A new range of sausages made with chocolate and fudge will be launched a top food festival.

The special bangers are being developed by young farmer and trainee butcher Arran Davies and his butchery mentor Brin Kelly at Abbey Farm, just outside Llangollen.

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Their meat counter at Abbey Farm Shop, which also supplies local hotels and restaurants, is just up the road from where the Hamper Llangollen food festival will be staged on Saturday and Sunday October 18-19.

Now recognised as one of the UK's top 10 food festivals, Hamper Llangollen is supported by rural development agency Cadwyn Clwyd.

Cadwyn Clwyd’s contribution comes via the Rural Development Fund for Wales 2007-2013, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Welsh Government.

The event at the Royal Pavilion sees a wide range of food and drink exhibitors along with demonstrations by top chefs, plus a Rail and Ale evening excursion on board a steam train with Llangollen Railway.

Arran, 27, is the third generation to work on Abbey Farm, next to the historic Valle Crucis Abbey, which has been in the family since the 1930s.

The secret recipe for the sausages, which also use pork from pigs raised on the family farm, is still being tweaked, admitted Arran.

“It’s a recipe that Brin has previously made, though he used cocoa powder then. This time we are using chocolate chunks – there will be dark chocolate and milk chocolate versions, plus a fudge one, which we think caramelises the sausage as it cooks, so it’s a sweeter taste.

“Our customers at the farm shop are going to be asked to sample it over the coming weeks until we get the recipe just right,” said Arran.

“I am learning the ropes from Brin – he is a traditional butcher and I am like an old-style apprentice, learning at first hand-hand. I split my time between working in the Farm Shop with Brin and working on the farm with my older brother Jonathan, 30, and my dad John. My younger brother Billy, who is 23, also works on the farm, though he also does contract work elsewhere.

“I’ve been worked on the farm since I left school, like my dad, who worked with his dad,” added Arran, who admits that he prefers the more traditional style sausages he also makes for the farm shop.

Brin, from Penycae, used to run his own shop in Coedpoeth until he moved to take over at the Abbey Farm Shop butchery three years ago.

“I have previously made chocolate sausages and thought they would be ideal for our stand at Hamper Llangollen - in past years we discovered that visitors like to try something a bit exotic, something they can’t buy every day. These sausages will be savoury but with a sweet edge, especially the fudge ones.

“We will also be doing a pig roast at Hamper Llangollen, as pulled pork is so popular these days,” said Brin.

Arran’s dad John Davies is the one who helps select the porkers to be raised at the 500-acre Abbey Farm. He also rears beef cattle plus runs two caravan parks.

“I buy the pigs in as weaners to fatten up, I like a mix of traditional breeds such as Gloucester Old Spot, and the modern varieties, which are much leaner, and crossed with the Welsh White.

"One of my earliest memories of my dad is him cutting a slice of bacon from a flitch hanging down in the kitchen, to cook for his breakfast.

“He was a big Shire horse man, always preferred horses to tractors, and he won a lot of prizes with them. The stables, where he kept the horses, are where the Farm Shop, Tea Rooms and Bistro are now. I like to think he would have pleased to see what we have done with the farm, which he took on as a young man just after the depression.”

A quartet of Wales’s best chefs will have a starring role at the festival. Graham Tinsley, executive chef at Carden Park in Cheshire and Conwy’s Castle Hotel, will be cooking up a Welsh feast with Mike Evans, hospitality lecturer at Coleg Llandrillo, Rhos on Sea, and Dion Jones, one of Europe’s finest young chefs.

The ever popular Dai Chef, now the resident chef at Bodnant Welsh Food, the centre of excellence for Welsh food in the Conwy Valley will be there too.

Robert Didier, a baker who trained with culinary legend Raymond Blanc will also unveil the UK’s most expensive loaf – made with champagne and 24 carat gold, at the event.

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Cadwyn Clwyd agri-food project officer Rob Price said: “Hamper Llangollen is a prime example of how Cadwyn Clwyd is helping to stimulate the local economy. The event will bring a large amount of people – and extra money - into the area, whether they are visiting for the day or staying the weekend.

"There’s been a lot of interest in stands at the festival, both from established companies who have been many times before, and from new food and drink producers.

“There will be many new products on offer  -such as Arran and Brin’s chocolate and fudge sausages – as well as more traditional foods, so there will be something for everybody.”

More on Hamper Llangollen at www.llangollenfoodfestival.com.

