tHE role of a chef has changed out of all recognition from what it was even five years ago.

No longer are they only required to turn up, chop up and dish up unseen by anyone except the rest of the kitchen staff.

These days a chef is expected to come out front of house to meet and talk with diners and, increasingly, make public appearances. The burgeoning number of food festivals such as the BBC Good Food Show and Taste Edinburgh, plus various events throughout Scotland Food and Drink Fortnight, currently underway, are giving those with outgoing personalities the chance to host demonstrations and deliver talks about their modus operandi; sometimes these lead to radio and television spots.

Just occasionally, putting him or herself out there can lead to a chef being commissioned to present their own television series. Just look at Tony Singh, the Scots chef who closed his Edinburgh restaurant Oloroso last year and now has a networked BBC TV series with a lavish book to match. Singh's is the newest face in a long line of high-profile Scots chefs who include Andrew Fairlie, Nick Nairn, Tom Kitchin and Lady Claire MacDonald.

At the other end of the scale, the urban pop-up restaurant and street food scene is establishing itself as a slow-burn showcase for chefs who prefer to operate under the radar and away from the glare of publicity.

Clearly, the rewards are there for those who want them enough to shake off any shyness or lack of confidence. In the culinary world at least, the Scottish cringe seems to at last be on the wane. This has been encouraged by a new awareness of Scottish produce's international standing, and the public's thirst for knowledge about food provenance.

Suddenly, we see chefs in a powerful new light: as beacons, leaders, educators, entertainers, even enigmas. Which is all very well for those already in the industry but with a report from the Bank of Scotland which states that more than 5600 extra jobs could be created in the food and drink sector by 2018, the focus should be on how to encourage new talent.

Mentoring is one way to do it, and most top chefs I know are pro-active in this. Tom Kitchin, for example, recently went back to Perth College, where he spent formative years, to choose a youngster to work with him for a year at his restaurants (this was chronicled in the BBC Two television series The Protege).

The Federation of Scottish Chefs (FSC), which represents hundreds of those working in the kitchens of hotels, restaurants, schools and sporting venues all over the country and has a Young Chefs Club, also encourages chefs to build strong relationships with their local college to help with training chefs. Work placements for students, and sending chefs as specialist lecturers, are among the initiatives it offers. The FSC also funds a Scottish College team to compete in culinary competitions across the world.

However, in committing to the Scottish Government's initiative to enhance food education in primary and secondary schools by encouraging chefs to teach pupils directly, the FSC is taking a massive leap forward.

It's anticipated that over the next year 1500 young people will benefit from contact with these working chefs - including Scotland's top chef Andrew Fairlie, whose restaurant at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire is the only one in Scotland to have two Michelin stars - to learn not only about healthy eating and quality produce but, more crucially, careers in hospitality and the food and drink industries.

The programme is being promoted on GLOW, the Scottish Education website, and will operate through the National Curriculum For Excellence. This means it's not necessarily contained within the domain of home economics lessons; rather, learning plans will be devised across the disciplines, and school kitchens - so often closed for most of the day - will be opened for cookery demos, displays and other hands-on learning. Smaller schools might opt to have a chef allocated to their group, or invite chefs to visit them individually.

At the moment the project is voluntary and there's no extra money involved for those who participate but it's an ambitious project. Being a year-round programme it goes one step further than France's long-running Semaine du Gout, where chefs are sent into schools every October to teach children about the delights of their national cuisine. The US has the Chefs Move to Schools programme, initiated by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2011, primarily aimed at addressing the obesity epidemic in young people which also encourages kids to think of chefs as leaders with a vital knowledge of food and nutrition.

Flattery is clearly the way to chefs' hearts; if it encourages them to step up to the plate then surely it is job done.