WATCH: MasterChef winner Gary Maclean praises Inverness food scene and announces new book release in November
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One of Scotland's most popular chefs praised Inverness and its food scene in his latest visit to the Highland capital.
Gary Maclean, who won MasterChef: The Professionals and was appointed as the first National Chef of Scotland in 2017, was at Eastgate Shopping Centre to help promote the food hall Loch & Larder, where one of the spaces boasts his name.
The celebrity chef said he was 'blown away' by Inverness – and exclusively revealed in his interview with The Inverness Courier that he will be out with a brand new book called Scottish Kitchen: Celebrations in November.
He said: "I really do love Inverness, it's that little hidden gem for me.
"It's incredible the pull that Inverness has got, I have spoken to people from as far away as Tasmania and Canada today."
He said he was very excited to be back in Inverness.
"Particularly the evening offerings are incredible – I have been to about six or seven places when I visited here and the standard is incredible, but it's not just the standard of the food. It's the standard of the experience.
"When you go out, there's a great vibe everywhere. Everyone's doing music and that was unbeknownst to me before coming up here. There's a great music scene in Inverness in the amount of musicians I talk to when doing the Highland Games circuits for instance, when they talk about Inverness they say the exact same thing."
