Shetland - A Food Homecoming

Sheila Dillon visits Shetland to meet the people transforming Shetland's food culture by reinventing traditional dishes as well as creating new food initiatives. Social media is playing a huge part in promoting a vibrant, young food scene that is attracting entrepreneurs as well as bringing back those who may have left the islands as teenagers. Jonathan Williamson left to manage the food hall at Fortnam and Mason but came home in his late 20s to build and run Cafe Fjara on Lerwick harbour. Akshay Borges from Mumbai answered an ad for a trainee chef at the Scalloway Hotel nine years ago. He has been here ever since and is now launching his own restaurant the String bringing food, music and art together. Traditional skills like fishing and meat production are thriving too. A career in food was never on the agenda for 29 year old Chris Wright who worked different jobs in his early twenties before following his dream of becoming a butcher. He blogs about the meat dishes he prepares in addition to his day job at Anderson's Butchers in Lerwick. Elizabeth Atia is the UK's most northerly food blogger and one of the few who makes a living from it. She says being Shetland based gives her blog -Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary- a USP in the blogging world. Many restaurants on Shetland get their vegetables from Transition Turriefield run by Penny Armstrong and Alan Robertson. They have nurtured the barren land on their croft since returning to Shetland fifteen years ago, building poly tunnels and enriching the soil to grow a variety of seasonal vegetables which they sell to customers through a box scheme. All of them stress the importance of social media in spreading the word about Shetland's renewed food culture and its high quality fresh local produce.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.