Wrexham Museum and The Shippon win ‘Year of Discovery’ food challenge!

The winners of the ‘Year of Discovery’ food challenge were voted on at a live cook-off this afternoon – with four Wrexham based eateries all making the final and putting on an impressive culinary display.

Both The Shippon – based in the Plassey – and Courtyard Cafe at Wrexham Museum were crowned the winners at the kitchen head to head off at Y Celstryn Restaurant, at the Deeside Coleg Cambria campus this afternoon.

The eateries were amongst four to compete for the accolade of best dessert and ‘small plates’ at today’s event – having scored the highest from a team of mystery shoppers during the past month.

A total of 19 cafes and restaurants from across north east Wales took part in the competition, which aimed to highlight and celebrate the best local produce on offer.

The finalists, which also included Bellis Brothers and last year’s winners Gales of Llangollen, were invited today to face one last challenge and prepare their dishes for a panel of judges representing tourism across north east Wales.

First up was The Shippon, with head chef Dominic Ash explaining that their dish of chickpea and apple fritters, Welsh rarebit and meatballs explaining that the dish had been well received and feedback had been great from customers.

The dish comprised apples grown on site and beer made at The Plassey – along with Pen-y-Lan pork mince for the meatballs.

Also fighting to win the ‘Small Plates’ category, was the winner of 2018’s ‘Year of the Sea’ challenge, Gales of Llangollen.

The wine bar and restaurant, which is the oldest in Wales, was established 40 years ago and has around 500 wines on its books.

The small plates created and for the competition also came with three glasses of wine to complement each component of the dish – something which the judges were told today is something the restaurant is looking to do with more dishes due to public demand.

Branded ‘Gales taste of Wales’, the tapas offering brought together smoked trout and lavabread tortelinni, Dee Valley Welsh lamb cutlet with Homefarm black pudding mash and Maesmor hall pheasant doughnut with wilted spinach wild mushroom and red wine jus.

Deliberation and tasting then moved onto the dessert entries, with Strawberry Fields Cafe at Bellis Brothers serving up four mini desserts using homegrown produce and recipes from the cafe’s own recipe book.

The ‘Plat o bedwar pwdin’ saw judges and visitors sample Welsh border tart, raspberry ripple cheesecake, strawberry pavlova and carrot cake (which we have to say was a personal favourite on our table).

Last but not least was the team at Courtyard Cafe at Wrexham Museum, who served up ‘Heaven on Earth’ in the form of rich chocolate cake, berries and Chilly Cow espresso ice cream.

Karen from the museum said the dish (which Wrexham.com was lucky enough to try during the mystery shop) celebrated the amazing diversity of the food quality in the area.

After deliberation from the judges the winners of the small plates and dessert categories were announced, with The Shippon and Courtyard Cafe taking the top spots.

The winners were presented with their awards by Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM, the deputy minister for culture, sport and tourism.