Food honours are served up for Fair City

Perth fought off serious culinary competition to be named Food Town of the Year 2018 at the Scottish Food Awards.

Pete Wishart MP collected the award for the Fair City, taking a selection of Perth’s chefs and businesses with him on to the stage at the ceremony in Edinburgh, last Sunday night.

The Perth restaurant 63 Tay Street was the final winner of City Chef of the Year.

And taking Indian food to new levels was Praveen Kumar of Tabla restaurant, winner of the World Cuisine title.

Praveen, who recently scored highly at the Scottish Curry Awards, was overjoyed to take the prize away in the world cuisine category.

“This is testimony to my great staff,”he said.“It is also a message to inspire other Indian businesses, that you should not feel limited to competing in the Asian food market. Tabla was winner against all manner of nationalities, not just Chinese andThai.”

He was particularly pleased to have been a finalist for city chef.“I’m so happy that Tabla could be fighting for recognition in a category you might associate with chefs from more‘mainstream’types of restaurants.”

Another triumphant Perthshire winner was Graeme Pallister of 63 Tay Street, who was declared the top City Chef. Under the same ownership as 63 Tay Street was Parklands Hotel in Perth, which won Best Boutique Hotel.