The world of fine dining and starred restaurants is often defined by exquisite ingredients, obsessively precise plating, and extremely elegant furnishings: this is more or less the image we get when we think of a certain type of restaurant. Yet, all that glitters is not always gold: in Wales, a restaurant with two Michelin stars was awarded only one star out of five for food hygiene by the British Food Standards Agency (FSA). This score is quite out of keeping with the restaurant's prestigious status, but was explained by the chef and owner himself.
"I'm Not Embarrassed, We Have The Highest Standard in The World."
Located near Machynlleth, it's the only two-starred restaurant in Wales and offers a 30-course tasting menu costing £468 per person: it's called Ynyshir and, a few weeks ago, it received a poor rating from the Food Standards Agency. One star out of five, which, for inspectors, signifies the need for "significant improvements" in food safety management and cleanliness. Chef-owner Gareth Ward – who earned his restaurant two Michelin stars in 2022 – told the BBC that he wasn't at all embarrassed by this rating and that his kitchen is working "at the highest level" by doing "something different" in the way it treats ingredients compared to the rest of the world.
The use of raw, aged, and fermented ingredients has been particularly controversial: as the Michelin Guide itself writes on its website, Ward "has a particular reverence for Japanese cuisine, with sashimi and A5 Wagyu beef." It is precisely sashimi that is at the center of criticism from the inspectors, as Ward himself confirms: "I'm buying sashimi-quality fish from Japan and they ask me, ‘Well, we don't know the water, so how do we know if it's sashimi-quality?'" A product that the chef claimed to be excellent and that is eaten raw all over the world, but which is questioned "only because our rules don't fit with theirs." The presence of a salt chamber used for maturing the fish has also been criticized: "It's obvious that inspectors don't like the idea of aging things," Ward added.
The chef, however, stated that he wasn't worried because "the kitchen is open, everyone can see everything, the place is immaculate." He also explained that he had invested heavily in equipment capable of ensuring a high level of food safety, such as a freezer capable of reaching -112°F/-80°C, which cost him approximately £50,000. Following the inspection, the chef also sent samples of the restaurant's fish to a laboratory: the results confirmed that "everything is absolutely clean."
The Inspectors Were Not "100% Wrong"
It would appear, however, that the inspectors weren't entirely wrong, despite their differing standards, and that some documents and paperwork weren't entirely correct: "Sometimes you miss things, sometimes you spell them poorly, or forget them. I'd need a full-time employee to handle the paperwork to make sure everything is perfect every time," Ward stated honestly. The restaurant has already implemented concrete improvements, such as the introduction of a new handwashing station in the fish processing area, and has requested a new inspection from the relevant authorities, although a date has not yet been set.
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