Nick Nairn and Sam Yorke plan firepit face-off at ‘extraordinary’ food festival

Celebrity chef Nick Nairn will face off against one of Scottish cooking’s newest stars in June when the pair compete at an “extraordinary” barbecue festival.

Nairn and Leith-based chef-patron Sam Yorke are the latest names confirmed for Glasgow’s Meatopia On-Fire festival, billed as “the UK’s favourite live-fire food festival”.

Despite coming from different generations, Nairn and Yorke share the rare distinction of having been Scotland’s youngest Michelin-starred chef at the time of their awards.

Nairn became the youngest Scottish chef to earn a coveted star in the early 1990s, while Yorke made history in 2023 at the age of 25 with his Michelin-starred restaurant Heron in Leith, Edinburgh, which he founded and now leads as chef-patron.

Nairn is one of Scotland’s most recognisable chefs, known for his work as a restaurateur, cookery school founder and television presenter.

He has appeared on cookery shows including Ready Steady Cook, The Great British Menu and The Great Food Guys, and he cooked a roe venison for 250 guests at the late Queen’s 80th birthday celebration.

The self-taught chef won a Michelin star for his first restaurant, Braeval, and later opened Nairn’s in Glasgow.

The pair will cook “side by side” over a firepit when the three-day Meatopia festival returns to the west end of Glasgow in June, following its sell-out debut in the city last year.

Nairn said: “I’ve been around food and festivals for a long time, and Meatopia really is one of the most extraordinary events I’ve come across.

“We first got into it through Cai ap Bryn at Flames & Game and went along last year as customers, and it felt different straight away.

“Fire sits at the centre of it, the cooking is the focus, and the crowd is there because they care about food. It’s about as groovy as it gets.

“Sam Yorke and I were both among the youngest chefs in Scotland to be awarded Michelin stars, even though we’re from different generations.

“At Meatopia we’ll be standing side by side, cooking over open fire and serving our own dishes, and who knows which one will end up the fan favourite.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Yorke said it will be a “huge honour” to cook alongside Nairn.

“He’s someone I’ve been aware of since I first started cooking, so to be sharing a fire with him feels pretty surreal,” he said.

“We come from very different generations, but we both came through young, and there’s a shared understanding in that.

“I’ve done Meatopia before and was really struck by the scale of it and the atmosphere around the firepits.

“It’s busy and intense, but there’s a real sense of excitement about it.

“Bringing that energy to Glasgow feels like a great fit, especially with the food scene the city already has.”

Meatopia On-Fire Glasgow 2026 will take place at SWG3 from June 12 to 14.