From Garden to Plate

Nestled in spectacular views with the river Usk meandering around, The Newbridge on Usk is a restaurant with a difference.  Owned by the Celtic Manor 5* resort you really are set up to expect quality food and excellent service.

The Celtic Manor run a range of cookery demonstrations and live cooking experiences, but this was the first at the Newbridge.  It was run by the head chef Adam Whittle, a local chap who really has the passion for food you'd hope for in a head chef - he's always looking for ways to reduce food miles and keep food as local as possible.  The Newbridge also have their own kitchen garden run by head gardener Anthony Maw which we were lucky enough to not only walk around, but sample some food from.  Adam's ethos is to keep the food 'from nature to plate' as much as possible, which even includes some foraging. 

The kitchen garden

The day kicked off at 11:30 with coffee and tea in the bar, and an introduction by the general manager Ronan Hunter.  From there we moved onto their new patio, I'm not sure you'll find an outside area in a restaurant with better views here in South Wales - on the tips of our toes was a bend in the river Usk, home to a small family of swans and their babies, and the view in the picture at the top of the page (taken from the patio).

It was here Adam began the demonstration with his soux chef, Rob Maw.  Adam prepared two different types of meringue (Italian and French) to show us their take on the eton mess (which we were lucky enough to have a taste of - delicious!).

Adam making the meringues

While Adam was finishing off creating the meringues, Rob started preparing some scallops.  He showed us how to get them out of the shell without damaging the meat, and then seared them in a hot pan (I didn't have a taste of these as I'm vegetarian, they did smell great though) and served them with a little burnt aubergine purée.  The scallops they use in the restaurant are pretty much the best you can buy, their hand-dived off the coast of Carmarthen, and brought straight down to Cardiff.  That was actually Adam's pro-tip with scallops - to go as expensive as you can, as the quality becomes so much better as you pay more - so if you can afford hand-dived, that's the best (the price averages £2-5 per scallop if you opt for this yourself).

Rob preparing the hand-dived scallops

After all the food was prepared we were invited to come and take a closer look and a taste.  I obviously made a bee line for the eton mess, which was served with a strawberry soup and edible flowers (grown in their kitchen garden), it was so pretty and tasted amazing, so many different but lovely flavours.

The Eton Mess with some rosewater meringues (as well as normal)

When the demonstration was over, we were given a cocktail each - an apple and blackberry mohito made using a local blackberry bramble sirop which was exquisite!

Apple and Blackberry mohito's

After that we moved to the upstairs restaurant.  I was sat on a round table with 4 other couples/pairs. It was lovely to get out of my comfort zone and get talking to other people, all who were passionate about food and cooking (in case you didn't know, I love to cook, especially bake).

I'm afraid, here's where my details get sketchy, by this point the cocktail I'd had was making me feel a little fuzzy (I'm so not used to drinking in the day, or at all now that we have a baby).  They'd created a special vegetarian meal for me which wasn't on the menu card, so I can't quite remember what I'd had... they did serve up a glass of white wine (pinot grigio) to accompany the starter, and a glass of red wine (I think it was cabernet sauvingnon) to go with the main course - I didn't drink either as I was going to be looking after my baby very shortly after that and wanted a clear head, so I stuck to the water.

My starter included a cucumber sorbet (which was amazing!) and I'm not sure what the main feature of the dish was, I know, I should have written it down! It tasted like a goats cheese souffle, or something like that, either way, it was gorgeous.  The presentation was fantastic too.

My starter

After that it was on to my main course which was a (I think...) spinach and ricotta roulade (pasta) - it tasted amazing.  It was served with new potatoes, roasted carrots and some seared asparagus.

My main course

I had to dash off before the dessert of fresh strawberries was brought out as I had a prior commitment, but I must say,  of all the restaurants we've been to, and all the time we've spent in this neck of the woods, I've never dined with such a spectacular view, a view I'd never tire of.  The food was excellent and not your run-of-the-mill cuisine.  The cucumber sorbet was probably my favourite, it was delicately sweet and so refreshing, as cucumber is.  And as you'd expect from any establishment linked to the Celtic Manor, the service was excellent too.

If you'd like to find out more about the different live cooking demonstrations and masterclasses the Celtic Manor run, you can check out the events here (the afternoon tea masterclass sounds fantastic!). This particular live cooking demonstration (with lunch) was £45, which all things considered, I think is a very fair price.

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*Attendance was complimentary, views are my own