Seafood in the Stroud valleys – William’s Fish Market and Foodhall

The little town of Nailsworth just south of Stroud is a bustling place, known these days as the home of conference football team Forest Green Rovers. This area, close to Tetbury and Cirencester, also has Royal connections – Prince Charles’ Highgrove estate is not many miles away and his estate shop opened in Tetbury last year.

William’s Fish Market and Foodhall is right in the centre of town next to the pretty clock tower. As the name suggests, it’s mostly a food shop which specialises in wet fish and seafood as well as lots of other lovely produce including fresh chorizo from Spain, a great selection of cheeses and a range of locally sourced goodies. At the back is a collection of café-style tables and the blackboard outside promised ‘oyster bar – brunch till 3pm’. So, I couldn’t resist.

The shop offers both Fowey and Loch Fyne oysters, and I started with three Fowey beautifully served with crusty bread and French butter. The menu offered a good range of lunchtime dishes including fish soup, scallop chunks in garlic butter, whole baked sand sole, mussel chowder, warm kipper with melted butter and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs. There were meat and veggie options too, including seared calved liver with sage & lemon butter, and gnocchi with tomato and basil sauce.

Our cheery waitress told me that the mussels were particularly good at the moment, so I went for the moules frites (£8.50). The mussels were from Shetland, deliciously plump and with a very rich colour. Some nice thin chips made up an excellent dish. My companion couldn’t resist the fresh grilled chorizo sausage and mash (£9.50). You don’t often see fresh chorizo like this, it’s more normally found as a salami-type dried sausage, but these were wonderfully tasty and spicy and served with garlicky mash and a tomato sauce.

William’s is a great find, a lovely place for lunch and stocking up. Their website is under reconstruction as I write, and it seems as if there may be plans to open in the evenings too. At the moment it’s only open during the day. William’s Fish Market and Foodhall, 3 Fountain Street, Nailsworth, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 0BL, Tel: 01453 835 507, http://www.williamsfoodhall.co.uk/

Michael Ward from the Highwayman wins Pub Chef of the Year!

You may remember I was lucky enough to meet Michael Ward at the Highwayman near Kirkby Lonsdale last December (http://tinyurl.com/cyfjqb). Michael showed me his very impressive recipe for potted shrimps, which were absolutely delicious. Well, I just had news that he has been awarded two titles - Pub Chef of the Year and also Game Chef of the Year - at a national awards ceremony in London. Congratulations to Michael! The full story from Ribble Valley Inns (RVI) runs as follows:

RVI yet again seems to have found the recipe for success as two of its chefs dominated the awards at this year's Pub Chef Food Excellence Ceremony in London.

These “Oscars” for the industry attract hundreds of entries from some of the most talented chefs in the country and taking home these top accolades involves a lengthy judging process including “national cook offs”

This year Michael Ward, Head Chef of the Highwayman at Burrow, won the award as Game Chef of the Year for his partridge dish of Partridge with Black Pudding Croquette, Creamed mash, Foragers Bacon and Juniper Sauce.

And in a double header for RVI, his counterpart at Mitton's Three Fishes, Thomas Pickering, was named Poultry Chef of the Year for his Devilled Breast of Goosnargh Chicken.

But the best was yet to come as Michael picked up the night's top honours as UK Pub Chef of The Year. Michael, a quiet but extremely talented chef, was stunned on the night when he was presented with the main award and we are enormously proud that all Michael's hard work has now been recognised nationally.

You can read more about it, and see a lovely picture of Michael's potted shrimps, at

http://www.highwaymaninn.co.uk/popup/Michael-Ward.pdf .