A top chef has helped cook up a recipe for economic success in North Wales.
Aled Williams, who trained with Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, assembled a new generation of food heroes at the first ever Food North Wales Forum.
The event was attended by a host of the region’s leading catering bosses who met up with the producers and retailers to champion the use of local produce.
The networking event was organised by Tourism Partnership North Wales as part of their Food North Wales campaign that’s designed to help make the region a top five UK destination for holidaymakers.
Dewi Davies, the Regional Strategy Director of Tourism Partnership North Wales, explained: “We want to raise people’s expectations so that our target audience becomes aware and enthused about our food offer in North Wales.
“Our aim is encourage them to seek an authentic experience with local food producers, retailers so that they a memory home, something they savour and talk about.”
A key part of the campaign is the Food North Wales website www.foodnorthwales.co.uk that’s been hailed as a gateway to gastronomic delight.
The forum was attended by 80 representatives from the food industry and associated organisations from right across North Wales.
It was a rare face to face meeting between those who produce the best food and drink in the region and the people who sell it to the public.
Aled Williams, award-winning head chef Head Chef and Manager of the signature Cennin restaurant and the Moo Baa Oinc café, delicatessen and butchery, in Beaumaris, on Anglesey, is passionate about using the best in locally sourced produce.
He told the event, held at the Bodnant Food Centre, in the Conwy Valley: “I am delighted to welcome such a large gathering of the cream of regional producers, wholesalers and retailers.
“You are my food heroes and the people who are flying the flag for North Wales. This is a marriage made in foodie heaven.
“We have everyone here today from new businesses, such as the Aberffraw Biscuit Company to companies with many years of experience in business like Blas ar Fwyd, the deli and fine wine firm based in Llanwrst.
“James Shepherd is a young entrepreneur who recently started a company to create a taste of Welsh history by reviving the traditional recipe for Aberffraw Biscuits while Deiniol ap Dafydd from Blas ar Fwyd is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his business this year, and you just can’t buy the sort of experience he has.
“To be able to bring together people like this in one place at this forum is just fantastic.”
Amongst the impressive line-up of eight guest speakers was the woman who has become affectionately known as “the Queen of Salt” – Alison Lea-Wilson, founder of Halen Mon salt on Anglesey.
She spoke of the heady early days of the business when a Russian TV company once wanted to film her because they had wrongly been told she produced salt from human tears, to the huge success she has enjoyed in recent years with products such as smokey water flavouring for a major supermarket chain’s ready meals.
Alison also briefly outlined development plans for the business, including a major new visitor centre where people will be able to make their own salt to the world-famous Halen Mon formula.
The diversity of delegates at the forum was demonstrated by Cynan Jones, owner of The Mushroom Garden based in Snowdonia, who is known as one of Wales’s leading experts on edible fungi.
He told delegates: “The French and Italians, who just love cooking with mushrooms, would walk across the Channel if they knew about the enormous range of delicious mushrooms we have here in North Wales.”
And he went on to detail some of his company’s most popular delicacies, including shitake mushrooms grown in blocks of oak chip and sawdust of which he is now selling about 100 kilos a week.
Also in his range are pickled mushrooms – the idea for which he picked up on a holiday to Sicily – mushroom powder used for seasoning dishes such as potatoes and, the most adventurous of all, mushroom flavoured chocolates.
Another speaker was Caroline Dawson, fisheries development manager for regionally-based Menter a Busnes, an independent economic development company which has been running a project to support the growth of the North Wales coastal fishing industry around Conwy and Anglesey.
She told delegates how she recently led a group of fishermen, fishery owners and fish farmers on a mission to persuade buyers at the mecca of British fish retailing, Billingsgate Market in London, to order more North Wales fish.
The same project has also had top chefs producing recipe cards using under-utilised species of fish caught off the North Wales coast.
There was a warm reception for Robin Jones, managing director of The Village Bakery based in Wrexham and the current True Taste Champion of Wales.
He said: “I think Food North Wales is a great initiative. We just need to roll it out across all aspects of the trade which will provide great impetus in harnessing the collective efforts of the food industry for the greater good.”
Other speakers included Rufus Carter, Managing Director of Ruthin-based Patchwork Paté, John Les Tomos, representing the Mold Food Festival and the Flintshire Real Ale Trail along with Rob Price, the agri-food officer of regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd.
Carole Startin, marketing and events executive for Tourism Partnership North Wales, said: “This was our first ever Food North Wales Forum and it has been an enormous success.
“It’s been about bringing together in one place representatives of top hotels and restaurants from across North Wales and giving them the opportunity to meet producers and retailers of the best quality food and drink.
“These are the crème de la crème of North Wales food and drink and to listen to them tell their stories has been truly inspirational.
“The forum has also been about networking and giving people the chance to see and talk with others in the food and drink industry they wouldn’t normally meet on a day to day basis.”
