Tanisha Higgins spent six weeks in Scotland last year on a culinary course at Dumfries House run by the King’s Foundation – and now she’s serving up Scottish staples at her cafe in her hometown in Jamaica
A small slice of Scotland is being served up over 4,000 miles away in Jamaica – and it’s all thanks to the King.
Tanisha Higgins spent six week in Ayrshire last year taking part in a culinary course run by the King’s Foundation, where she learned cooking and kitchen skills at Dumfries House. And now she has taken her skills back to the Caribbean and is serving up potato scones and other Scottish staples at her cafe in downtown Kingston.
As a regular cook for The Rose Town Foundation – a charity in her hometown of Kingston, which works alongside The King’s Foundation – Tanisha was one of the students to recently graduate from the programme. She was sponsored by the organisation to benefit from the course in Scotland, where she soaked up new knowledge and skills.
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The 43-year-old was introduced to new foods in a different climate, learned where certain food comes from and was taught cutting and chopping techniques.
After returning home, mum-of-four Tanisha opened her own restaurant to showcase her new skills – and some Scottish cuisine. From a plate loaded with potato scones, tomato, bacon, egg, sausage and beans, locals can sample something a little different. Tanisha said: “I practised the potato scones at home a lot, and my daughter loves those!”
She added: “I had so much fun learning at Dumfries House. We gardened and learned about different types of soil for growing food. I was fascinated with purple broccoli, which I’d never seen before, yellow raspberries and different types of apples. The whole experience was amazing. “I came back to Jamaica with lots of information to teach others here, including knife and barista skills.”
Since introducing her new dishes, Tanisha has returned to Scotland to officially graduate from the culinary course at Dumfries House. During the recent visit, a highlight for her was meeting the King, who has long championed the UK’s hospitality industry.
The Introduction To Hospitality course at Dumfries House was said to have been inspired by his vision and trains students in back-of-house skills and front-of-house service. Tanisha said: “It was a delightful feeling to meet the King. I feel privileged to have been in the same space as him and to greet him. We had some small talk, it was fantastic.”
Earlier this year, the foundation revealed it has to date trained more than 115,000 students in traditional crafts and environmental education over its 35 years.
The charity offers education courses for almost 15,000 students annually, health and wellbeing programmes for nearly 2,000 people every year, and spearheads placemaking and regeneration projects in the UK and overseas to revitalise communities and historic buildings.
The King’s Foundation is headquartered at its flagship regeneration project, Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Scotland, and acts as custodian of other historic royal sites including the Castle of Mey in Caithness, Scotland, and Highgrove Gardens in Gloucestershire.
The Foundation also carries out its work at educational and cultural hubs in London, based at The King’s Foundation School for Traditional Arts in Shoreditch, Trinity Buoy Wharf on the River Thames and the Garrison Chapel in Chelsea.
