his detailed - and witty - review of some of "the best" Lombardy has to offer.
Amanda Afiya, Chef Editor
