Focus Magazines The local magazines for Abergavenny, Crickhowell, Brecon & Talgarth – Events, News and Advertising

For readers who are yet to discover the joy that is The Bakers’ Table at Talgarth Mill, then you’re in for a treat. For those of you who already know about the café and its mouthwatering array of baked goods, you’ll understand why it’s so difficult to stay away. We chatted to Bakers’ Table owner, Nicola, about how she became involved in the business and, of course, the matter of bread!

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“I became involved with The Bakers’ Table after the initial BBC1 television programme; Village SOS.  My friend Wendy was one of the team of people who set up the cafe, and after the prime time screening, the Mill and Cafe became so busy that she rang to ask me to help.  That was three years ago now, and I became a Director of the Cafe in 2012.  For various personal reasons, the original team has now all left and so the business belongs to me.

In January of 2014 we appeared on Britain’s Best Bakery on ITV1. We won our regional heat (North and Mid Wales) and went on to compete in the Regional Final where we were knocked out by some stiff competition, Maison Mayci; a team of two Michelin star trained chefs with baking in their blood.  David and Remy went all the way through to the final so I think we can be proud to have been beaten by such a class act!  We became runners up in the 2013 National Tourism Award in the Best Cafe in Wales category and, earlier this year, we won a bronze Award in the Countryside Alliance Awards in the Category Local Food.

Receiving the award at the Countryside Alliance Awards

Receiving the award at the Countryside Alliance Awards

Following the departure of two of our bakers earlier this year, I took over baking three days a week, with our long-standing baker Cris, and Ian who had worked for us previously.  We offer bread baking classes which, until recently, have been run by another ex-employee Meg Jones. Meg has gone off travelling to learn to bake around the world, so I will be teaching the classes in the future.  With the Mill’s expansion from producing wholemeal flour into Rye and Spelt flour, we are able to offer bread that contains some Mill flour on a daily basis. That might be 100% wholemeal or spelt, or our popular white and rye bread, Bara Havard, which was named after the last Miller to work on the premises before it fell into decline.

breadWe are also taking our bread further afield: we attend Crickhowell market hall on a Friday, we also sell through Brecon’s new Bijou Deli Cafe, and from September, we will be selling at Brecon Farmers Market.  We are of course, looking forward to sharing a stall with the team from the Mill at the Abergavenny Food Festival (who won their award at the NTA ceremony that we attended).

All of the food that we sell at the Cafe and Bakery is sourced as locally as possible. Our cakes are all home made and we offer gluten free options for people with an intolerance.  Lunches are based on the fantastic local produce and our bread, with a standard menu and daily specials. One of our other specialities is our wood fired pizza nights which happen once a month through the autumn, winter and spring to coincide with Talgarth’s Flix in the Stix, and weekly during August.”

The Bakers’ Table café is located at Talgarth Mill, The Square, Talgarth, LD3 0BW
Tel: 01874 771125
E: bakerstable@talgarthmill.com
www.talgarthmill.com

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