Earlier in the month River Cottage writer and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall came to our Saltcote to open our new outdoor café, Tide/ LLanw.
Tide/ Llanw’s head chef, Sam Lomas, worked at the world-famous River Cottage teaching cookery classes before joining the Halen Môn team earlier this year to create the new café.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall signed copies of his book and gave a speech about celebrating good ingredients and the talent of our new chef Sam Lomas.
He said:
‘I have been sprinkling Anglesey Sea Salt on my food fairly regularly so I always wanted to come up here and see how it was done. I had no idea though, that I would be standing in quite such a stunning spot and find quite such a brilliant and inspiring operation.
‘It’s fantastic for me to be here to support Sam, who is an extremely talented and very enterprising young cook. He was in the final of our River Cottage apprentice stars when he was 17, battling it out for a year apprenticeship at River Cottage. I was so impressed – he was the hands down winner of that cook-off.
‘Sam was confident enough and excited enough about the produce to let it do the talking, which I know he will do here too.
‘Like every truly inspiring chef, he is always looking for the best ingredients. He knows that the heart of great cooking lies in respecting produce.
‘And what better place could you want to sit and enjoy a taste of this brilliant island?’
After speaking, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall cut a seaweed ribbon alongside Halen Môn’s David Lea-Wilson and Chef Sam Lomas, and declared the café officially open.
Tide/ Llanw is open seven days a week from 10am – 4.30pm and is also open for regular supper clubs in the evenings.
The next supper club will be held on the evening of Thursday June 13th and is priced at £60 a head for four courses plus snacks. Please phone 01248 430871 to book.
IMAGES: Jake Lea-Wilson
