A newly-launched Welsh cheese has been given a ringing endorsement by superstar cook Nigella Lawson.
Abergoch, a tasty red cheese developed at Bodnant Welsh Food, in the Conwy Valley, has had the thumbs up from the domestic goddess herself and she has even tweeted a serving suggestion.
Nigella, currently wowing TV audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in The Taste, tweeted about the new cheese: “Just discovered Bodnant Abergoch cheese @FoodCymru . Here on old fave, Dr Karg’s spelt crispbread. Heaven.”
Bodnant’s enterprising Dairy Sales and Marketing Manager Debbie Leviseur, sent a sample of the newly-developed cheese to the cook and television personality and was delighted with her response.
Debbie said: “I decided to send it to Nigella because she is currently on our screens in The Taste and because we’re proud of the new cheese and its flavour and we’ve been delighted with her feedback.
“It really gives you confidence in what you’re doing when someone like Nigella is so positive about your product.”
Abergoch is the new kid on the block for Bodnant Welsh Food’s dairy and has been developed by Dairy Manager Aled Rowlands as an artisan cheese and a variant on the Centre’s successful Aberwen cheese.
It is a revived version of an 18th century hand-made cheese that was popular in the counties of Denbighshire and Flintshire in North Wales and in the English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.
Aled, who learned his trade with South Caernarfon Creameries, said: “We originally developed Aberwen from an old North Wales recipe which was used in farms along the coast road.
“It was a crumbly, white cheese, not unlike Cheshire but with a distinctive taste and we have developed that, particularly over the last 12 months, to put our own twist on the basic recipe.
“Aberwen has been very successful but I had always wanted to make a coloured cheese, using red annatto vegetable dye, because I wanted to create a range of our own artisan cheeses.
“We now also produce an extra mature Aberwen and now the mllder, creamier, more buttery Abergoch.
“They’re all matured for different periods of time, from three months to up to seven months for the mature cheese.
“These are all proper hand-made, artisan cheeses, individually wrapped in muslin and turned regularly by hand.
“We have top quality milk here and it makes top quality cheese.”
Debbie added: “All three cheeses, the Aberwen, Aberwen extra mature and the Abergoch are also very good cooking cheeses and they make a sensational Welsh rarebit.
“Our cookery school manager, Eira Roche, even uses them to make a gorgeous ravioli which she teaches at her pasta classes and Dai Chef also makes good use of them in the Hayloft Restaurant.”
Aberwen has picked up two recent awards, gaining bronzes in the new cheese category at both the World and British Cheese Championships and staff at the Bodnant Dairy are hopeful that Abergoch will prove just as successful.
Gwyndaf Pritchard, General Manager at Bodnant Welsh Food, said: “It’s such an accolade to get Nigella’s seal of approval and it shows we’re on the right track.
“We’re very proud of our dairy and of our cheese selection – we stock about 50 artisan cheeses and most of them are from Wales.
“We want to showcase Welsh food here and our ethos is that when it comes to what we stock we try to source it here on the Bodnant Estate, then we look to the Conwy Valley, then to Wales and then elsewhere if our customers request it.
“As a result 45 per cent of what we sell comes from here on the estate and three-quarters of our stock is from Wales.”
For more information about Bodnant Welsh Food visit www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk
