Colin Pressdee

Last updated

Colin Pressdee
Born
Culinary career
Cooking style Welsh cuisine, Cuisine of Gower, British Cuisine
Television show(s)
  • See You Sunday

Colin Pressdee is a food writer, broadcaster and consultant living in London.

Contents

Early life

Pressdee was brought up in Gower and recalls: [1]

As a child I was fascinated by lobsters, oysters, sea bass and almost anything you could find and eat from the sea. I soon became interested in cooking the produce myself, and what could be a finer meal than fish and shellfish I had caught that day?

I can remember the very cranny where I caught my first crab and lobster; the very rock where I perched and cast for my first bass at Whiteshell; the smell of fresh foods cooking , and the appetite that a day on the seashore gave me. I would scrabble over the rocks for crab and lobster while my father sometimes went out in the boat for bass and mackerel. Someone else would shove a push net across the beach for prawns. We would pick mussels and winkles from the rocks, gather the seaweed laverbread, or search the cliffs for wild mushrooms.

The local farmers exchanged Gower new potatoes and cauliflowers for a few mackerel. At night we might take out the drag net and trawl deep in the dark water for sole, plaice, skate and even squid and cuttlefish. I can remember returning dozens of spider crabs from the lobster pots, not to mention kilos of whelks, conger eels, whiting, mullet, pollock and fiddler crabs, which today are all prized.

Pressdee goes on to recount that the family had a fishing hut at Rhossili where they caught and cooked everything. The fishing hut was "aptly named Kitchen Corner" and was the last point before the causeway to Worms Head: [2]

Kitchen Corner, Worm's Head, Rhossili Kitchen Corner, Worm's Head - geograph.org.uk - 124158.jpg
Kitchen Corner, Worm's Head, Rhossili

We would have hut feasts of the catch, cooked on a small Primus stove and a feeble two-burner Calor Gas hob. But what was turned out with such limited facilities was finer than most restaurants would even aspire to.

Writing

Pressdee has written books dealing with Welsh cuisine, the Cuisine of Carmarthenshire and seafood, and through his writing he has shared his expertise and recipes.

His books include London Oyster Guide, Food Wales and Streetwise Cookery.

Restaurants

Pressdee ran two restaurants in Swansea which were probably the first to reference the Cuisine of Gower: The Drangway ('Drangway' being a word from the Gower dialect), which was located near Wind Street and The Oyster Perches, which was located in the Uplands and was named after the perches on which oysters are farmed. Oyster farming was a local industry off the coast of Mumbles in Gower until the early twentieth century (see: Cuisine of Gower).

Shellfish

Pressdee has a particular interest in shellfish and has been a member of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain for over thirty years. He also promoted oysters in his own restaurants and presented programmes on oysters on the show Great Food Live on UKTV. In addition he has written articles on oysters for The Guardian [3] and many other publications. [4]

Books

Media

Television and radio presentations and appearances include: [5]

Awards

Glenfiddich Award for Regional Writer of the Year (1989) for food and wine articles in Wales on Sunday. [6]

Articles

Videos

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shellfish</span> Culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates

Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some are found in freshwater. In addition, a few species of land crabs are eaten, for example Cardisoma guanhumi in the Caribbean. Shellfish are among the most common food allergens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmarthenshire</span> County in Wales

Carmarthenshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as the "Garden of Wales" and is also home to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raw bar</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gathering seafood by hand</span> Fishing technique

Gathering seafood by hand can be as easy as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters.

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The cuisine of Gower, a peninsula in south Wales, is based on ingredients grown, raised or collected on or around the peninsula. The cuisine is based on fresh ingredients with recipes based around a fish or meat dish. Until the twentieth century, the peninsula was virtually cut off from other markets due to poor roads, and no rail connection. The result was that Gower became self-sufficient in food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of Carmarthenshire</span> Welsh regional cuisine

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seafood restaurant</span> Restaurant mostly serving fish from the sea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of Pembrokeshire</span> Welsh regional cuisine

Pembrokeshire has been called "the cottage garden of Wales", due to its good soil and the beneficial effects of the Gulf Stream, which provide a mild climate and a longer growing season than other parts of the country. The good climate and soil meant that the south of the peninsula was coveted by the Norsemen and Normans because it had "great plentie" of corn and cattle The county has prime agricultural land, much of which is located at about 70m above sea level, while to the north, the Preseli Hills rise to 500m above sea level and form uplands that are made up of heather and bracken, which are used for grazing sheep. Consequently, Pembrokeshire is classed as one of the most fertile counties in Wales, with its 392,300 agricultural acres having 14% of its land classed as of good quality, 67% being classed as medium quality and 19% being classed as poor quality. However, agricultural production is subject to market forces and in the 1890s, as a result of the Panic of 1893, a deep agricultural depression led to the area under cultivation falling by a third. Many labourers and farmers had no option but to emigrate to the New World and many of the large farming estates were sold. World War I brought prosperity again, but by the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression, there was another agricultural depression which lasted until World War II. During the Post-war period agriculture has benefited from marketing schemes and marketing boards, which have helped in the regulation, marketing and distribution of the county's agricultural production.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglesey Oyster & Welsh Produce Festival</span> Anglesey Oyster & Welsh Produce Festival

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References

  1. Pressdee, Colin: Colin Pressdee's Welsh Coastal Cookery, page 10. London: BBC Books, 1995. ISBN   0 563 37136 6
  2. Pressdee, Welsh Coastal Cookery, page 10
  3. All you need to know about oysters | Life and style | The Guardian
  4. London's best oyster bars | Life and style | guardian.co.uk
  5. Pressdee, Welsh Coastal Cookery, page 3
  6. Pressdee, Welsh Coastal Cookery, page 3