FRYING HIGH OVER CHEF’S PRAISE
TIM HARRISON couldn’t quite get over it when double Michelin-starred chef Gareth Ward name-checked his chip shop as one of his favourite places to eat.
The Caersws Fish Bar may have been overshadowed by coverage of Ward’s unbridled passion for Welshpool McDonald’s at the time, but on any other day the village fish and chip shop would have doubtless had loads more attention for being the Ynyshir proprietor’s go-to when it comes to eating out.
“I don’t want to overegg the pudding (pun intended) but it was just really affirming for me,” said Tim, who runs the shop with his parents Carole and Phil, and spends any spare time he can experimenting with new dishes and fermenting, well, anything he can really.
“I’ve been doing this for a long, long time now, 27 years. I’ve been in catering since I was in school and I’ve been kind of slogging away.
“Gareth communicated with me quite a lot about the things I do... So to see it in print, unsolicited, it was really affirming and flattering to me. Because that’s really the most genuine and valuable praise, so many of the awards and stuff nowadays are people buying votes from Russian bots, it’s all become very disingenuous. So I don’t want to play that. If people are going to recognise me it has to be on hard work and merit. And that’s exactly what Gareth’s feedback felt like.”
Tim loves to experiment and Ward described him as “super passionate” and the stuff he produces as “really cool”, although his meal of choice from the Caersws shop is a fish and chip supper – with peas and loads of salt and vinegar.
Regulars at the chippy will often get the option of Tim’s sourdough batter, Parsi-style masala battered fish or Koji Fried Chicken.
He said: “Koji is a culture, kinda like the thing that turns milk into yogurt or more accurately it is the thing that turns soy beans into soy sauce.
“When meat is marinated in it, it changes the tissue of the meat at a cellular level, making it more tender, sweeter and adds Umami. I then cook it in a southern-style coating and serve it with some other funky stuff.”
Or there’s also his latest invention, the ultimate fishfinger sandwich with koji again, and seaweed.
“When the inspiration takes me I’ve got all sorts of things, cured egg yolks, mushroom ketchup, homemade vinegar from local beer and lacto-fermented vegetables, I also developed a sourdough tempura batter, but that’s so hilariously temperamental – it’s more temperamental than me, to be honest,” said the chef who was brought up in Towyn.
“I go where the inspiration takes me,” said the 42-year-old dad of two who got into the industry after work experience at Ty’n y Cornel Hotel on Tal-y-llyn in the Snowdonia National Park. After his A-levels, Tim worked his way up through the ranks of Bass Retail, owners of Harvester, starting as chef and moving up to finally work on the developments and photography for the menu and cooking for the TV adverts.
Tim returned home to his parents and at first they had a chip shop in Harlech, called Jackadaw, before buying Caersws Fish Bar 17 years ago. He’s also taught in Newtown college, done demonstration work at local food festivals and appeared on S4C cooking competition, Brwydyr Y Feydlen, which he won.
He currently spends his weekdays working at a special needs school doing therapeutic work, and from Thursday to Saturday he also works at the chip shop.
A self-confessed “itchy-footed fool”, Tim started work in his current school role when running the chip shop and writing for a fitness magazine, as well as experimenting with new dishes at home and posting them to Instagram. When customers started to ask him why he wasn’t selling it at the shop he thought “good point” and started selling his “weird experiments” to customers.
“There’s a really solid crew of loyal customers who get really excited about new things that I do, and again, that’s affirming as well,” said Tim.
However, he admits he does get a bit carried away sometimes with his food experiments.
“I did a wicked bhaji burger, which was a piece of fish with a great big amazing onion bhaji on it, mango chutney and then I did a sieved raita to go on it. It took hours to produce but was ridiculously popular because it was a big monster of a thing.
“I lacto-fermented the cabbage for the bhaji, 50% cabbage and 50% onion and it was the best bhaji I ever tasted if I do say so myself, but my god, making it was not sustainable.”