When Tom Kitchin appeared on MasterChef recently to judge the contestants' skill with Scottish produce, he struck fear into the hearts of several of the amateur chefs.

"When I heard he was doing the judging, I was absolutely terrified," was a typical comment in interviews prior to the cooking. Such is the high regard in which Scotland's youngest Michelin-starred chef, and arguably the most high-profile champion of Scottish produce, is held both by wannabe chefs and the producers of the hugely popular cooking competition.

But not everybody saw it that way. In what might be described as a Twitter tantrum (it was, after all, one-sided), Shirley Spear – the founder and former head chef of The Three Chimneys restaurant on Skye – tweeted: "Sorry, but so p***** off @BBCMasterchef. 3Cs in Skye was extolling & using the best Scottish produce for 20 years before Tom Kitchin arrived." Then, in a further tweet directed at the CEO of Scotland Food And Drink, she posted: "Time to do some heavy duty PR in England about our magnificent restaurants & chefs! Spread news!"

Spear's outburst was surprising, given the close-knit nature of the foodie community, but also intriguing. When I caught up with her, she explained: "My anger was not directed at Tom [Kitchin] personally. I think he's doing a fantastic job. My gripe is that the BBC uses the same people over and over again. It's as if London just assumes no other chef in Scotland is doing anything worthy of merit. That is not the case. There are stunning things going on with food in Fife, Perthshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire, as well the Highlands and Islands and the Central Belt, and it's better than most of what's being done in England, so I find it frustrating that our other young chefs are not getting the recognition they deserve."

As if to prove her point, two of the three chefs in the Scottish regional heat of the BBC's upcoming Great British Menu 2012 don't work in Scotland. "It just seems so exclusive and metro-centric," says Spear, who retired from cooking in 2005.

One solution she offers is for BBC Scotland to start commissioning its own networked food programmes, as it did with Nick Nairn's Wild Harvest and Island Harvest in the 1990s. "Maybe then we'd see more of a geographical spread of fantastic young Scottish talent being showcased, from The Three Chimneys' own Michael Smith, to Glenapp Castle's Adam Stokes and Isle of Eriska's Simon McKenzie," says Spear. But with drastic budget cuts looming at Pacific Quay, that is not likely to happen.

"Scotland's national food policy and the work being done by Richard Lochhead [Scotland's rural affairs secretary] has had a dramatic energising effect on the food scene here and one result is the number of talented young chefs choosing to stay in Scotland," she adds. "But I think there's still a lot of work to do to promote our talent further afield."

So, if we need more Kitchins to wave the flag for Scotland, how do we get them to come forward? Building profile demands huge commitment in terms of personal time and energy, but it also requires confidence. Earlier this week it was announced that of the 18 young regional finalists for the prestigious Roux Scholarship 2012, none is Scottish. This will be disappointing for the Roux family, which has three restaurants in Scotland – at Gullane, Inverness and Lochinver (and there are rumours of a fourth) – in addition to several Roux-trained head chefs in other Scottish establishments.

Andrew Fairlie is Scotland's only two-Michelin starred chef and in 1984 became the first recipient of a Roux Scholarship. A judge on the competition for eight years, he says: "Of the 69 entrants this year, only three were from Scotland. It's not that the talent isn't there, because judging by the level of cooking we're getting, Scotland has some really talented young chefs. Even with direct invitations to enter, they're still not coming forward. I think they need more encouragement from their head chefs and patrons."

But Kitchin doesn't think we should be over-concerned. "I've never had so many young Scots chefs in my restaurant kitchen, and I'm delighted about that," he tells me. "I mentor them for two years, then we sit down and discuss their future, using my contacts to send them abroad to expand their repertoire.

"You can tell the chefs who have worked away and come back to Scotland, and those who have never left, because it shows in their food. It's tough, and you need fire in your belly. Every young chef should know that nobody's going to hand you success on a plate."