A Pembrokeshire chef who has travelled the globe to hone his cooking skills, is looking forward to showcasing his cuisine when he appears at the ‘Street Food Festival’ in Tenby next weekend.

Toby Bradley-Watson who originally hails from Manorbier where his mum and dad Georgie and Peter still live, will be gracing the Pembrokeshire Street Food Festival, held alongside Tenby’s South Beach from Friday, June 15 to 17, with his impressive converted horse box mobile vendor company ‘Assembelly’.

Toby, who attended Netherwod School in Saundersfoot, left the area a number of years ago to make his way in the chefing world, and got off to a good start cooking privately for some rather big names in politics, celebrity cutler, royalty and world leaders.

“Food was always very important and we grew a lot of our own produce living on a small free holding in Pembrokeshire, so from a young age I was surrounded by good produce and was taught to cook tugging on my mother and aunts’ apron strings.

“It was these two woman who taught me to cook - they both had catering companies and from a young age I worked in their kitchens,” he explained.

After University Toby decided that he wanted to become a chef, and after working in a pub for a while he went to train at Ballymaloe in Ireland under the slow food movement.

“When I finished at Ballymaloe I managed to get a job at the Seafood restaurant in Padstow which is Rick Stein’s flagship restaurant. I was there for two years and it is really where I cut my teeth and turned myself into a chef.

“I then did a ski season and then one on the super yachts before traveling though east Africa and eventually ending up in Western Australia working at the Xanadu vine yard., before ending up on the east coast as Sous chef for Bannisters, Rick Stein’s Australian restaurant.

“A few years ago Rick made me his executive chef in Australia and when I was out there I won a ‘Chefs Hat’ the Australian equivalent of a Michelin star,” continued Toby.

Toby has also worked with other top-name chefs including - Pierre Koffemann, Mark Edwards, Marcus Wareing, Tom Kitchen and Tom Aitken.

When Toby returned to the UK he decided that he wanted a break from chefing before looking towards setting up his own place.

Then on doing a talk at the Lymington Seafood Festival, Toby saw what an opportunity it was and set about his plan to run ‘Assembelly’ as a mobile restaurant, travelling around, finding in season local produce and showing it off.

He bought a Richardson horse trailer and spent six months converting it into the home of ‘Assembelly’.

Toby describes his cooking strengths as game and seafood, and for the past year has also been studying fermentation, and its vast range of health benefits, which will run as a strong theme through his menu.

“Assembelly’s unique selling point would be that the menu and style will be ever changing, flexible and hopefully show off the produce the local area has to offer.

“No two days will be the same - sourcing and foraging local produce is the ethos of the business.

“I am looking forward to coming back to Tenby to try and show my home county what I can do!” he added.

Following last year’s first successful ‘Pembrokeshire Street Food Festival’ event in Tenby, organisers have said to expect all the smells, tastes and fun of last year, but even bigger and better!

Around 18,000 people passed through the site of the 2017 festival over the three days, with organisers calling it ‘simply the best’ event they’d ever organised.

An ‘outstanding array’ of mouth-watering food from all over the world will be on offer once again at this year ‘s event which is held in the South Beach car park between 12 noon and 10 pm, over the three days.

Entry to the family friendly event is completely free, and you can find out more and register for tickets at www.streetfoodwarehouse.co.uk