Bringing laverbread to
Jonathan Williams is on a mission to get the whole of the UK enjoying seaweed. He told Jenny White how National Laverbread Day this Thursday and a pirates’ haunt in Pembrokeshire will help him achieve his aim...
IN THE wild westerly reaches of Pembrokeshire, against a backdrop of estuary blues, oil refinery towers and Napoleonic forts, there’s a pub unlike any other. The Old Point House sits on the tip of Angle – it’s reached across a causeway that is cut off by any tide more than seven metres high. The silence there is broken only by the sea breeze and occasional booms from the nearby army firing range.
The water laps close to the pub’s front garden and its low profile, hunkered against the wind, speaks of sanctuary and secrecy. It’s here that pirates dealt in stolen goods and lifeboat crews warmed themselves by open fires after tough times at sea.
Whitewashed, weathered and stoical, the pub had fallen into disrepair in recent years but now it’s the focus of industrious renovation work. The new landlord, Jonathan Williams, is famous locally for his iconic Café Mor, which for nine years sold local seafood delights beside the rolling dunes of Freshwater West. The food van, which in its original incarnation was a repurposed fishing boat, has toured festivals across the UK, garnered multiple awards and gone a long way towards putting seaweed back on the British menu.
Now Café Mor is in temporary repose following its relocation to the Old Point House, which is set to gain a distillery where Jonathan’s Barti Ddu seaweed rum will be made. There will be an outside bar and space for Café Mor to live again in the garden – though there will also be a kitchen inside too.
A salvaged Colombian drug runner – a long, low boat that was found capsized by a passing oil tanker and brought to rest in the local port – is being transformed into a covered outdoor dining room and countless other plans are under way, all coloured by Jonathan’s infectious and slightly madcap vision of what’s possible – an attitude that has stood him in good stead so far.
While some pubs have a cottage garden, he plans to create a sea garden close to Old Point House which will provide seaweed and shellfish for the kitchen. Further fish and seafood will come from local day boats and the food offering will be bolstered by the Café Mor deli range which runs from sugar kelp ketchup to laverbread salt, laverbread biscuits and sea truffle butter.
Jonathan’s love of seaweed has also led him to promote April 14 as the first annual National Laverbread Day – a drive that is gaining real traction, with dozens of businesses signing up to put laverbread on the menu across the UK. Work is now under way to get the Old Point House ready to host a day of seaweed-focused activities this Thursday, with free laverbread with every pint and Café Mor serving up everything from lobster with laverbread butter to laverbread, egg and bacon baps.
Jonathan has been passionate about laverbread since he was a boy growing up on the Pembrokeshire coast. He attended school in nearby Stackpole, went to Swansea University and then travelled the world. Cooking was a regular occupation – he got his first opportunity while still at school, blagging his way into a job cooking for troops on the local army range.
“I had to phone my mum in the breaks to get recipes and then multiply the quantities by several hundred to feed the army guys,” he recalls.
made by Jonathan’s mum – the seaweed adds moisture and depth of flavour.
“The kids don’t even notice the laverbread and they come back and want more,” he says.
The many people who made pilgrimages to eat at Freshwater West will be sad that after nine years Jonathan has given up the pitch – but the tides of life move on and, with two young children, he feels it’s time to take the next step.
Like Freshwater West, the Old Point House was his top choice of location. The pub is said to date from the 16th century, but it wasn’t officially listed on the census as a pub until the 18th century – before that it was probably a private pub that benefited from being tucked away out of sight of harbour patrols. Tales abound of John Callis, the 16th century Welsh pirate who sold stolen cargo in local villages and spent time hiding in the Old Point House.
Jonathan, whose Barti Ddu rum is named after another local pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, was drawn by the tales of piracy and by the waterside location, where seaweed straggles the shoreline like graffiti. A walk along the shore with him is enlightening as he points out the many different seaweed species and their uses.
Anyone who thinks laverbread is Wales’ only seaweed delicacy is ill-informed – others favoured by Jonathan include pepper dulse, nicknamed sea truffle because of its mushroomy funk, which Jonathan showcases in his sea truffle butter, sea spaghetti, which he serves with lively laverbread pesto and knobbly wrack, which he uses in sauces.
Then there’s sugar kelp and gut weed, or sea lettuce, which is known as poor man’s laver. The list goes on, as does Jonathan’s capacity to showcase seaweed as a versatile modern ingredient.
Following the success of Barti Ddu rum and inspired by tales of the whisky that was washed up in large quantities in the area (you can still find the occasional bottle today), he plans to distil a seaweed whisky at the Old Point House.
Plans are also afoot for shoreline banquets, events in the extensive grounds and a microbrewery that will resurrect the tradition of local pubs brewing their own beers. He’s just appointed a head chef, who impressed him with her vision of seaweed pickles and other seaweed delicacies – and, with the first National Laverbread Day on the horizon, he’s set to take laverbread to a wide audience across the UK.
In the meantime, he continues to spend as much time as possible on the beaches gathering laverbread.
“When I was younger, I was always disappointed because Swansea had laverbread in the market but it seemed people were too scared to put it on the menus,” he says. “Even with a traditional Welsh breakfast it’s rare to fine laverbread included.
“I’ve always felt it’s such a great ingredient and I use it loads at home. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t shouting about it. Laverbread represents Wales and I’ve always loved it.
“It’s something unique and, in an age of so many chain shops, stores and restaurants, it’s nice to have the opportunity to celebrate our culinary history and try to get people to do something different.”
■ More information can be found at www.laverbreadday.co.uk and www.beachfood.co.uk
When I was younger, I was always disappointed. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t shouting about it. Laverbread represents Wales and I’ve always loved it