Royal Highland Debut For Top Broadcast Cook

The cook who joins some of the best-known BBC radio DJs to broadcast top cookery tips to millions of listeners each week will be one of the star attractions at the Quality Meat Scotland stand at this year’s Royal Highland Show (June 24-27).

Food expert and broadcaster, Nigel Barden, will be joining Lady Claire Macdonald, one of Scotland’s best known cooks, to perform entertaining cookery demonstrations at this year’s show.

Lady Claire will be sharing her vast knowledge of all things “foodie” in the QMS kitchen on Thursday and Friday with Nigel taking over the reins on Saturday and Sunday when he will demonstrate a selection of his favourite recipes, all using top quality Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork.

Nigel, who works with Chris Evans and Simon Mayo on their BBC Radio 2 shows, will be making his first visit to the show. He is also the food correspondent for BBC London and specialises in promoting British ingredients and artisan producers, particularly in his role as chairman of The Great Taste Awards.

He said: “I’m really excited to be working at The Royal Highland Show, alongside Quality Meat Scotland, as it’s a great opportunity for me to showcase meat from some the magnificent livestock born and bred in Scotland.

“Since holidaying as a lad in Loch Lomond and Aviemore, if I don’t visit the land of the thistle at least a couple of times a year my heart aches for it and that’s not just to do with the distilleries!”

Quality Meat Scotland will also be asking consumers to look behind the label at this year’s Royal Highland Show to see the guarantees of provenance, welfare and quality given by the Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork brands.

Throughout the four day show, thousands are expected to visit the QMS stand to discover more about the Scottish red meat industry - from learning about farm-to-shop traceability to getting new recipe ideas.

Celebrating the skill and artistry of Scotland’s best young butchers, butchery demonstrations are making a welcome return to the QMS stand. The demonstration of the skill involved in creating the eye-catching displays in butchers’ chill cabinets has been a great success in the past few years and QMS has enlisted some of Scotland’s best butchers to come and impress the crowds.

The stand once again features a dedicated area for levy payers where they can come and chat to QMS staff and find out about developments in the organisation and industry and enjoy a bite of lunch and a cup of tea.

One of the busiest areas of the stand last year was the educational zone, where people young and old could come to see the kinds of animals reared in Scotland and learn more about our top quality farming standards.

Of course, the major draw for many will the rare opportunity to win an iconic and much coveted Scotch Beef teeshirt, now the height of show fashion, as well as other branded goodies.