Year: 2025
Director: Faye Maclean
Executive Producer: Dean Palmer
Production Company: Caledonia TV
Main Cast: Coinneach MacLeod
Broadcaster: BBC ALBA, BBC iPlayer
Screen Scotland support: The film accessed £98,000 through Screen Scotland’s Broadcast Content Fund
Synopsis
Coinneach MacLeod, best-selling cookbook author, baker and islander brings his deep love of food, travel, and island life on a journey through the culinary and cultural landscapes of the Nordic region.
In this programme, Coinneach visits the Faroe Islands. Famed for their rugged beauty and extreme weather, the Faroes have developed a cuisine rooted in preservation. Coinneach meets sheep farmers who prepare a traditional meal of fermented sheep’s head, and visits high-end restaurant Ræst in Tórshavn, where a seafood dessert showcases the island’s daring culinary creativity. He learns how to bake drýl, a classic Faroese bread, and helps prepare fish sausage—a popular lunchtime staple.
Produced by Caledonia TV, this is no ordinary food show - it’s a journey into the heart of island life, where food becomes a thread that weaves together culture, identity and survival. A voyage rich with flavour, folklore and unforgettable characters.
From joining the crew on an Arctic fishing boat, to baking cakes fit for a princess in the Baltic, Hebridean Baker: Nordic Islands follows Coinneach’s travels across some of Europe’s most breathtaking islands - diving headfirst into the wild and wonderful flavours of the North. Along the way, he discovers age-old traditions, meets passionate food producers, rolls up his sleeves in home kitchens and humble village bakeries and joins a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
More information
Broadcast: All episodes of the series were released on BBC iPlayer on Thursday 13 November 2025, and are screening weekly on BBC ALBA on Thursdays at 9pm from the same date.
Image credits: Credit Gavin Hopkins and Caledonia TV