Cullen skink championships bowled over by local winner Lynne
Victory had a ‘souper’ taste indeed for a local café owner after she emerged victorious from a prestigious soup-making championships.
Sunday, March 9 saw the return of the Cullen Skink World Championships, hosted for the third year in a row by the Seafield Arms Hotel in the town.
The air in the Grand Ballroom was awash with the aroma of the world-renowned fish soup as cooks both amateur and professional battled it out for the crowns of Traditional Skink and Skink with a Twist.
Both titles were scooped last year by Kellie Spooner from the Aberlour Hotel, and there was more silverware on the cards for her in the shape of the runners-up trophy in the Twist section.
However, the day’s glory belonged to Lynne Watson, the owner of Lily’s Café in Cullen, who claimed the Traditional title she first won in 2018, while John McCruden, the chef at The Café at Logie Steadings near Forres, in his very first competitive outing, scooped the honours for not only the Twist trophy but runner-up and People’s Choice for the Traditional category. Taking the People’s Choice crown in the Skink with a Twist was Linsay McCallum from Speak Scotland.
The People’s Choice award debuted last year, with the honour in both categories being won by Kai-Uwe Stutzkeitz from Maybole, Ayrshire.
The hugely popular contest - which draws hopefuls from far and wide to compete - was again run by Discover Cullen.
Relishing victory, Ms Watson said: “It feels really good to come back here and win it again.
“I was a bit nervous going into it, to be honest, and I had a couple of moments during the competition, but it all turned out in the end.
“I think the secret of my success was simply good fish and good, honest ingredients.
“There were a lot of people here tasting the skink and there were plenty good comments.”
Ms Watson added that Cullen skink is the best-selling dish at her café.
His stunningly successful entry into the world of competitive cooking left Mr McCruden somewhat bowled over. He was also left hugely impressed by the friendly nature of the competition and the warm welcome extended to all throughout the day.
He commented: “It's been a brilliant day, it’s really great to win in my first competition I’ve ever been in.
“Everybody's been so nice and helpful; we walked in and everybody's shaking hands, we're just all friends straight away.
“Having everybody coming around and tasting your food was great.
“We’ve got Cullen skink on the menu at The Café and folk were saying to me ‘John, you should go and enter the skink championships’ so I thought ‘Why not?’ and two weeks ago I put in my application. I thought I may as well go along and see what happens although, to be honest, I never thought I’d win.
“I thought I’d maybe pick up the runner-up in the Traditional section as everybody was saying my skink was quite nice but I never thought I’d get the Twist plus the People’s Choice as well.”
Mr McCruden certainly had a novel twist up his sleeve to capture the trophy, which included lobster, crab and saffron ravioli, which was made fresh on the day.
Guest of honour at the event was the Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire Andrew Simpson, who presented the winners with the trophies.
He went on to tell the audience just how important attending the championships was to him.
He said: “One lord lieutenant recently asked me ‘What fills up your diary? What's the event that you put in your diary first and what are some of the things that you make sure you get to?’.
“I looked at him for about half a second and said ‘The World Championship Cullen Skink Competition’. I think he thought I'd be talking about dinners or military parades or things like that but no, the World Cullen Skink Competition is for me a fantastic opportunity and something that I want to come to support as much as I can.
“This is a celebration of local talent, yes, but also local ingredients. We've got some fantastic, wonderful ingredients in the north-east of Scotland, in Cullen and this area. and Cullen Skink is an opportunity to celebrate these.
“A second reason why this is a fixture in my diary comes from something quite a few people have mentioned, and that is how friendly the event is. It is a competition, it is a championship, but the amount of banter, the amount of chat, the amount of sharing of information, sharing of tips, of ideas between the competitors, but also with us as the audience, has been just fantastic.”
Mr Simpson went on to thank the organisers, the competitors who hailed from far and wide and all the spectators who came along.
For Discover Cullen chairman David McCubbin, the event was yet another boost for the profile of Cullen as a whole as well as that of the iconic soup.
He continued: “It just feels that it grows bigger and bigger every year.
“We had more people, in terms of spectators, in the morning for the traditional competition, which we don't normally have, it's normally quieter, so that was really encouraging. We’re not just celebrating Cullen skink here, we’re celebrating Cullen as a whole and all it has to offer.
“It was great to hear that other businesses in town were doing a roaring trade while the championships were on. It's not just the event itself, it feels like it's becoming a must-go-to event on the calendar; the good weather today also really helped.
“The People’s Choice awards have worked really well. We initially decided to introduce it as we had a lot of visitors saying to us that they enjoyed getting the opportunity to taste the skink but weren’t getting a say in the outcome. We didn’t want to dilute the judges’ decision so the People’s Choice awards were born.
“It’s proved a popular award with the competitors as well because if the public are saying yours is the best it’s the sort of thing that can encourage customers into your business.
“One thing we’ll have a look at for next year is how we can maybe get people round the competitors quicker to taste their skink, but overall we’re just delighted with how the day went, everyone’s buzzing.”
Handed the difficult task of judging the event were Louie Paterson (Cluny Fish), Craig Wilson (UHI Moray), Amy Johnston (The Hungry Lassie Food Blogger) and former Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid.
