Bryn Williams: 'We need to look to the past to preserve our future'

How have you learned about seasonal produce?

I'm not a farmer but both sides of my family were farmers. I have a house in North Wales with 25 acres of land, which my brother runs and when we bought it, I wanted to think about how we were going to use the land to supply my two restaurants in North Wales and London.

As a chef, it's about having the best ingredients on the table, so that means it's always about seasonality and it's always about flavour. We started growing fruit and veg from seed, using polytunnels and a no-dig process to contain as much carbon as possible. We feed our Welsh Black cattle a varied diet of grass, left-over fruit and veg as well as pasture with herbs and chicory, which are mineral rich and capable of penetrating the soil to great depth. We also decided to lay the hedges in the winter, which is a centuries-old craft where instead of cutting hedges with a chainsaw you cut the stems sufficiently to bend them down and then bind them with stakes and flexible wood.

Why did you do this?

Because of a feeling of what we should do as farmers. We were going back to old skills and methods to get the best ingredients and flavours from the land and nurturing the soil. But it turns out these methods are sustainable – for instance, laying a hedge absorbs three times as much carbon, which I didn't realise at the time, I just thought it looked beautiful.

For six months of the year, 80% of the fruit and veg used in the restaurants now comes from the farm in North Wales. We also have bees on the land and we've just planted an orchard. Not one person will be able to do enough to tackle the climate crisis issue – it's got to be a collective of a lot of little things.

So farmers are part of the climate change solution?

They're definitely part of the solution, not the problem. There's a lot of talk to ‘blame the cows', but let's blame the companies using planes to fly in avocados. Without farmers, whether your vegetarian, vegan or not, we wouldn't eat. Good quality land makes good quality food and farmers need to be praised. How do you encourage others to join the cause?

I take our chefs to the farm twice a year. If I take a born-and-bred Londoner it helps their mindset and changes their attitude towards the ingredients. They see the importance of how much work goes into farming and how it's a real back-breaking process.

I think we need to change loads of mindsets across the board. We've all worked in kitchens where, when you move on, you follow what you've done previously, and we need to change that. We need to break the mould of the old way of doing things and do something different.

What else are you doing that's a bit different?

We're adding coffee waste to our compost because 50% of the nutrients are left in the bean when it's ground, so it makes great compost. My dad, as a farmer, would have told me where to go if I'd suggested that, but then you need to break the mould!

We've also been pickling for a long time, both for the flavour element, but also to use up whole ingredients that are in season to preserve them for the future. This is quite common in Nordic countries because their growing season is so short, so we've tried to copy that but using British and Welsh methods. I have walnut trees – and walnuts take months to pickle – but now throughout the winter we have pickled walnuts to add to meat dishes or Welsh rarebit. This gives chefs the tools to help the planet, because the responsibility is on us to do our bit.

If we get ingredients in we want to use them up. For example, it's wild garlic season, and for some reason we'd stopped using the stalks, but I realised that if we fermented the stalks, diced them and put them through a cheese sauce they cut through the dish – they make it taste a bit like a sour cream and onion Pringle!

And this harps back to old ways of doing things again?

Yes. We look at fermenting, pickling and preserving like my Nain and Taid [Welsh for grandmother and grandfather] used to. They did it because they had to, to preserve food, but now the planet is screaming at us and saying we can't do this anymore and we have to look back at how we used to do things.

It's the same with brawn or the feet of pigs. There's all that meat and jelly, but these days we choose not to eat it, instead we choose fillet steak or chicken breast. We need to change that thinking. We need to be less picky and use the whole animal. You can braise a cheaper cut, such as a bit of oxtail, and turn it into a delicious dish. When I sent my cows to slaughter once, the feet, cheeks and tail didn't come back and I was straight on the phone!

Compass Cymru Culinary Ambassador

Williams has been Compass Cymru's culinary ambassador since its launch in 2021, closely contributing to its apprenticeship and training programme, and working with the business to ensure the spirit of Welsh food and drink remains at the front and centre of its offering.

He has hosted multiple apprentice workshops covering preparation skills and techniques for dishes including saddle of lamb, scallop ceviche, lemon sole on the bone and apple tarte tatin, as well as speaking at an event hosted by Compass Cymru and UKHospitality – Cymru that focused on the future of sustainability in the hospitality industry.

"I'm passionate about developing the chefs of the future and I truly believe working alongside other people is really the best way to learn," he says. "Having a mentor when I was a young chef has benefitted my career, so it's important to me to continue supporting the next generation of culinary talent."

From the menu at Odette's

Starters

• Cured Chalk Stream trout, horseradish, cucumber and dill sauce £16
• Heritage beetroots, goats' cheese royale, linseed cracker, truffle honey £14
• Chicken and ham hock terrine, carrot rémoulade, pickled walnut ketchup £15
• Cornish crab, Granny Smith apple, smoked roe, seaweed cracker £18

Mains

• Sage gnocchi, winter squash, dukkah spice granola, garden kale £26
• Pork fillet, white asparagus, wild garlic, mustard seed £29
• Market fish, endive, baked celeriac, bouillabaisse sauce £31
• Treacle cured beef, hispi cabbage, hash brown, black garlic ketchup £33

Desserts

• Odette's Jaffa cake £14
• Yorkshire rhubarb, savarin, buttermilk mousse, pistachio and ginger £12
• Tonka bean crème caramel, brandy-soaked raisins, banana and coffee cake £12

Bryn Williams' sites

• Odette's, London – opened 2008
• Bryn Williams at Porth Erias, North Wales – opened 2016
• Bryn Williams at the Cambrian Switzerland – opened 2020
• Touring Club, Penarth, South Wales – opening spring 2023