WYNNE EVANS


The Welsh tenor, broadcaster and face of GoCompare tells us about the food of his childhood growing up in West Wales, cooking with his son and discovering new producers.


Cockles remind me of my childhood. I grew up in Carmarthen and a lot of cockling took place just down the estuary in Llansteff an, where I now have a house. I used to go to the market with my dad and get a pint of cockles. He fried them up with some onions and bacon, which is how I still cook them today. Cockles are pure nostalgia for me.


Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is the best in the world. Born and bred on the salt marshes of the Gower Peninsula, salt marsh lamb is truly something special. I actually delivered two salt marsh lambs as part of a TV programme I worked on a few years ago. I was learning how to be a sheep shearer and one thing led to another and I ended up delivering two little lambs.


My grandmother made an incredible Bara Brith. One of my biggest regrets is that I don’t have the recipe. She used to slice it really thinly and smother it with butter. Nothing better. Having said that I recently discovered a woman called Melanie Constantinou of ‘Baked by Mel’ in the Vale of Glamorgan, who makes an impressive Bara Brith right up there with my grandmother’s.


Warm Welsh cakes straight off the bakestone are what dreams are made of. You’ll fi nd some of the best around at Swansea Market. I’ve been going there for decades to pick up ingredients from the butchers, greengrocers and fi shmongers.


Legend has it that the Italians stole Parma ham from Carmarthen. Carmarthen ham is


dry salt-cured, then air-dried, and the result literally melts in your mouth! It’s said that when the Romans settled in Carmarthen, they stole the recipe for Carmarthen ham and returned to Italy and called it Parma ham! Whether or not this actually happened is anyone’s guess, but I will say that Carmarthen ham is better than any Parma ham I have ever had in my life.


I have a bar at home. It’s always well-stocked with Welsh whisky. I can’t live without Penderyn.


I love to cook with my son. He’s 15 and we cook a lot together. He’s brilliant and fearless when it comes to tackling recipes, like oxtail or a game pie. We like to get steak from the local butchers, or we do a big roast, or curry. We’ve even tackled sushi together.


My mother was half Belgian, half Welsh. So there was always a lot of Belgian infl uence in her cooking. We ate a lot of steak frites. And she would cook local cockles the way the Belgians would cook mussels.


I used to be away from home up to nine months a year. When I was singing internationally I was constantly on the road. I also lived in London for ten years, but I always knew I would return to Wales. The older I get the pull back west becomes stronger. The Welsh have a term for it – Hiraeth – which means a deep longing for home. It’s why I bought a house where I grew up. When I am in Llansteff an, among the memories of my childhood, many of which revolve around food, among friendship and community, I feel like I am truly at peace.


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