Diary of a Shopkeeper, 21st September

The subtle art of wine and shoe matching. (Photo: Thibault Gras)

As I write this the curtain is coming down on the Orkney Food and Drink Festival. Cocktails are being mixed and nibbles nibbled at the Ayre Hotel, and soon everyone will go home for a well deserved rest. The weekend’s been a huge success. The KGS theatre was full for presentations by celebrity chefs like Gary Nicolson, Leigh Gould and some bloke called James Martin. Outward bound courses to Highland Park, Scapa and The Orkney Distillery were fully subscribed. Brin Pirathapan, winner of MasterChef in 2024, devised a special menu for 80 diners at The Storehouse on Saturday night – and the Storehouse chefs did the hard work of cooking it. Orkney Cheese’s Cheddar Grading and Selection Session was so popular it went on twice as long as planned. I thought I knew a lot about cheese until I met ‘Mr Cheddar’ John Miller.

And as well the events, the dining room was thronged on both Saturday and Sunday with hundreds of people visiting the stalls run by dozens of local businesses from Lochside Coffee Roasters to Golden Slipper kombucha to Burnside Cheese, Swannay Brewery, and many more. Apart from the enthusiasm and knowledge of the producers, what really struck me was the quality of both the produce and its packaging. I remember attending a few events at the last food festival. ‘That was a few years ago,’ I said to organiser Kerry Leask. ‘It was 1999,’ she replied.

Why have we left it so long to have another one? I don’t know, but the good news is that, in my opinion, the range and quality of food produced here now is better than it has ever been. I don’t mean the raw ingredients: they have always been superb. What has changed since 1999 is the imagination and professionalism with which products are developed and presented to the world. Apart from a lingering over-reliance on the colour brown in packaging, Orkney’s produce leaves the county full of flavour and beautifully wrapped up. That’s despite it being harder now to make a living as a food producer than ever before. Costs rise inexorably, staff are hard to find, and red tape and the threat of tariffs hangs over anyone hoping to export.

Three cheers to everyone who perseveres. Orkney should be proud of you – and judging by this weekend’s turnout, it is. Three cheers too for bars, restaurants and cafes across the county who put on special deals and menus for the weekend. A special big shout out to Saintear bistro in Westray, the furthest flung outpost of the festival. (I’ll see you for lunch next Sunday!)

The audience thinks: ‘Will they ever stop talking and let us taste the wine?’ (Photo: Thibault Gras)

Kirkness & Gorie’s part in the festival played to our strengths. Ben and I didn’t have to bake, boil or baste anything. All we had to do was pour five different wines for 24 people at two afternoon tastings then talk about the wines, where they came from, who made them, and why they tasted the way they did. The hardest bit was washing and polishing the glasses after each tasting.

We gave everyone a booklet with details about the wines, and what I had ambitiously described to Kerry Leask as ‘recipes for matching dishes’ on the facing page. It turns out that writing recipes that are guaranteed to work and that people can actually follow to success is pretty difficult. You have to be precise about measurements and oven temperatures and times. You have to test the recipes to make sure they work. That’s not how I cook at home…it’s a lot more improvisatory. The soundtrack is jazz and so is the cooking. So instead of proper recipes we mixed up memories of happy meals, stories of chefs and rugby players, and ‘suggestions’ for how you might create a plate of tasty food to match a special wine.

Time will tell if our two groups of 24 tasters give our suggestions a try. Judging by the number of James Martin cookbooks getting sold, it may be that more people with be having a go at his Salt-Baked Seabass or Slow Cooked Pork Belly than my Partan and Parmesan Tart or North Ronaldsay Mutton with Brambles. Orkney food at its best!

Thanks to Thibault Gras who was official photographer to the festival, but snapped a few unofficial pics for us on Ben’s phone!

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 25th September 2025. A new diary appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations, and occasional small corrections or additions.