As the newest member of the Taste of Shetland team, you'd have thought I would have shown my dedication by being the busiest of Project Development Officers in the run up to the 2023 Food Festival - instead, I was off sunning myself on a Greek Island until 3 days before the event. (I told them I'd had this booked for months...but who really knows the truth...)
Thankfully, I had time before my departure to get up to speed and to rustle up some social media posts - some of which I was working on from my sunbed - which is definitely my preferred way to work. And perhaps more luckily, the Team were kind enough to not hold my abandoning them against me.
I finally arrived at Clickimin to help at about half past three on Friday afternoon, to find an amazing group of folk already working hard on all the things that the festival visitors don't see - Derek working on lighting and sound, Keith arranging power for stallholders (and also being roped into all kinds of other things), Neil, Marc and the other Clickimin staff helping with things that almost certainly above the call of duty (like shifting polycrubs...) and our own peerie team checking and re-checking raffle prizes, merchandise and draft number 72 of the floor plan.
I must admit, when I looked around when I arrived Friday afternoon, I couldn't see how this was possibly going to be the space in which celebrity chefs, international cooks, stallholders and hundreds of visitors were gathered from 10am on Saturday morning; but thanks to the wealth of experience and expertise in the room - everything was ready in plenty of time.
We had a wonderful variety of stallholders this year, Polycrub, Cooke Aquaculture, Shetland Oysters, Blyde Welcome, Uradale Farm, MM Yummy Cakes, The Chocolate Box, Shetland Reel Gin, Eventastic and The Handmade Fish Co all sharing the main hall. The Scalloway Meat Company ran an incredible cafe in the multi-purpose studio, which was very well received, and they were joined by our children's entertainment and facepainters.
As well as the stalls we were incredibly proud to host such an incredible variety of home chefs in our International Kitchen, which was expertly run by Kellie Naulls. This year we had Czech, Indian, Filipino, Dutch, Swedish, Latvian, Slovinian and Italian food prepared and presented for visitors to taste. I am delighted to say that I tried the vast majority of these dishes and that every, single one I got my hands on was absolutely delicious.
Also on offer were two well received workshops; with Iwona Charleson teaching a very engaged crowd how to make cheese and Peter MacQueen giving us a introduction into how to embrace the Art of Hutting.
But perhaps the biggest excitement for me was the entertainment on the main stage, with cooking demonstrations from Marian Armitage, Winston Brown (Shetland Oysters), Coinneach MacLeod (The Hebridean Baker), Gus Dow (The Bigton Weekend Baker) and Wendy Barrie all in a very action packed Saturday! Along with music to keep us all upbeat performed by Haltadans. This all preceded the all important Shetland's Finest Butchers' Sassermaet Competition - which saw Uradale Farm take the prize after a blind tasting by the crowds.
The stage saw even more incredible demonstrations on Sunday with Adam Sandison joining our list of amazing chefs to delight the visitors.
My favourite part of the weekend was getting to be part of the Peerie Bites Competition - where 5 youngsters cooked the most admirable Peerie Pastries for our judges. I was lucky enough to also get to taste, and I can wholeheartedly report that I could not have been on that judging panel - because I couldn't have chosen the winners. Every single one of the contestants showed such remarkable potential, and I would happily pay for a meal that was cooked by any one of them. This year's winners were Ayanda and Willam - a massive congratulations to them both.
Every single part of the entertainment was overseen, introduced and beautifully compared by Claire White - who did all this while her 10 week old baby boy snoozed contentedly back stage - if that's not a achievement, I don't know what is. Well done Claire and thank you to Magnor and Solfrid for being so well behaved - Michael was pretty good too...
I'm still in awe of the Taste of Shetland Team, and I'm feeling incredibly lucky to be a part of it. The festival felt like a complete celebration of Shetland, and all it's producers, and I felt inspired to embrace local ingredients. Let's hope that 2024 sees Shetland celebrating the food and drink we have on offer - because, my goodness, what an offering we have!