Shropshire Magazine

Felicity and Mark Seager.

Neil Thomas heads over the Welsh border and finds the real deal

The ironic thing about reality television is its air of unreality. So many of its participants, desperate to shed their anonimity for fame and fortune, seem divorced from the real world.

The X in The X-Factor could, more often than not, refer to the old cinema certification for stuff which it was feared might give the children nightmares.

Participants in BBC’s The Apprentice seem to have been headhunted for a peculiar cocktail of arrogance and brain-rattling imbecility, allied to an almost masochistic willingness to be humiliated by Sir Alan Sugar. The Big Brother house grows annually to more closely resemble a fly-on-the-wall documentary in a lunatic asylum.

The truth is, of course, that ability, modesty, civility and a healthy sense of perspective, though all admirable traits, rarely make for riveting viewing. Among the best of the current crop of reality shows is BBC2’s The Restaurant, but that is not immune to the ratings-driven hunger for ‘train crash’ television.

For those not familiar with the format, celebrated chef Raymond Blanc has set up 10 teams of two – one chef, one front of house – in their own restaurants. Each week the teams are set tasks, with the restaurant that Blanc considers the least successful closed down. The prize for the overall winner is the chance to keep their restaurant as a partner of the great Frenchman.

Pressure

However, the tasks, while designed to test culinary and people skills, ingenuity and the ability to cope with intense pressure, occasionally seem divorced from the overall goal, which is to find a pair who can offer fine dining in the Raymond Blanc chain. The teams have been asked to run a takeaway, lay on dinner parties in the homes of fussy snobs, produce a cookbook and, most bizarrely, provide food at a motorway service station. I’m not sure how feeding hungry truckers on the M40 quite prepares you for running a high-end restaurant. Everything is aimed at taking the contestants out of their comfort zone and, on occasion, some have even been left short of vital equipment like gas and ovens.

I can’t wait for the episode in some future series where the pairs are packed off to a Snowdonian precipice to prepare and serve a seven-course gourmet meal for a party of minor royals using only two saucepans and a Primus stove.

The teams conform to the reality television show type. Married couples, close friends, father and daughter, they are pursuing a dream which is all too often based on a deluded faith in their own talents.

Cleverly, each pair appears to contain a gifted member. Their partners range down from occasional blunderer to round-the-clock numpty. What we have is either a decent cook allied to a useless front of house or a potential mass poisoner teamed with a face-saving star.

You see, no couple offers the complete package – no couple is Mark and Felicity Seager at Seeds.

Wing of skate with cider-and-cream sauce.

Ah, I bet you wondered where this was going. That fact is that my wife Vanessa and I have eaten at Seeds a fair few times down the years and it is consistently superb. We’ve never had a bad evening there – meal, service or atmosphere. Mark sparkles in the kitchen, Felicity out front.

The couple once worked on the glittering London restaurant scene, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.

Mark used to count the likes of George Best and his Miss World girlfriends among his clientele, and was once butler to a man so wealthy he had a heated driveway to his house.

The couple then toured the world after their London exploits, but finally decided to settle down and open their own restaurant, falling in love with Seeds at first sight.

That was 18 years ago, and in that time the couple have turned Seeds into a beacon of gastronomic excellence, delighting diners in Shropshire, Mid- and North Wales, Cheshire and the West Midlands.

The low-ceilinged, timber-framed dining room is essentially the front rooms of a High Street cottage in Llanfyllin, near Oswestry. With 20 diners it would be full. Both Mark and Felicity mingle easily with customers and a general air of bonhomie pervades, adding to the warm, cosy atmosphere. Curios, maps and mementos of their travels line the walls and fill the shelves, and there is no shortage of talking points.

The right ambience is essential, of course, but counts for very little if you find yourself casting around for a convenient plantpot in which to deposit your food. No such worries at Seeds, where the standard of cooking is high. Mark keeps the menu simple – five choices of starters, mains and desserts. It means that, even at his busiest, he never over-reaches and that every dish can arrive at it best. And that best is excellent.

Roast rack of lamb with Dijon-and-herb crust.

Vanessa’s starter of Spanish meats and melon was a generous platter of chorizo perfectly complemented by an accompaniment of juicy sweet melon, bitter salad leaves and chicory, which cut through the fatty smokiness of the meat.

Mouthwatering

My homemade cheese-and-cauliflower soup was rich, creamy and perfectly seasoned, the epitome of a simple starter done well. Other mouthwatering temptations were oak-smoked salmon with brown bread; avocado, bacon and crouton salad; and asparagus and broad-bean risotto.

Vanessa’s rare fillet steak had a melt-in-the-mouth tenderness and was served with a rich but light brandy and peppercorn sauce. My half roast Mallard had plenty of tender meat on the bone while the dark richness of the orange-and-Cointreau sauce was perfectly suited to a chilly autumn evening.

The vegetable accompaniment of broccoli, carrots and new potatoes was typical of the Seeds ethos – fresh, simple local produce, perfectly cooked.

The other three mains all produced a dilemma of choice – roast rack of lamb with Dijon-and-herb crust, duet of fish on a bed of spinach with white wine and cream and cheese sauce, and sautéed chicken breast with black pudding, marsala wine and cream sauce.

Lemon posset with blackberry coulis.

When it comes to desserts at Seeds my wife is stuck in something of a rut – lemon posset topped with a coulis of whichever berries are in season. Sure enough it was on the menu, this time with a blackberry sauce; sure enough she ordered it; and sure enough she declared it a perfect end to the meal. My treacle tart with ice-cream was a real fat-boy pudding, but who cares? A large slice of comfort food – delicious.

The freshly brewed coffee is always a cut above and an excellent way to round off a superb meal.

On this occasion special mention must be made of the wine. For such a small restaurant Seeds’ wine list is exceptional, with scores of bins to choose from.

This has now been recognised by the coveted AA Notable Wine List award, of which Mark and Felicity are justifiably proud. Since he is, thus, an acknowledged expert with the certificate to prove it, we sought Mark’s advice on the right wine to partner our meal. He came up with a rich, fruity South African red which was sumptuous and, for sixteen quid, represented cracking value – as did the final bill of just over £80 for two.

The final three pairs in the television show The Restaurant included two prima donna hostesses who burst into tears at the merest whiff of criticism, a chef who can’t boil an egg and another who forgets to take his food with him to a cookery demonstration. Then there were two lads whose kitchen produced exceptional food but who, in every other respect, bungled on a Laurel-and-Hardy scale. Raymond Blanc will end up in partnership with two of these. Meanwhile, back in the real world, treat yourself to an evening away from the box . . . at Seeds.

REVIEW: NEIL THOMAS; PICTURES: RUSSELL DAVIES

• Seeds, High Street, Llanfyllin SY22 5AP. Telephone: 01691 648604.

Interior.