Nick Nairn was born in Stirling in 1959. At the age of twenty-five he couldn't even boil an egg, yet at twenty-seven he was running a restaurant near Aberfoyle, and later one in Glasgow. He sold the Glasgow restaurant in 2003 to devote more time to his cookery school and his family. In 1990 he became the youngest Scottish chef to win a Michelin Star. Since then he has appeared regularly on television and radio and written extensively on food. This portrait is larger than life-size and the paint, mixed with sand, has a texture almost like meringue.