Crustastun-Showcase St Davids Day Welsh Seafood lunch

Crustastun Showcased at St David’s Day Welsh Seafood lunch

The Welsh Seafood Cluster celebrated a sensational St David’s Day lunch featuring the best seafood from the Welsh coastline at top London restaurant L’Oscar, with 70 top chefs in attendance.

We were delighted to attend as guests, meet sefood producers from the cluster and showcase Crustastun to top chefs in the kitchen.

Nia Griffith, North Wales Seafood Cluster Manager from the Cywain project’s Welsh Seafood Cluster welcomed the chefs to the lunch and told them all about the project which supports and champions Welsh Seafood.

Nia said

“It’s really important that we showcase our wonderful producers to UK chefs. It was a great opportunity to welcome sector leaders to meet the chefs and students who cooked the lunch and fully appreciate the versatility and quality of Welsh Seafood within the delicious dishes that these top chefs have created with the various species showcased on the day.”

Our Director, Guy Cooper attended the event and really enjoyed being able to promote animal sentience and the need for chefs to think more carefully about humane dispatch of crustaceans in their kitchens and this event was the perfect platform as live crab and lobster were both on the menu.

There is currently a huge marketing campaign being led by the Cluster to promote white claw bands on lobster to show they come from Wales.

Nia continued

“The Lobster Banding and Branding project is now in its second phase following the success of the pilot project during 2020. The branded #WelshSeafood bands are placed on the claws of lobsters caught in Welsh waters by Welsh vessels, destined for the UK Domestic market. By using the #WelshSeafood hashtag, which consumers can follow on social media, they can also share their pictures and recipes and become a part of the story of Welsh Seafood.

By buying a branded Welsh lobster, consumers and chefs can be assured that the fishers who have caught the lobsters have done so sustainably. Each fisher within the project has pledged to re-introduce berried-hens (female lobsters that have eggs) into the sea to reproduce, and also to use escape hatches within their pots which allows any by-catch or lobsters below the legal landing size to be able to exit the pots.”

“The idea was to be able to market Welsh lobster because we have started to sell more in the UK as opposed to the continent. We needed something that would say Welsh on the actual lobster and the claw band was the result.

“A lot goes into the harvesting of lobster along the Welsh coast on top of the generation-to-generation passing down of knowledge. We fish daily on a small scale and are very sustainable. We promote grading of the catch and provide escape gaps to all fishermen so that smaller lobsters can escape. We want to make all lobsters caught under a certain size illegal so that we can actually promote this sustainability.

The guest chefs who joined Allan on in the kitchen on the day were Tom Westerland (Former National Chef of Wales and Head Chef at Crockers Henley, Peter Gorton (International Chef Consultant), Richard Davies (Great British Menu Winner 2013 and Executive Chef at Calcot & Spa) and Jamie Houghton (President of the UK Pastry Team and Pastry Sous Chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons).

Welsh Seafood and drinks producers took to the microphone throughout the lunch to present the produce used in the chef’s recipes to the guests while they were enjoying the dishes and the Welsh drinks paired with them that included Velfrey Quality Sparkling Wine, White Castle Sparkling Wine, Wye Valley Elderflower Mead, Llaethliw white wine and Ancre Hill Rose.