Celebrity chef Bryn Williams to cook at the inaugural GWCT Welsh Game Fair

Leading Welsh celebrity chef Bryn Williams says 90 per cent of the quality game he cooks in his London restaurant, Odette’s in Primrose Hill, comes from North Wales and quickly sells out.

Being a passionate advocate for sustainable, field-to-fork fare, he’s the perfect chef partner for the first GWCT Welsh Game Fair to held at Vaynol Estate, near Bangor from September 9-11.

He will be running a VIP Enclosure Restaurant, aptly named The White Park Restaurant after the famous Vaynol Cattle and taking part in live cooking demonstrations over the weekend.

Famous Welsh brand Clogau Gold will sponsor the VIP enclosure and White Park Restaurant, which will see Bryn creating a bespoke breakfast and lunch menu for VIP ticket holders and tranquil areas for people to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of the show.

The GWCT Welsh Game Fair is set to be an exciting celebration of the Welsh countryside, featuring fishing, clay shooting, gundogs, game cookery, falconry, horses and hounds, as well as rural crafts, food and drink.

The three-day event – https://www.welshgamefair.org/ – is being organised by Stable Events Ltd, the company behind The Game Fair in Warwickshire and The GWCT Scottish Game Fair in Perthshire, in partnership with The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

Bryn, who comes from a farming background, believes it’s no coincidence that the quality venison, pheasant, wild duck, woodcock, snipe and partridge he cooks in his restaurant comes from well managed land in North Wales.

“Coming from farming stock, I grew up with shooting and I use a lot of the delicious and sustainable game that my dad and his friends shoot in North Wales,” he said. “It gets shipped to London and I cook it in my restaurant.

“When we have a shipment arriving, we phone a few of our customers and the tables sell out even before I have prepared the game. I am always looking for new suppliers.

“I love cooking the different types of game during the winter; it’s beautiful. In this day and age, when people are talking about carbon footprints, sustainability and land use, I think game ticks every single box.

“It’s a sustainable, local source of food from great land where farmers do an amazing job. What more could you want? Quality game goes hand in hand with great land, hedgerows, woodland and rivers.”

He’s delighted that the first GWCT Welsh Game Fair is coming to North Wales where he also runs Porth Eirias, a beach-front restaurant, café and bar at Colwyn Bay.

The VIP Enclosure is a very popular attraction at every game fair thanks to the on-site restaurant, which is open for breakfast and lunch, accommodating up to 200 diners at one time.

Bryn, who has hosted several successful cooking series with Welsh-language television channel S4C, will be creating bespoke breakfast and two and three-course lunch menus for VIP ticket holders, with a focus on game and sustainable, locally sourced ingredients.

“I am passionate about Welsh food and game, its heritage and, of course, quality,” added Bryn.  “A game fair is a fitting place to express this, promote it and provide the public with an amazing experience, which is why I am delighted to have a restaurant within the GWCT Welsh Game Fair this year.”

James Gower, The Game Fair Ltd managing director, added: “We’re pulling out all the stops to make the GWCT Welsh Game Fair the event of the year for Wales and I’m over the moon to share the news that Bryn is joining us!

“His food is sublime, and his outgoing, approachable personality is the ideal fit for our VIP Restaurant and our live cooking demonstrations! I’m excited to see what Bryn creates for the menu and sampling some of it myself.”