ANEW food tourism tsar has blasted Scottish chefs for serving badly cooked dishes to visitors and is calling for more simple styles of cuisine, based on local produce, to be brought into restaurants.

Sheena Kitchin will head a consortium of food experts whose aim will be to boost Scotland's global image as a gourmet destination.

Kitchin, who is currently director of Scotland by Design, which specialises in producing itineraries for tourists, said: "There's an expectation that food will taste fabulous whether it's Angus beef or salmon, but you find these things aren't on the menu or they're slobbered with sauces, or badly cooked.

"People look forward to trying out new things, but I hear clients saying they love everything about Scotland but not the food. We need to go some way to getting rid of the negative experiences people have here."

Kitchin, along with other food experts such as Alison Carmichael, editor of the Food Monitor magazine, chef Tom Kitchin and Iain McGregor, who designs food packaging, will begin six months of fact-finding. The consortium aims to find out what tourists in Scotland expect of the food they eat here and what producers, restaurants and hotels can deliver. Scottish Enterprise and the Tourism Innovation Group are behind the project.

In 2005, visitors spent £600 million on food alone, making it an important asset to the tourist industry.

Kitchin said: "We need to understand what visitors want, and that seems to be the sort of food which is simply cooked and to experience regional cuisine with a strong attachment to it.

"The number of clients I've had who will say If I go to this region what should I be eating?' It can be difficult to know what to suggest - if they were in Arbroath it would be a smokie."

Kitchin said Scotland's image of deep-fried Mars bars, chips and Irn-Bru is shared by the rest of the UK rather than overseas visitors, who expect to find the best salmon, shellfish and Angus beef. However, 80% of Scotland's tourists are from other parts of the UK.

Edinburgh-born food critic AA Gill recently described Scotland as "unquestionably the worst country in Europe to eat out in - or the worst country that didn't once have a communist dictator".

For Kitchin, the way to create more positive images around Scottish food is through better education.

"We need to teach staff about local cuisine and get them talking to customers about where the food comes from, how it's cooked, the story behind it, which is what visitors want to know.

"There could be education projects to show simple is better, an awareness programme for those at the sharp end of cooking. They need to talk to their visitors about their expectations of food, and to the tourist trade."

Kitchin also wants Scots producers to sell to local restaurants and hotels, a move that would promote sustainability and help local economies.

Joanna Blythman, Sunday Herald food critic and author of Bad Food Britain, agreed that Scotland has a problem: "We have too many chefs with big heads who aren't turning out good local, regional cooking. We need to learn how to cook instead of restaurants relying on ready-made meals.

"We have some fantastic chefs at the top end like Andrew Fairlie head chef at Gleneagles and Tom Kitchin The Kitchin in Edinburgh but there are a lot who are lazy and too used to their comfort zone. They don't get out of Scotland enough. They all copy one another and that's when we have this downward spiral."

Geoffrey Smeddle, chef at The Peat Inn in Fife, said: "I think Sheena Kitchin's intentions are all good, but we should all have a goal of creating better dishes for everyone and not just for tourists."

Sheena Kitchin said farms such as Fencebay in Fairlie, Ayrshire, are a model of what other food businesses should be doing. A trout farm has been running there for 16 years and a shop and restaurant have also been opened on the premises.

Fencebay manager Tom Campbell said: "In our restaurant we sell as much local produce as we can. Our lobsters are caught every night from boats which go out off Largs and they also catch our langoustines, prawns and squat lobsters.

"The only additives we use are smoke and salt, and that's carried through to the plate. Our chefs only dress the fish with very light sauces so the taste of the fish isn't lost or overpowered."

Fencebay also sells produce to local restaurants and delicatessens, as well as running a monthly farmers' market.

Clare Damodaran of VisitScotland said: "The value of tourist spend on food and drink in Scotland is around £895 million, about 20% of the total spend, and it is therefore a hugely significant aspect of the Scottish tourism industry.

"Eating out plays a large part in any visitor's experience, and if we're to achieve our ambition of growing the value of Scottish tourism, the quality of our visitors' eating-out experiences must be paramount, leaving a good impression and a great taste."