Great British Menu Wales: It’s time for the Welsh cooks to show off their culinary prowess on the Great British Menu 2022! At a luncheon honoring a century of British broadcasting, four Welsh chefs will compete to prepare the best dish. BBC’s Great British Menu has Announced the four Welsh chefs that will compete this year. Four Welsh chefs are competing to prepare a course for a banquet celebrating a century of British broadcasting:
Larkin Cen, chef patron at Bristol’s Woky Ko; Nathan Davies, chef patron at Aberystwyth’s SY23; Mark Threadgill, chef de cuisine at the Portmeirion Hotel; and Tom Phillips, chef de cuisine at London’s Restaurant Story. This year’s dishes will be inspired by a wide range of television episodes, from Saturday night family favorites to once-in-a-lifetime experiences to children’s classics and comedic legends of the golden age. The Welsh heats begin on February 15 at 8 p.m. on BBC 2, and there will be further shows on February 16 and 17 as well.
The four chefs from Wales who spot in finals week are profiled in the following paragraphs
Chef patron at SY23 in Aberystwyth, Nathan Davies: Nathan Davies, the chef behind SY23 in Aberystwyth, has returned to the Great British Menu kitchen for a second time, bringing his trademark way of cooking locally-sourced vegetables over the fire to the table. Even though he was the second-highest-scoring chef in the competition’s history, Nathan lost out on the banquet last year. He intends to go all out this year. From working at the Globe Theatre in London to being a chef at Gareth Ward’s Ynyshir, Nathan has a wide range of experience. SY23, his own restaurant, was launched in Aberystwyth in 2019. His food will be inspired by the BBC television shows Merlin and Coast, and he will bring his own pine oil to the competition.
Chef patron at Woky Ko in Bristol, Larkin Cen
While growing up in Cardiff, Larkin’s passion for cuisine originated as a result of observing his parents cook in their Chinese takeaway. Then five years ago, he decided to leave his job as a lawyer in favor of working as a chef. As one of the first Welsh MasterChef finalists in 2013, you may recognize Larkin from his past TV appearances. On Crwys Road in Cardiff, he and fellow competitor Dale Williams built Hokkei, a modern Chinese restaurant. However, the company went into administration in 2016.
Before launching his own restaurant, Larkin worked as a chef consultant at Cen at The Celtic Manor for three years. He now has four Woky Ko restaurants in Bristol and a development kitchen in Newport, both of which are owned by him. Larkin’s cooking is influenced by traditional Chinese flavors, and he’d love to prepare classic ramen noodles on the show. Fireman Sam and Doctor Who will be featured on the menu at Larkin’s, a popular children’s television show located in Wales. His cuisine will demonstrate his expertise in Asian cooking techniques.
Head Chef Mark Threadgill of Portmeirion Hotel: Mark Threadgill was up in Gwynedd and dreamed of working at the Portmeirion Hotel as a chef when he was just fourteen years old. Twelve years later, he is now the head chef at the 2 AA rosette hotel in the picturesque Italianate village of Portmeirion, where he first dreamed of working. Aix-en-Restaurant Provence’s Pierre Reboul, Pwllheli’s Plas Bodegroes, and Hibiscus’ Michelin-starred Chef Claude Bosi were among Mark’s previous stops on his culinary journey until he finally landed his dream position. Mark’s meals focus on local Welsh ingredients and sustainability. He’s delighted to be representing Wales in the Great British Menu Kitchen as a Welsh speaker and enthusiastic advocate for Welsh foods. A nod to the popular series Gavin & Stacey is evident in Mark’s food offerings.
Chef Tom Phillips of London’s Restaurant Story
After earning his second Michelin star in 2021 as head chef of London’s famed Restaurant Story, Tom Phillips is returning to the competition for a second time. Before moving on to L’Enclume in the Lake District and the three Michelin-starred Per Se in New York, Tom began his culinary career at London’s Ritz. Tom competed in the Bocuse d’Or in 2019 and was the youngest contestant to represent the United Kingdom.
Cooking style: Tom’s meal will be inspired by Doctor Who and Blackadder. Menu: Tom’s menu will be influenced by Doctor Who and Blackadder. Great British Menu is featuring a Welsh theme this week, and judge Andi Oliver says one of the brilliant entrants put up some “amazing” dishes. When she tasted Hywel Griffiths’s lamb entrée cooked in his own homemade blast furnace, she described it as “amazing”. She remarked: “It was almost a perfect 10. I was taken aback by the beauty of the furnace you made. My heart stopped beating when I saw you.”
Griffith, Nathan Davies, and Ali Borer are the three remaining cooks in the competition who have curated meals inspired by the best of Welsh creativity and innovation. It wasn’t long before Chris Cleghorn was voted out as the fourth chef. Ali, who was born in Anglesey, dropped out of the competition following the main course and dessert rounds on Thursday night.
The three of them came up with some creative recipes to honor two of Wales’ most notable inventors: David Thomas, who introduced South Wales’ steel industry to the hot blast furnace, and entrepreneur Sir Pryce Pryce Jones, who pioneered the mail order catalog business. The first female president of the Cardiff Naturalists Society, Eleanor Vachell, was honored with a dish honoring botany. Chef Tommy Banks and Andi Oliver lauded the trio’s dedication to the themes, and Oliver noted that the dishes were doing Wales well.
Is there anything more I should know?
There is no doubt that Ali Borer is the best. Ali, the head chef at Nutbourne Restaurant in Battersea, London, was inspired by Mair Russell Jones, the Enigma code-cracker, and the first suspension bridge in Anglesey when he created his competition menu.
Cardiff-born Chris Cleghorn is our guest today. Chris, a 36-year-old Bath resident, is a chef at The Olive Tree restaurant in the Queensberry Hotel. IVF pioneer Anne Maclaren and Pembrokeshire-raised mathematician Robert Record were among the Welsh innovators he highlighted in his menu.
The chefs are going all out for their main courses in an attempt to get huge scores. Everything except the Squeal is a pork-based sharing platter, Jason’s For the Rich and the Poor has lamb, and Andrew’s Aneurin Bevan for Better Steak pays homage to the NHS founder Aneurin Bevan. Chefs Andrew Sheridan, a maverick who trained under Michelin-starred Michael Caines and is now executive chef at Sosban in Llanelli, Jason Hughes, a traditionalist who served in the RAF and is now head chef at Anglesey’s Chateau Rhianfa, and Chris Harrod, a foraging expert, and owner of Thyme for Food, are all competing for the first time this week.
A surprise veteran judge joins the three chefs this morning as they cook their festive starters. ‘Mum’s Flu Fighting Chicken Soup’ is an attempt by Andrew to pay tribute to NHS workers by reimagining a traditional healing dish. Taking inspiration from post-World war two remedies, Jason’s A Tea from the Heart is an homage to the NHS’s infancy. In addition, Chris is hoping to wow with a dish based on a therapeutic hospital garden that includes wild chervil, pickled pine buds, and yarrow tips from his Welsh valley.
