Scotland takes top billing at haute cuisine world championship

Scottish Development International (SDI) and Scotland Food & Drink will this week lead a delegation of producer groups to the Bocuse d’Or World Cuisine Contest in Lyon, France, where Scotch Lamb and Scottish seafood will take their place on the world’s most exclusive menu.

The biennial event will see the world’s top chefs selected from the best kitchens in the world and representing 24 countries, prepare two exceptional dishes in front of a live audience, and facing the world’s press and a jury comprising some of the world’s best chefs.

The competition has a reputation for using only the finest produce, and working together, membership organisations Quality Meat Scotland and Seafood Scotland have secured the selection of Scotch Lamb and Scottish monkfish, brown crab and langoustines as the official produce to be used in the culinary grand prix.

SDI is also leading a delegation of Scottish companies to the event, which runs alongside Sirha – one of the Europe’s most significant foodservice exhibitions. For the food and drink industry, the event provides an opportunity to recapture market share lost since the beef ban and boost exports at Europe’s leading foodservice exhibition and culinary competition.

Bearing in mind the current economic climate, SDI has offered the companies a travel and accommodation grant to help with the costs of exhibiting at the show.

The six Scottish companies attending the show will form part of the overall Scotland pavilion at Sirha, under the banner of Scotland: Land of Food and Drink, where they will focus on identifying export opportunities in key European markets.

Quality Meat Scotland, Seafood Scotland, Scottish Quality Salmon and the Scotch Whisky Association will also be flying the flag for the Scottish food and drink industry and meeting with buyers, chefs and food and drink professionals.

Commenting on the opportunity, Anne MacColl, chief executive of Scottish Development International, said:

“The fact that the world’s top chefs will be showcasing Scottish produce in their menus as they compete to be crowned world champion, provides a huge opportunity for Scottish companies to take advantage of the spotlight and showcase their wares to an international audience.

“The food and drink industry contributes heavily to the Scottish economy, with exports worth £3.6bn. This event is just one element of a wider programme of activity lead by SDI in collaboration with our partners to help the industry exploit further international opportunities and to continue to raise the level of international ambition within the industry in Scotland.”

Paul McLaughlin, chief executive of Scotland Food & Drink, added: "Scotland's reputation as A Land of Food and Drink is well deserved, but it’s taken a lot of effort to achieve this positioning. It requires huge amounts of hard work and dedication on the part of producers, processors and manufacturers from companies, both large and small, all over Scotland. Attending events like Sirha is just part of the busy workload undertaken by Scotland's food and drink companies.

"Scotch Lamb and Scottish seafood are some of the most iconic Scottish products on offer to international buyers and Bocuse d'Or and Sirha provide an ideal opportunity for these, and other great products, to be showcased to key buyers and influencers."

Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, said: “The prospect of some of the world's leading chefs serving up mouth-watering dishes with Scottish ingredients at such a prestigious event bodes extremely well for enhancing Scotland's reputation for quality food production.

“This is a very exciting time for Scotland’s food and drink sector. Not only have we seen sales increase by a billion pounds to £11.2 billion since 2007-2008, but exports have grown by a fantastic 15 per cent between 2007 and 2009.

“Scottish seafood, chosen for the first time in the competition’s history, is internationally recognised as a quality product and our Scotch Lamb is regarded as some of the best in the world. That quality is being recognised once again by Bocuse d'Or, following the event two years ago, when the organisers selected Scotch Beef for the first time ever.”