Several chefs will appear at The Food Festival to be held at Edinburgh’s Jewel & Esk College on April 24th. 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 24th 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.”