An Edinburgh restaurant has scooped a top prize at the Catering in Scotland (CIS) Excellence Awards 2019.
Cannonball Restaurant & Bar on Edinburgh’s Castlehill won the top ‘Food Tourism’ accolade at the awards on Thursday.
The prestigious event, was launched in 2004 to reward and celebrate creativity, innovation and excellence in the Scottish hospitality, catering and tourism sectors.
The CIS awards took place at the Doubletree by Hilton Glasgow Central.
Owned and operated by Edinburgh’s Victor and Carina Contini, Cannonball’s mission continues to be creating a real destination Scottish restaurant that serves the best Scottish food.
The CIS Food Tourism award, which is sponsored by co-sponsored by Seafood Scotland, aims to celebrate the value of the food tourism sector in line with the Food Tourism Scotland action plan.
Carina Contini, owner of Cannonball Restaurant & Bar said: “We’re extremely proud that Cannonball has been recognised as one of Scotland’s top food tourism destinations. This fantastic achievement is owed to the continued efforts of our outstanding team, suppliers and partners.
“As third generation Italian Scots, we strive to champion independent family businesses in Scotland and still buy from some of the producers our grandparents worked with. We also stay true to our Italian Scots roots and maintain tradition and authenticity as part of our food-centric philosophy at Cannonball to attract custom and tourism to the local area.
“At Cannonball and across our three Edinburgh restaurants, we dedicate a huge amount of time to sourcing produce direct from the very best suppliers from across Scotland, with 90 per cent of their ingredients coming from more than 70 trusted Scottish artisan producers.”
The restaurant is part of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) ‘China Ready’ group, which specifically targets and welcomes new Chinese visitors to the Scottish capital.
For the first time in 2018, Cannonball was also an official Edinburgh Fringe venue in partnership with Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Victor and Carina Contini run one of the few remaining independent family businesses that have benefitted from a century of experience running successful food destinations and restaurants in Scotland.
In 2019, the family is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its arrival in Edinburgh from Lazio in Italy.
Earlier this year, Carina was selected to represent Scotland at the Great British Family Business conference in London, where she championed independent, family-run restaurants in front of a UK-wide audience of over 200 industry professionals.
For more information on Cannonball Restaurant & Bar, visit: www.contini.com/cannonball
