TV presenter Hardeep Singh Kohli visited the home of the World’s Best Bacon Roll in a bid to find what makes the perfect buttie.
The Glaswegian was recording an edition of the Food Programme for BBC Radio 4 and stopped off at The Horn, on the A90 between Dundee and Perth, which last year scooped the accolade in an online poll.
The programme, which is set to air at the end of August, aims to put the bacon buttie on a pedestal and persuade listeners not to accept poorly-made snacks.
Before coming to Perthshire, Hardeep stopped off in Carluke to learn how the meat is processed and also visited a farm near Montrose to see how the pigs are reared.
Hardeep said the programme had changed his outlook on what made the perfect bacon roll.
He said: “I love bacon rolls and thought it would be interesting to have a look around Scotland.
“It’s been really interesting and has changed my life. I don’t think I’ll be having ketchup with my bacon rolls again.
“I’ve spent the last two days following it from the farm to the plate, so here I am eating what’s been voted the best bacon roll in the world.
“A bacon roll is not perceived as a full meal in itself, it’s a wee snack to keep you going until later in the day.
“Places like The Horn are classic stopping points for a bacon roll and a cup of coffee to keep you going until you get to Edinburgh or Aberdeen, so this is the kind of place that’s going to take more pride in its bacon roll than most others.
“It’s been voted the world’s best bacon roll and since we were making this programme in Scotland, it seemed daft not to come here.”
Hardeep, who reached the final of Celebrity Masterchef in 2006, challenged The Horn’s owner Kenny Farquharson to a cook-off.
While the presenter neatly turned four slices of bacon in a frying pan, Kenny loaded the 10 to 15 rashers the caf is famous for putting in each roll into a deep fat fryer.
At the end each tried the other’s fare, with Hardeep giving a resounding thumbs-up to the famous offering. Kenny, however, felt his rival’s was lacking in substance.
He said: “Hardeep’s was good, don’t get me wrong but for the amount of volume it was half a bacon roll compared to ours.
“It was a good taste, though. I thought he might have done something more adventurous.
“Perhaps I expected a little bit more spice but I’m not disappointed. I think he wanted to compare the methods of cooking the bacon rather than the recipe itself.”
Kenny is now considering adding a new dish to the menu to honour the first celebrity to cook in his kitchen.
He said: “If we were to create something in Hardeep’s honour we’d look for his input. It would need to be something along the bacon line. Perhaps we could do a Kohli curried bacon.”