Two-star Michelin restaurant in Wales handed one-star hygiene rating | Wales
The chef of a two-Michelin-star Welsh restaurant says the restaurant has “the highest standards in the world” despite receiving a single star for hygiene in a recent inspection.
Ynyshir, a restaurant with rooms near Machynlleth, at the southern tip of Eryri national park, has been praised as one of the best restaurants in the world.
It opened in 2013 and received its first Michelin star a year later. He received another in 2022, making him the first site in Wales to earn two stars. Prices start from £468 per person.
The restaurant received a score of one out of five when Food Standards Agency officers visited on 5 November; This means “major improvement” is required.
Chef’s boss Gareth Ward told the BBC on Wednesday he was “not ashamed” of the rating, which he said was due to inspectors’ concerns about the use of raw and old ingredients.
“I buy sashimi-grade fish from Japan and they ask: ‘We don’t know the water, so how do we know it’s the sashimi grade?’
“Well, this type of sashimi, this stuff is eaten raw all over the world, and they question it just because our rules don’t match their rules… I have a salt room to age fish, but they obviously don’t like the idea of aging this stuff.
“I’m not ashamed at all, but I’m disappointed. I don’t sit here and think, ‘Oh my God, I’m embarrassed, I did something wrong,’ because we didn’t. What we did is different.”
Ward, a former contestant on MasterChef: The Professionals, said Ynyshir employed a specialist compliance company to handle food safety and owned a £50,000 freezer that could reach temperatures of -80C (-112F).
Following the inspection, the restaurant’s fish were sent for independent laboratory testing and no problems were detected.
Ward acknowledged that food safety officers were “100% not at fault” and has since installed an additional hand-washing station in the fish preparation area. He also said paperwork problems also contributed to the low score.
“Some of our paperwork wasn’t correct and that’s our fault,” he said. “Sometimes you miss things, sometimes you misspell or forget things… I would need a full-time office worker to always make the paperwork perfect.”
In Wales and Northern Ireland, all food businesses are legally required to display their hygiene ratings in a conspicuous place.
A spokesman for Ynyshir said in a statement that the business had requested a reconsideration, but no date had been set.
