Sue Lawrence found Machu peachy!
Former MasterChef winner Sue Lawrence is one of Scotland’s top cookery writers and food journalists.
Dundee-born Sue, who won the BBC show in 1991, is also a big fan of the Great British Bake Off, making a number of appearances to demonstrate Scots dishes.
The BBC series has led to a boom in home baking and Sue’s new book Scottish Baking is just out.
Sue, 58, lives in Edinburgh and has three grown-up children Euan, Faith and Jessica with husband Pat.
She told The Sunday Post: “My childhood holidays were usually across on the west coast at Loch Feochan, near Oban.
“My dad knew someone who had a house there and we had some lovely family holidays. We’d walk down to the loch for a paddle and I remember picking wild mussels and getting pearls from them.
“It was probably wet with lots of midges but as a kid you don’t remember that. Holidays with my kids were in Scotland too, until we were lucky enough to go and live in Australia for four months.
“It was just about the time I did MasterChef as I remember we had to rush back to see it on telly. We were based in Sydney but we holidayed in Cairns.
“It was warm and sunny, of course, and I remember these enormous coconuts on the trees. It was our first taste of being somewhere completely tropical and we’d go out to the Great Barrier Reef.
“Pat and Euan went diving and the girls and I saw it from glass-bottomed boats. In the past five years or so we’ve had a lot of family holidays in the Dordogne in France.
“Friends have a house between Riberac and Bergerac which we rent. It’s very typically French with lovely blue shutters and a boules court.
“We take bikes and cycle off to the boulangerie in the mornings for our baguettes and croissants. It’s in the middle of nowhere and it’s just lazy days with long lunches, very peaceful and a great place to read and relax.
“Food is always important to me on holiday but we’d just sling a chicken in the oven to roast for dinner and have it with potatoes and rosemary from the garden.
“I’ve been to Mauritius twice and it has beaches to die for. There’s amazing seafood and, although it’s 12 hours away, because it’s south, not east or west, there’s no jet lag and you feel normal off the plane.
“Machu Picchu in Peru was on my bucket list and I was really lucky to go there last November. We flew into Lima and then up to Cusco where you caught the train.
“It was one of those places that definitely didn’t disappoint. You have to go quite early in the day or otherwise there are far too many tourists but it was absolutely awesome.
“It is quite amazing and I did reckon that it’d be hard to top that. But you think that if you go to Skara Brae in Orkney it’s Neolithic and even older.
“So, we do have some absolutely fabulous historic wonders right here in Scotland.”
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