‘Grandest ever’ Indian food festival set for Glasgow in July

The biggest Indian food festival ever held in Scotland will take place in Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday 14 and 15 July, the organisers announced. In addition to food stalls serving dishes from all of India’s regions the spectacular event will feature cookery demonstrations, live music, films, dance, holistic therapies, competitions and children’s activities. The ‘Indian Food Bazaar – a Culinary Journey’ will be staged in the heart of Glasgow at the historic Briggait Centre (formerly the city’s fishmarket), transformed into Indian street and rural scenes. “Nothing on this scale has ever been presented before, certainly in Scotland,” said organisers’ spokesman Nav Basi. “It will not only showcase the flavours of the culinary diverse regions of the world’s second most populous country but also highlight its culture and traditions, and seek to educate as well as entertain.” Facebook/Twitter/Instagram @indianfoodbzr

Fred Berkmiller, Chef Patron of Edinburgh restaurants L’Escargot Blanc and L’Escargot Bleu, is up for a double success at this year’s Catering Scotland Excellence (CIS) Awards. With Berkmiller himself shortlisted for the Chef of the Year title for a second time, his L’Escargot Blanc (The White Snail) establishment in the capital’s Queensferry Street is one of three finalists in the Restaurant of the Year category, alongside Glasgow’s Gamba and Shirley Spear’s Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye. His other restaurant, L’Escargot Bleu (The Blue Snail) is in the capital’s Broughton Street. Other contenders for Chef of the Year include: Billy Boyter, who reopened The Cellar at Anstruther in 2014; Brian Grigor of The Balmoral; previous winner Geoffrey Smeddle of the Michelin-starred Peat Inn at St Andrews; and 2017 finalist Paul Wedgwood of Wedgwood The Restaurant on the capital’s Royal Mile. Meanwhile, The Cellar’s Conor McLean, a member of the Scottish Culinary Olympics team, is one of three finalists in the Young Chef category, together with Craig Palmer of the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa in Aberdeen and Kevin McCafferty from City of Glasgow College. Shortlisted in the particularly competitive Independent Hotel of the Year category are: The Douglas Hotel on the Isle of Arran, Dunstane Houses in Edinburgh and the Lovat Loch Ness, which is built on the site of a Hanoverian fort built to pacify the Highland clans after the 18th century Jacobite uprisings. The Group Hotel of the Year Award will be contested by the Doubletree by Hilton…