Nick Brodie is a very busy man.

Between heading up the kitchen at Llangoed Hall in Wales, picking up two recent awards including Condé Nast’s ‘Best Green Practices’ for 2016 and claiming the number 29 spot in The Sunday Times’ top 100 UK restaurants, to picking up his kids from school and foraging for the best seasonal produce from Llangoed Hall’s  kitchen garden, Chef Brodie’s day is chock a block. Nick has built his name on a cooking career that has taken him from Hong Kong to London to Bath, ensuring that many of the ingredients in his imaginative yet sensible food come from his burgeoning kitchen garden, harvesting his foraged ingredients when they bloom and adapting his beautifully presented seasonal dishes accordingly. His pre-dinner canapés with a cocktail are amongst the most unusual and delicious followsummer has eaten.

Chef humbly boasts and flashes a smile: “The Hotel sits on 17 acres of land so sustaining our daily output is certainly achievable. I love going into the greenhouses or foraging the vegetable beds for daily inspiration. It makes menu planning easy and keeps you bang on season with our dishes. Our smokehouse adds an extra dimension to what we do. We even use our chickens, ducks, and quails for the eggs we serve.” Followsummer recently sat down with Chef Brodie to chat about where in the Welsh countryside Chef finds his food inspiration.

 What’s one of your earliest food-related memories?

“Mackerel fishing with my family as a child, the preparation and cooking felt so natural to me, something that I have always felt and understood in the production of menus and food.”

How would you describe your style of cooking? What is a typical Nick Brodie dish?

“Creative, natural and tasty, a typical dish that could be a little more difficult as I’m always developing dishes or elements we use, but we have a Welsh Beef tartare on at the moment, it’s been on the menu a while in various guises, but it’s a great dish.”

What does food mean to you?

“Everything, from the moment I wake up to the time I go to bed I’m either cooking, thinking of food or drawing new dishes up, and it pays the bill’s!!!”

Do you consider yourself a ‘Wild Food’ expert?

“No, not at all, but I have a real passion for the outdoors and what it offers, whether it be hunting or foraging.”

Who came up with the concept of ‘From the garden to the plate in 2 minutes’?

“It was never really a game plan it’s just what we do. Just before service, we pick what we need by our bookings; some dishes and menus such as the Vegetarian Degustation menu are pulled or cut to order because the quality and freshness are remarkable. But this also leads to a lot of out of breath chefs, running in the garden with a flashlight for that extra table pick up, or cutting an additional element needed to complete a dish.”

What do you do when you’re not in the kitchen cooking?

“The Gardening, peace and quiet, it’s a place I don’t hear CHEF, CHEF, CHEF all day, bliss!!!!”

What’s the one food you absolutely cannot stand?

“I can’t think of anything I cannot stand, I have a dislike for some cooking methods on some ingredients like water bathed snails that popped in my mouth, something I probably wouldn’t have again, or very fatty foods I can do without.”

You’ve eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world. Where has been your most memorable meal?

“A few years ago with my wife at the Dylan Hotel Amsterdam, the ambience, food and service, very memorable.”

Some sage chef advice for those who want to make cooking a profession?

“Just stick with it. EVERYONE has had peaks and troughs of working in kitchens, the good times far outweigh the bad, and choose the right kitchens to work in. Make sure you feel comfortable with the people you work with as you will learn a lot quicker and have a better life having the team with you.”

Finally, what does the future hold, food-wise for Llangoed Hall? I understand that there is a ‘new’ five-year plan? Tell me about that:

“My goal is to gain a Michelin star and the 4^th AA Rosette for Llangoed Hall; it’s something that excites me to make every dish the best it can be and spurs the team and me on to achieve these goals. As for Llangoed Hall itself, we are always improving and striving to gain the 5 AA Red Star status, the house is quite remarkable and frankly, it comes down to the commitment of the great staff we have here to make it shine and stand out, making every guest’s experience a memorable one. We have always had a focus on energy use and the sustainability of the products we use, whether that be simply turning lights off to sustaining the kitchen’s use of food by the gardening team, whether that be honey, eggs, fruit, nuts, vegetables or potatoes.”

Certain meals and accommodation were sponsored by Llangoed Hall. Many thanks to Calum Milne and staff at Llangoed Hall for giving followsummer such a warm, Welsh welcome.