The contestants were each invited to roast a lump of ham. I would then judge their efforts so that the winner would be appointed part-time chef at the Hebridean guest house.

I wondered how they would cope with the recipe that they were required to follow. It was devised by the son of the guest house proprietor and featured in his dreadful self-published cookery book.

Even the format of the book ignored publishing conventions. For example, each chapter was assigned its own series of page numbers. This rendered the index completely useless.