The New Scottish Cuisine Manifesto

This Scottish Cuisine Manifesto is conceived and formulated here, today,
at Skye Restaurant Flodigarry Hotel, the most Northern restaurant in the Isle of Skye in Northern Scotland.
Here in the middle of nowhere, here in the middle of everywhere.

This New Scottish Cuisine manifesto is stolen. Not copied, not imitated, but simply stolen from Nouvelle Cuisine in general and specific from The New Nordic Kitchen Manifesto.
They have written what is already deeply in our harts and soles, an innovative approach to traditional foods combined with a strong focus on health and an ethical production philosophy.

The Nordic countries  are our north and eastern neighbours (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, including their associated territories Greenland, the Faroe and Åland Islands) with whom we have more in common in latitude, landscape, food and long dark winters than any other country in Europe. 

We have taken possession of their Manifesto that was created in 2004 even though we know it was not ours. As Scotland is no part of the Nordic countries we can not simply sign the Nordic Manifesto but had to design our own. It is a food manifesto that belongs to Scotland.

Hints of the original owner, of the source may remain - after all, nothing in art is completely new - but it will be clear that this Scottish Cuisine Manifesto is an unique work, standing on its own.

”As Scottish chefs we find that the time has now come for us to create a New Scottish Kitchen, which in virtue of its good taste and special character compares favourable with the standard of the greatest kitchens of the world”

The aims of the New Scottish Cuisine are:
1) To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics we wish to associate to our region.
2) To reflect the changes of the seasons in the meal we make.
3) To base our cooking on ingredients and produce whose characteristics are particularly in our climates, landscapes and waters.
4) To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge of health and well being.
5) To promote Scottish products and the variety of Scottish producers - and to spread the word about their underlying cultures.
6) To promote animal welfare and a sound production process in our seas, on our farmland and in the wild.
7) To develop potentially new applications of traditional Scottish food products.
8) To combine the best in Scottish cookery and culinary traditions with impulses from abroad.
9) To combine local self-sufficiency with regional sharing of high-quality products.
10) To have awareness of consumption on the environment
11) To Treat People Fairly and providing equal opportunities
12) To join forces with consumer representatives, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, fishing, food, retail and wholesales industries, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this project for the benefit and advantage of everyone in Scotland.

Signed, Thursday 1 February 2016

Executive chef SKYE restaurant at the Flodigarry, Bette Temming

Head Chef SKYE restaurant at the Flodigarry, Levente Laszlo