From Garden to Plate: A conversation with Chef-Owner Mark McHugo, Chapters

Tucked away in the literary town of Hay-on-Wye, Chapters isn’t just a Michelin Green Star restaurant – it’s a living, breathing ecosystem. At the helm is chef-owner Mark McHugo, whose hyper-seasonal menus are shaped by the rhythms of a regenerative garden, wild Welsh landscapes, and an unwavering zero waste philosophy. In this exclusive interview with The Knife, Mark shares how he and his wife Charmaine have built one of Britain’s most inspiring eco-conscious restaurants; from using dock seeds in bread and meadowsweet in ice cream to transforming pumpkin offcuts into mango-like sorbet. It’s a deep dive into a restaurant where every dish is a reflection of time, place, and purpose.

Mark and Charmaine / Image: Natalie Moore

• You’ve described your cooking at Chapters as “homely yet refined.” What does that look like on the plate, and how do you strike that balance between comfort and creativity?

I'd say we just try to keep things quite simple, not too many elements on the plate. We try to pick things that complement each other. At the moment [at the time of interview], we've got a pork main course with onions from the garden and a cider sauce. It's just classic ingredients that go together.

• Your set menu changes every six weeks. How much does the garden dictate what ends up on the plate?

Yeah, the garden does play a major role. We've been open six years and had it for five years of that, and it's just been getting better and better every year. So that means more and more produce every year.

• Preservation plays a key role in your kitchen — from pickles to ferments and your own ‘Marmite’. What inspired this approach, and which techniques have become indispensable?

You just get taught these skills in professional kitchens really. We do a lot of pickling and a good bit of fermentation, which I'm still trying to learn as much as I can. One thing we like to do is make lots of alternative jams, chutneys, pickles. For example, we'll do a lamb dish with a leek jam or a little salad with a courgette pickle, something like that.

The garden / Image: Ashleigh Cadet

• Can you talk us through a standout ingredient that’s come from the wild — something foraged in the Brecon Hills — that’s become a signature or turning point in your cooking?

We do forage a few items, but not everything. We use dock seeds in our breads. We also use acorn in a bread mix as well. One main thing that's around and bang in season at the moment is meadowsweet, which has an almondy vanilla sort of flavour. You pick it, it looks similar to elderflower, and then you dry it and blend it down. Then you get a nice fine powder, and that's good to use in creme tarts or ice creams, things like that. We've even got a company we work with down the road from us, and they put the meadowsweet into their own gin for us.

• The zero-waste treacle is such a clever idea. What other off-cut or leftover transformations are you particularly proud of?

I like making my chutneys or jams with alternative vegetables. When we get loads of pumpkins in the autumn, I try and do alternative things with them. One thing we've done is lacto-fermented it and then turned that into a sorbet or a fruit jelly. When you ferment it correctly, it's got a real mango flavour. We don't grow mangoes over here, so this is the next best thing. Another one is fig leaf, which we use quite a bit. Fig leaf has a coconut flavour, so we use that as a coconut alternative.

• You’re not just serving local food, you’re reshaping the idea of what it means to be a truly regional restaurant. What are some of the most exciting local collaborations or producers you’ve worked with?

I've already mentioned the Hay Distillery, they're literally 50 metres from our restaurant. They distil on site, and produce gin and vodka there; we've made a blend of gin with them. We've worked with some guys called Three Pools in Abergavenny. They've got a farm over that way with a bit of an event space. The way they bring up the animals, it's just a great thing to see when we've visited them. It's just a real nice space.

Baked goods and garden offerings / Image: Natalie Moore

• You spent time as Chef de Cuisine at Six Senses in Oman. How did that experience shape your values around sustainability and hospitality?

That was a wicked experience going over there, really amazing. Sustainability gets taught in all kitchens, you get taught to not throw things away, but when you go to this business to work for them, you have two days on sustainability as part of your induction. They really think about it, wherever they can. Like turning old towels into plant pots or, using no single use plastic on site. When you work in there, you're just literally learning all the time about sustainability.

• Chapters is powered by renewable energy, but the real engine seems to be the synergy between you and Charmaine. How do your respective roles in the kitchen and garden influence each other?

So Charmaine is my partner; we're married, we live together, so you can imagine we talk about work quite a bit. We just have a lot of respect for each other. We appreciate we both have busy jobs to do, and they're both busy at different times of the day, times of the year. Charmaine runs the garden also, so you can imagine that's like a full-time job on top of what she's doing. So it's just about having some respect for each other.

• There’s no à la carte here — just one menu. Has that format allowed you to be more expressive or experimental with your cooking?

I suppose it has really. Like I said, we've been open six years. We started off with a tasting menu, and then in January 2024 we changed it to more of a sharing set menu. Just to make it a little bit less formal and a bit more sustainable for us, like running the restaurant. I suppose it's when you do a menu this way, you're able to refine things a little bit more, or think about each each item a little bit more, because you're not having to think of like 12-14 dishes for a menu.

Fish dish / Image: Natalie Moore

• With your background in modern brasseries and hotels, what felt missing in traditional restaurant models that you were determined to do differently at Chapters?

We wanted to open a restaurant that we wanted to go and eat at, and we still want to go and eat at this restaurant. I'd say the sustainability and the zero waste side of things is a huge influence, and that's obviously a massive part of the restaurant.

• You’ve held onto your Green Star since 2022 and recently gained top marks from the 360° Eat Guide. What does that kind of recognition mean to you, especially from a chef’s point of view?

It just gives you a bit of pride in what you're doing, you feel like you're doing a good job. Someone else telling you that you're kind of on the right path, you're doing things right – especially from Michelin – it's a huge, huge company. And then 360° Eat Guide, that was superb to receive. I think when we received it, we were top 50 in the world, which is pretty stunning.

• Looking ahead, what’s on your wishlist for the next phase of Chapters? New ideas in the kitchen, the garden, or even beyond the restaurant?

We've got a few projects coming up, but they haven't been announced yet, like the new idea for the kitchen. Went on a koji fermentation course the other day, so we're going to look into doing a little bit of that in the kitchen, but using UK grains, UK barley, that sort of thing.

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