A Moray hotel recently invited a Michelin Star chef to replicate their signature fish soup for a popular cooking TV show.
Renowned chef Tim Mälzer was tasked to recreate owner of Cullen Bay Hotel Ian Watson’s award-winning ‘Cullen skink with a twist’ just by taste.
The challenge was filmed for Europe’s most-watched cooking show, Kitchen Impossible.
The camera crew filmed Mr Watson expertly smoking the fish to make his traditional Scottish soup with his twist at Cullen’s scenic hotel, which recently placed in the top 15 establishments to enjoy a pint of Tennents with a view.
Mr Watson’s famous Cullen skink was then presented to Mr Mälzer aboard the White Wing in the harbour during the Portsoy Boat Festival.
The Michelin chef then had to decipher the flavours, before quickly dashing off to Buckie’s Tesco store and local fishmonger Cluny Fish to gather the ingredients he guessed to be in the soup.
After spending the next day making the dish in the kitchen of Cullen Bay Hotel, the chef then presented it to a panel of judges to be given a score out of ten against Mr Watson’s award-winning and original creation.
Mr Watson said: ““It was a great accolade for the hotel to be chosen as the programme covers all parts of the world.
“Having Tim in house gave us all a glimpse of the working practises of a Michelin Star Chef and watching him gradually build up the recipe to get to a finished product was fascinating.”