Press release

QMU and Jewel & Esk Celebrate Regional Scottish Food

Staff and students from Queen Margaret University are to join forces with Jewel & Esk College to host their first food festival in Edinburgh.

The event ‘A Celebration of Regional Scottish Food’ will be held at Jewel & Esk College on Saturday 24 th April. Celebrity chef and Michelin star award winner, Tom Kitchin will be making a special guest appearance and giving a demonstration. He won’t be alone; a number of chefs including Alexander Kidd from Skibo Castle in Sutherland, Joe Gray, Graduate Apprentice from ‘Fifteen’ (founded by Jamie Oliver’) and a senior chef from The Atrium in Edinburgh will all be demonstrating their signature dishes.

The event is generously supported by 2kt, the knowledge transfer service that operates out of eight leading higher education establishments in East Scotland including QMU and Jewel & Esk. Dr Sue Gordon, a Business Development Manager with 2kt is delighted with the diversity of the regional food producers which will be taking part. She said:” People will be introduced to a fabulous range of products from organisations such as Belhaven Fruit Farm with their newly rebranded Fruit Ice dessert and the highly successful Edinburgh based social enterprise, The Engine Shed, with their oat cakes which retail in Harvey Nicols.”

Bernie Quinn and Trevor Laffin from the School of Business, Enterprise and Management are helping to organise the unique event. Trevor said: “This is an excellent opportunity to explore the quality and diversity of Scottish produce. It’s not only a terrific learning opportunity for our talented students but promises to be fun and inspirational for members of the public too.”

Gordon Hodgson, Head of the Faculty of Service Industries at Jewel & Esk agrees. “This is a very exciting project, bringing together two educational establishments renowned for their expertise in hospitality. For the public, it’s an opportunity to taste the very best of Scottish produce and to see some of the country’s top chefs in action.”

Former QMU student set to cook up a storm at festival

For Fiona Burrell the day will in many ways represent a return to her cooking roots. Fiona opened the doors of her own Edinburgh New Town Cookery School just last year, but the journey began at festival co-hosts Queen Margaret University (then College) in 1974

“It’s great to be involved with QMU in this way,” enthuses Fiona. “I have very special memories of my time at the old Queen Margaret College and there is no doubt that the education I received there gave me a solid foundation for my career in food. The Food Festival is an exciting proposition and something that I would have loved to be have been involved with when I was a student myself. There is much to celebrate in Scottish food and drink and visitors to the Festival are not going to be disappointed.”

Fiona’s culinary CV is impressive; on leaving Queen Margaret College, she joined the famed Leith’s School of Food and Wine in London, rising to co-principal in 1991. Fiona has written and co-written books aplenty including Leiths Book of Cakes, Leiths Complete Christmas, Leiths Baking Bible and Leiths Vegetarian Bible among others. She is an acclaimed teacher and writer, has worked extensively developing recipes and styling food for photography shoots as well as judging various cookery competitions including the Mouton Cadet Times Cook of the Year award. Her career is one that many of today’s students would want to emulate.

Matauka Yeta, one of the QMU students involved with the Food Festival, agrees “Fiona is a great ambassador for QMU and it’s just fantastic that she and the other chefs are coming along on the 24 th to share their expertise with us all. It’s going to be a great day. A lot of hard work has gone into organising and planning the event to make sure that people enjoy the day and get the most from it. I think people will find it very exciting.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1. International Hospitality Management students from Queen Margaret University and students from Jewel & Esk College have joined forces to host their first food festival.

2. Students will prepare dishes for tasting. These will showcase the best of produce from ten different Scottish regions: East Lothian, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, North East Scotland, Fife, Ayrshire and Arran, Perthshire, Argyll, Shetland and Orkney.

3.      The event will also include:

·        the chance to taste a minimum of 25 food and drink samples;

·        a minimum of 15 regional producers;

·        9 demonstrations sessions;

·        tutored coffee, wine and whisky tastings and

·        sample tastings of wine, whisky, cider and liqueurs.

4.      Tickets are priced at £10 (£5 concessions)

5. The Food Festival is being run with the support of the 2kt initiative. This partnership includes eight of the East of Scotland's leading education establishments Visit www.2kt.org.uk for more information about 2kt.

For further information please visit www.qmu.ac.uk/be/foodfestival

For further media information please contact Mags Fenner, Press and PR Officer, Jewel & Esk College, Edinburgh, tel: 0131 344 7197, mobile: 07939 589740, email mfenner@jec.ac.uk