TV chef Nairn to open cook school

Mr Nairn already runs a cookery school in the Trossachs

The celebrity chef Nick Nairn is to open a new cookery school in Aberdeenshire.

A site at Inchmarlo near Banchory has been selected ahead of locations in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Mr Nairn, who is a regular on the BBC's Ready Steady Cook programme, already runs a cookery school in the Trossachs, near Stirling.

The chef said the north east is the ideal place for his new venture which is expected to open in 2009.

Mr Nairn, who is also a presenter on the BBC Scotland's Landward programme, said: "We discovered about four or five years ago that we had a disproportionate number of people coming to the cookery school from the north east.

"I think there seems to be a heightened interest in the north and east in cooking.

"People are more likely to buy raw ingredients and put them together."