Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:35 pm on 30 January 2024.
Lesley Griffiths
Labour
5:35,
30 January 2024
Thank you, Ken, for those comments and questions. I absolutely agree with you, and, again, going back to the culinary awards I was at last Wednesday, which was run by one of the providers of skills here in Wales, Arwyn Watkins said that restaurants now in Wales are probably missing a trick if they're not using Welsh food and drink and displaying it very clearly on the menus that they're using Welsh food and drink, because it is such an important sector, and the provenance of the food and drink is becoming so much more important. Consumers want it, people visiting restaurants want it, so it's really important that they don't miss that trick.
It was great to see—. I mentioned the senior and the junior chefs of Wales, but there were also awards for the way that hygiene was carried out when preparing food. So, the judges—. I think it was a three-day event where the judges had been walking round and watching how the chefs prepared the food, so it wasn't just about the cooking of the food and how it tasted, it was about the way that it was prepared. I think, going back to that skills question, it's really important that our young people, or all people, have those skills as well in preparation for when they go into the sector.
I had lunch at Coleg Cambria, at the restaurant at Coleg Cambria in my own Constituency of Wrexham, just before Christmas, where, as you say, the students serve the food, they wait on the tables, they cook the food, they do everything, and it was so good to see the amount of Welsh food and drink that was on display. The manager was very proud. He took me round the back to make sure I could see just how much Welsh food and drink was on display, which was just brilliant. And as you say, there are lots of providers across Wales who do that, and I'd like to congratulate them all.
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