What is in your kitchen?

In terms of ingredients - from locally grown salad leaves and herbs to Dove's organic flour, Stockan's oatcakes from Orkney and village eggs - you name it i’ve got it. As long as it's in season. Now it's autumn I’m about to get in conference pears; they never disappoint in flavour or juiciness. I’m doing pickled pears to serve with goat's cheese and parma ham brulee for my demonstration on Saturday. It is easy, convenient and delicious, which is what cooking should be.

We have a wealth of really wonderful suppliers, including Isle of Skye Produce in the north of the island, and foods delivered by a Food Link van, which allows producers to take orders that they would otherwise have been unable to fulfil. Local, to us, can mean a three-hour round trip - the word takes on a whole new meaning when you’re in the Highlands.

Our wonderful meats are delivered from Buccleuch Foods in Castle Douglas, South West Scotland. There is plenty of good food in Scotland, not only in the countryside but in the cities, too. The Saturday farmers' market in Castle Terrace, Edinburgh, sells a range of delicious foods and has recently been voted the 2007 FARMA certified farmers' market of the year.

How would you sum up your food philosophy?

My first book Seasonal Cooking was published in 1983 and I’ve never really changed from seasonal cooking as a philosophy. Though, the greatest motivation for cooking has got to be greed. You can dress it up and call it a passion for food, which is a more elegant description but, when it all boils down to one word, it is greed.

How has British food and our attitude to it changed in your lifetime?

Vastly, I remember when the local Co-op didn’t even sell fresh tomatoes or tomatoes in tins. It was abysmal, so I can really date the change. Now it buys from local suppliers in season and it sells fish from the local fish merchant from our tiny town of Broadford. It has a good organic dairy section, and I can buy limes as well as lemons and fresh root ginger. This wider variety has made cooking so much more interesting and allowed people more choice in rural areas.

Still, I always remember, when I’m writing a recipe, that I’m writing for people who may not be able to get ingredients. Some food writers have no idea about the availability of ingredients and write high-handed recipes containing ingredients that you could only buy if you lived within a stone’s throw of Soho.

What annoys you about food culture in Britain?

At this time of year you may find me in the supermarkets doing a spot check with a steam of rage coming out of every orifice, because I’m finding apples and pears that are imported, not only from mainland Europe but from other continents. These god-awful supermarkets are doing our fruit farmers down. I really do loathe supermarkets, apart from Waitrose and the Co-op. The Co-op is the biggest employer of tenant farmers in Britain and it makes absolutely sure that every tenant farmer has at least one day off a week.

What is Britain's best-kept food secret?

Overall I would say the quality of the food produced here is a well-kept secret. You can find fantastic food at farmers' markets and farm shops up and down the UK. We must try to avoid supermarkets, in order to keep individual shops such as butchers and greengrocers while we have still got them - I believe that we are losing them at an extraordinary rate.

Another well-kept food secret of a more unfortunate nature is that the Scottish fishing fleets have been harder hit than the English or Welsh by far and politicians have been downright dastardly in their treatment of the fishery rights around Scotland.

Also, with the ban on meat exports as a result of recent outbreaks of foot and mouth, Scottish lambs are being slaughtered with very pathetic compensation being given to farmers. These things should be on the national, not just the Scottish news. It could be the end of Scottish sheep farmers, which is a tragedy.

Do you prefer eating in or eating out?

That’s a funny question because tonight I’m eating out… at home, in the dining room with our lawyer friend. I am so lucky, I’m already salivating at the thought of what I’m going to have off the menu. Our head chef Marcello Tully is one of the nicest men and one of the best chefs. He spent six years at Le Gavroche with the Roux brothers. So I’m eating our but I’m still in.

Apart from Marcello, Michelin-star chef, Tom Kitchin is one of the most exciting chefs in Scotland. He runs The Kitchin restaurant in Edinburgh - it is both divine and sublime. I like to eat in The Three Chimneys here on the Isle of Skye, too. Malmaison, in Edinburgh has a wonderful local menu on weekdays which lists stockists on the menu - a wonderful idea.

What is the next big (real) food trend?

Ever increasing seasonal awareness. When you eat seasonally you realise how food should taste - eat out of season and food becomes boring and loses its huge impact. Eating with the seasons is better for us and cheaper.

More education about cooking is widely needed, too; I try to teach people the worth of the whole animal when giving demos as I find they often don’t know which cut of meat to use for a certain dish and can be afraid to ask their butcher. I’ve never met a butcher who didn’t want to help, they’re proud of their produce and want to share their knowledge with you. The importance is to give pride of place to cooking - it's the pleasure and the worth of cooking that matters.

People need to learn practical tips, too, such as: buy a good potato peeler. You will use it on all your fruit and veg and even on celery to get rid of the stringy bits that people hate.

Click here for more information on Lady Claire, to enrol in one of her cookery courses or to purchase one of her luxury gift baskets.

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