Beyond lamb and leeks

CARDIFF, WALES — From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Published on Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010 3:18PM EDT

When London food critic A.A. Gill slagged all of Wales, deeming it a “culinary desert,” he probably didn't get past the currant-studded Welsh cakes and a meaty mutton cawl.

Chef Kurt Fleming's take on the organic, woodland-raised Gloucester Old Spot pork from nearby Red Pig Farm is wickedly addictive – the belly slow-braised and scented with bay and star anise, then seared to crispy perfection and balanced on a cloud of creamy cauliflower purée, with sweetly spiced red cabbage to cut the richness of it all.

“The majority of Welsh families still do survive on basic meat and potatoes, but our goal is to be a unique restaurant, celebrating what's seasonal and local,” sous-chef Dean Way says. “A few years ago, you wouldn't have found Michelin-starred restaurants in Wales. A.A. Gill was right. In part by stirring up that legendary stubborn Welsh pride, Gill – the powerful arbiter of British taste – may well have been the catalyst for the country's current culinary renaissance: Wales now has four Michelin-starred restaurants, three making the grade for the first time in the new 2010 guide.

Wales on a Plate

THE POLITICOS AND THE PLATE

Traditional bounty in Wales is gaining new cachet, whether it's the Welsh Black Beef and famed salt-marsh lamb, laverbread (seaweed purée) smeared on toast for breakfast, plump cockles and mussels, local farmhouse cheeses, heirloom pork, venison, or organic and foraged wild vegetables. Traditional Welsh cider, perry (made with pears) and even fresh white Welsh wines are also finding favour.

And that's thanks, in no small part, to the Welsh Assembly Government's push to make local, sustainable food available to all. From its annual True Taste food and drink awards – the foodie Oscars of Welsh food producers and purveyors – to the Food Tourism Action Plan, Wales's politicos want to see more local products on Welsh plates, and it seems to be working.

“The Welsh Assembly Government's scheme, One Wales: One Planet, sets an enormous challenge, which includes the need to produce more food at prices consumers can afford, and to ensure that Welsh food and drink is widely available.”

It's a lofty ideal for a small region, but there's no doubt the initiative is bolstering Wales's award-winning menus.

COUNTRY STARS

Still, it takes a trip outside the capital of Cardiff to find most of this newly minted, Welsh haute cuisine. All of this year's Michelin stars went to restaurants in the Welsh countryside, and I find two on a day trip to the food-obsessed town of Abergavenny.

Pick up Welsh lamb at the market.Cinda Chavich for The Globe and Mail

This compact corner – roughly triangulated by the towns of Monmouth, Abergavenny and Skenfrith – is rich in top food producers and purveyors.

Set on the edge of Brecon Becons National Park, Abergavenny has become the culinary capital of southeastern Wales, thanks to restaurants such as The Walnut Tree, a long-time locovore haunt that has earned Michelin's favour under the direction of chef Shaun Hill. It's also home to the annual Abergavenny Food Festival, a two-day village party that attracts throngs every September for chef-led master classes, tutored tastings, impromptu food rants, scholarly debates, and the chance to meander the streets and covered Victorian market to visit 200 food stalls offering the best artisan tastes of the nation.

“Forty-thousand people come to town for this festival, but 15 years ago this didn't exist,” says Kim Waters, the new chief executive of what has become one of Britain's most popular gastronomic events. “The food industry has changed massively here.”

It's also here that we encounter another True Taste winner, wild food forager Raoul van den Broucke, a supplier to several notable area restaurants.

“The chefs are most interested in the wild mushrooms and ramsons, wild garlic, and onions,” says van den Broucke, who collects sweet pennywort, feathery wood ear fungi and chanterelles, samphire and sea spinach for chefs as far away as London.

But even rural pubs provide simple but stellar meals. At The Bell, a 17th-century coach house in near Skenfrith, owner William Hutchings augments the menu with vegetables from the kitchen garden and wild game he shoots himself on the nearby Blackwater Estate. The Hardwick, a country pub near Abergavenny, received the Good Food Guide top award for local food, which owner and Michelin-star chef Stephen Terry, a Walnut Tree alumnus, says is easy, working so close to his favourite farms.

And at Nantyderry, just south of Abergavenny, celebrity chef Matt Tebbutt has made The Foxhunter a destination gastro-pub too, augmenting his seasonal menu with wild garlic, rocket and sea spinach. You can order his set wild foods menu, or arrange a walk in the woods with forager van den Broucke, then cook your finds in back at the restaurant kitchen.

CAPITAL FLAVOUR IN CARDIFF

Back in Cardiff, perhaps the best way to taste fresh Welsh food is to hit the markets. At the weekly Riverside Community Market, set up next to the Millennium Stadium every Sunday, small-scale producers sell everything from artisan breads and free-range eggs to preserves, organic vegetables and farmhouse cheese.

Locals also swear by the vegetarian lunches at Crumbs and its Cardiff curries – from the upscale Indian cuisine at Mint and Mustard to the cheap £5 feast of chicken curry on chips (the Welsh answer to poutine) at Dorothy's along Chippy Alley, a late-night nosh after several pints of local Brains beer.

Pick up cheese from Madame Fromage in Cardiff. Cinda Chavich for The Globe and Mail

The classic stalls are jammed with bakers selling fresh baguettes, piles of cabbage and parsnips, and yes, leeks. But the true champion of all things Welsh is butcher Brian Morgan who, for 25 years, has been selling what, for him, will always be Wales's premiere product.

“Welsh lamb – it's a small breed, raised in the mountains and the salt marshes – and it's the best lamb in the world.”

Wales tasting

Ffresh is Cardiff's locovore restaurant, set in the Wales Millennium Centre. www.ffresh.org.uk

Cardiff Market opens at 8 a.m., Monday through Saturday. www.cardiff-market.co.uk

Madame Fromage is Cardiff's premiere cheese monger. www.madamefromage.co.uk

Wally's Delicatessen is a gourmet food store set in the historic Royal Arcade in Cardiff. www.wallysdeli.co.uk

The Riverside Market in Cardiff is open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fizhamon Embankment along the River Taff. www.riversidemarket.org.uk

The Crown at Whitebrook (Monmouth) has had a Michelin star for four years running. www.crownatwhitebrook.co.uk

The Walnut Tree is the Michelin-star restaurant and inn just east of Abergavenn www.thewalnuttreeinn.com

The Bell at Skenfrith is famed for sourcing local produce. www.skenfrith.co.uk

The Foxhunter (Nantyderry) offers a wild food menu. www.thefoxhunter.com

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©Cinda Chavich 2010

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