Taster of Inverness
A celebration of our local food and drink in the region.
Visit Inverness Loch Ness Hosted the inaugural Taster Of Inverness event that was held at the Drumossie Hotel on the 2nd November 2023. It was a fantastic day with a great buzz in the room for showcasing and celebrating the amazing local food and drink suppliers, businesses and experiences we have in and around Inverness and Loch ness. There was a fantastic line up of inspirational speakers and demonstrations throughout the day enjoyed by all.
The stall holders came with an incredible amount of delicious tasters and information about their food and drink businesses.
Suppliers and producers from across Inverness and Loch Ness were able to network with other local businesses, talk collaborative ideas and showcase their wonderful quality products and services to the members of the public.
These businesses included Dog Falls Brewery, Black Isle Brewery, MXYD drinks, Woodwinters, Ness Water Ltd, Bon Accord, Highland Coffee Academy, Inverness Coffee Roasting, Grain and Grind, Bad Girl Bakery, XOKO, Tomatin Distillery, Glen Ord Distillery, Swansons, Bogrow Farm, Loch Ness Ice Cream, Hampers and Champers, Hou Hou Mei, Highland Food and drink Trail , Downright Gabbler, Business Gateway and The Federation of Small Businesses.
The line up of inspirational speakers were extremely popular! They included : Masterchef finalist, Sarah Rankin, who spoke whilst demonstrating a delicious dish made with local produce provided by local suppliers Swansons.
Ghillie Basan gave an inspirational talk about her journey and experiences and she also launched her brand new book 'Seafood Journey' at the event.
Local food and drink creators, Kelly and Adam known as ‘haimandawa’ spoke about growing their online presence and local foodie community and how best to work with online creators as a foodie business.
Tracy Cameron from Scotland Food and Drink had some really important messages about why food tourism is so important to the Highlands.
Alongside Sarah Rankin, we were joined by local baking legend Jeni Iannetta, Bad Girl Bakery who chatted with Visit Inverness Loch Ness's Destination Development manager Emma whilst she decorated and incredible cake.
Grant from The Angry Seagull and Jamie from The Red Shank whipped up a delicious fishy storm whilst chatting to Douglas Hardie from the Highland Food and Drink Trail.
Euan the Executive chef from the The Drumossie hotel served up a mouth watering mackerel dish for the audience whilst he chatted cheffing and food with Adam from Haimandawa.
Thank you to everyone who came along and enjoyed the day, we have had some great feedback and as we said at the very beginning, this was just the 'Taster' event to check the appetite (pun intended) for a bigger and better event in 2024! So watch this space!
Huge thanks goes to our sponsors and partners Drumossie Hotel, Highland Council, Highland News Media and Scotland Food and Drink, Swansons, Woodwinters, Glen Ord Singleton, Great Glen Gin, Xoko.