It's official - Perceptions is now the best cookbook in the world

Last week saw Mark travel to China for a very special awards dinner. The Gourmand Cookbook Awards were hosted in Yantai this year - and Mark made the 20 hour trip to see if his first cookbook 'Perceptions, Recipes from Restaurant Mark Greenaway' had won the top spot.

Being shortlisted alone was a surprise! We are over the moon to announce that Perceptions has won the 'Best in World' title from the Gourmand Awards! To think that someone from Scotland was up against France's La Bonne Etape by Jany Glaize and Singapore's Octophilosophy by Andre' Chang is so surreal. Here at the Restaurant, the whole team couldn't be prouder; what a platform from which to change the perception of Scottish food!

Mark said that 'when writing a cookbook, winning awards is the furthest thing from your mind. I really just wanted to write the best cookbook I knew I could. It was such a long journey to get to where I am, and find myself lucky enough to be in the position to write a special cookbook for Scotland. When you consider the title, I really couldn't have wished for better subject matter, as it has been my feeling for many years now that the perception of Scottish food does need to change. We do such an amazing job of promoting produce all over the world, and I felt it was way overdue that we show the world what we do with it'.

The Gourmand Awards are an incredible organisation. With entries from over 200 countries, we were shocked to even be in the final shortlist of seven books in the Chef category, especially against some truly world class chefs. We are so honoured and proud to have achieved this, and we'd like to thank the Gourmand Awards for this incredible accolade. Most importantly though, we want to thank Relish our publisher - who put up with our nit picking and helped us design this book into what it is today.