A CELEBRITY chef who wowed opera legend Luciano Pavarotti is heading for Las Vegas to sing the praises of Welsh food.

Dai Chef is betting on a brilliant reaction when he showcases the very best in our gastronomic delights to an audience of 150 people in the US gambling and entertainment mecca.

Recently appointed to his “dream job” as the resident chef in the Hayloft Restaurant at Bodnant Welsh Food in the Conwy Valley, Dai Davies – known as Dai Chef – is an official ambassador for Welsh food.

And it’s in this role that he has been invited to head a special event bringing a taste of Britain and Wales to Vegas.

Dai explained: “I’ve been asked to over to Las Vegas to lead the event showing off the best of British food to America.

“It’s going to be staged at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is right on the famous Strip, and there will be around 150 people in the audience who are all very influential and involved with the travel trade.

“That means the event will be the perfect opportunity to get the message across about the marvellous food we have here.

“I know it’s Las Vegas but I don’t think it’s any gamble at all going over there to show them what’s great about British and Welsh food – with the ingredients I’ll be using – some from Bodnant – it’ll be a sure-fire certainty and I reckon I’ll slot in very well!

“I’m extremely proud to have been chosen to represent Britain and I will be the main pivot of the whole thing which will last for six to eight hours.

“I’ll be doing a food preparation demonstration and – just like I do at big food events at home like the Hamper Llangollen food festival in October – I’ll work on camera while close-pictures of me working are shown on a big screen.

“There will be a dozen other head chefs from hotels allover Las Vegas working at preparation stations dotted around the big main room and the idea is for them to replicate what I’m doing for groups of people gathered around them.

“The important thing is that everyone will get to sample the dishes we prepare afterwards.”

Dai added: “I’m still working on exactly what I’ll be showcasing but I’m already sure it will be something that provides the perfect taste of the very best of Britain, Wales and Bodnant too.

“That’s because I’ll be taking with me to Vegas as much produce from Bodnant as is practicablle on a 12-hour transatlantic flight.

“I think I’ll definitely be starting with a fresh pineapple carved in the shape of a Welsh daffodil on a base of our Welsh cheeses, including Aberwen one of the smoked cheeses from Bodnant.

“My main dish will be either a delicious cut of Welsh lamb or black beef served with mushrooms and flamed with Welsh whisky.

“I’ll round the whole thing off with a yoghurt laced with Welsh vodka, which should really set American taste buds tingling.

“I’ve done cookery demonstrations for many years across Wales, Britain and Europe, including all the big food festivals in Belgium, France and Germany, but this will be the first time I’ve done anything like this in the States but I’m very proud to be taking a taste of my country to Las Vegas.”

Managing Director of Bodnant Chris Morton said: “It’s a great testimony to Dai as an individual and to North Wales food preparation in general that he has been selected to head such a prestigious event.

“It’s an honour that’s well deserved and will help cement the position of North Wales on the world’s culinary map.”

Bodnant Welsh Food is located in a building dating from the 18^th century which has been lovingly restored and includes a farm shop, tea room, restaurant, cookery school and farmhouse accommodation.

The centre was officially opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2012.

Dai was born and raised in Aberystwyth and trained at a culinary college in Haverfordwest.

He gained his initial experience in the kitchens of some of the largest hotels in London’s West End and by the age of 21 he was the youngest chef saucier – in charge of the creation of delicious sauces – at the world famous Carlton Club in St James’s.

Later, Dai became head chef at the White Hart restaurant in Lewes, Sussex, and for a time was the personal chef of the owner of Simpson’s in The Strand, which is based in the same building as the capital’s iconic Savoy Hotel.

He then returned to Aberystwyth to run his own restaurant and during a 16-year period starting in the 1990s was head chef at the Bryn Howel Hotel in Llangollen, which is where in 1995 Dai had the unforgettable experience of cooking for Luciano Pavarotti when the legendary Italian tenor was staying there for his appearance at Llangollen International Eisteddfod.

In 1996, Dai captained the Welsh team at the Culinary Olympics when it won a bronze medal for its culinary skills, and soon afterwards he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship at Glyndwr University in Wrexham.

After spell as a chef trainer – many of his pupils are now working in some of the world’s finest restaurants – Dai took another hands-on role as chef director at the Ship Inn at Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey from where he came to Bodnant.

At the Hamper Llangollen food show last year he launched his new book, Let the Boy Cook, which is a compilation of all his favourite recipes and has a very Welsh feel to it.

For more information about Bodnant Welsh Food, go to:  http://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/