Chapters: Meet the Michelin Green Star Restaurant Behind the Cover of Issue 32
An Interview with Chapters’ Charmaine McHugo
In the heart of the Welsh town Hay-on-Wye, you’ll find Chapters, the Michelin Green Star restaurant from Charmaine and Mark McHugo.
Highlighting the best the area has to offer with menus that showcase seasonal, locally-sourced, and often home grown produce, their food was a natural fit for a theme of “Pasture, Passion, Plate”.
We spoke with Charmaine about their work at Chapters. Read on to discover the story behind the cover of Worldchefs Magazine Issue 32.
How would you describe your food philosophy at Chapters, and how has it evolved over time?
Our philosophy has always been about using ingredients that are in season, so they are at their peak in flavor and wherever possible to support local producers. Over time our relationships with other businesses has grown and we work together closely to create the end result.
Creating a sustainable restaurant is not easy but it is very rewarding. Our view is that we shouldn’t negatively impact anything, whether this is people, planet, or our community.
Charmaine McHugo
As a Michelin Green Star restaurant — one of only four restaurants in Wales to be awarded this accolade — how do you interpret the responsibility that comes with that recognition, and what does “sustainability” mean to you beyond the criteria itself?
We take the responsibility really seriously. There are guests who visit us because we have the accolade, and we fully respect the trust and belief that they have in us and the work that we do.
Creating a sustainable restaurant is not easy but it is very rewarding. Our view is that we shouldn’t negatively impact anything, whether this is people, planet, or our community.
Your restaurant is deeply rooted in place. We love to see your supplier shout outs, too. Can you share some stories of how you work with local producers to inform your seasonally-led menu development?
We have our core list of suppliers that we use year round. Many of our hyper-local drinks suppliers are based right in Hay-on-Wye. We have gotten to know them and their families really well over the years. For example, the person that supplies us with beer is also the person that looks after our cats when we go on holiday.
Having a restaurant in Hay means getting involved in the community, getting to know the people that also live and work there.
What is one dish that expresses your approach to cooking? Can you share the story behind it from ingredient to plate?
A garden herb crème fraîche.
This is simple dish, full of flavor. We make a herb purée with numerous soft herbs and plants from the garden — chive, verbena, burnet, kale, and purple sprouting leaf. This is then whipped with crème fraîche from five miles down the road and set in metal rings. The herb crème fraîche is then topped with the same soft herbs dressed in a chive vinaigrette, pickled onions, linseed crackers, and cured egg yolk.
You have an incredible regenerative restaurant garden just 8 miles from the kitchen. Can you share some of the planning behind planting local and biodiverse ingredients?
Yes, there is a nice mix of planting things that Mark has previously worked with — items that are safe and we know we will have a use for, such as beetroot and kale, and then adding in some new curve balls for him to play around with.
We grow a variety of produce and always encourage ingredients that have dual purpose, so flowers that will increase the pollinators (bugs, bees, and flies) to the garden but also look pretty and are edible, such as Calendula and Borage — in particular white borage which is just fantastic on salads and also self seeds, so we don’t have to grow it year on year, as it does it for us.
How does this process impact your day-to-day choices in the kitchen?
It adds variety and flavor, but also it means that the kitchen team are always learning and have new products to play around with.
Do you have any favorite ingredients to grow and/or source at the moment? We’d love to hear about one that you’ve worked with for a while, and perhaps another that you’ve discovered more recently.
We focus our growing on vegetables that give you a high yield for the space, so beans, peas, and kale rather than cauliflower and large cabbages. Although, I will say my personal favorite is purple sprouting broccoli, as it is the first veggie in the spring that we harvest and is such a refreshing change to the winter vegetables.
Something new for us was chicory — a root very similar looking to a parsnip, but when roasted and ground taste like coffee. We have used this in our tiramisu dessert, much to the delight of our guests.
You use organic heritage seeds from Welsh suppliers, and have mentioned growing perennials. Why is this important to you, and what would you say chefs should know about the flavor potential of perennials?
Using perennials is less for the chefs and more for the soil. No dig gardening is all about soil health — the less we can disturb the soil the better, and as you leave perennials in the ground to do their thing year on year, this is ideal. We love our herb patch, the roses, the fruit bushes, and our perennial kale. We also class Jerusalem artichokes as a perennial, but they do require a bit of digging.
What is one piece of advice you would give chefs looking to learn more about sustainable gastronomy?
Keep reading and talking to other chefs and people in the industry that are doing the same things. You have to keep learning as techniques and theories change and develop. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut or think you know how to do it, but there is always something new going on and we can only improve…. Good luck!
About Charmaine and Chapters in Hay-on-Wye
Charmaine is the co-owner of Chapters in Hay-on-Wye, which she runs with her husband Mark.
Follow Chapters on Instagram at @chapters_hayonwye, and read more about their food philosophy, menus, and restaurant garden at www.chaptershayonwye.co.uk.
Read more in Issue 32 of Worldchefs Magazine
Credits
Thank you to Charmaine for the interview and for being a part of Issue 32. Written by Clare Crowe Pettersson.
Cover photo by Ashleigh Cadet.
