Texture has been named this year’s UK winner of the international gastronomic sherry competition, the Copa Jerez. Head chef Karl O’Dell and sommelier Alan Bednarski saw off steely competition at a contest held in Cardiff on October 1.

The bi-annual contest sees some of the country’s finest restaurants compete with three-course tasting menus designed specifically to match quality sherry. UK victors go on to cook at the world final in Jerez. The next is coming up in summer 2019.

Texture saw off the likes of Asador 44 (Cardiff), Le Gavroche (London), and Wernher (Luton Hoo Hotel) to win.

To begin, Texture presented scallops with avocado, cucumber and wasabi, a dish the team paired with a magnum of Tio Pepe en rama. O’Dell and his brigade then served pan roasted pigeon with salt baked turnip, pickled blackberries and a sherry jus, which was  accompanied by a glass of 30 year old (VORS) Palo Cortado from Bodegas Tradicion.

Copa Jerez

Poached baby pears with sherry-soaked raisins, sponge, walnuts and Isley ice cream was the pudding. Texture dished up its sweet with Moscatel by La Cigarrera.

Copa Jerez judges this year were Beltran Domecq, president of the Consejo Regulador Jerez y Manzanilla; Joe Wadsack, food and wine expert; plus the winners of the 2016 UK Copa Jerez: Giovanni Ferlito, head sommelier at The Ritz; and Michael Nizzerro, executive chef at The Bath Priory.

In June, Harden’s reported Texture and its sibling sites, the 28-50 wine bars, appeared to be up for sale, and faced the possibility of closure. Texture, the group’s flagship group opened by Icelandic chef Agnar Sverrisson, is by contrast not for sale: certainly it’s an ongoing hit with our reporters, and apparently with the bank manager too.