'It has taken me by surprise because we're definitely not that fancy. I'm not a chef'

Michelle Evans is the Welsh farmer who insists she's 'not even a chef' - but people are travelling across the globe for her food, as Jonathon Hill reports

- Jonathon Hill

DIVORCE lawyer-turned-farmhand Michelle Evans still doesn’t consider herself a chef and yet the food she’s knocking up at her family farm alongside her husband Leum and their two children near the village of Hundleton is bringing in visitors to their quiet corner of Pembrokeshire in their droves from across the globe.

In 2016 Michelle decided to call time on her law career and Leum threw the towel in on his work in the construction industry as they decided to follow their love of farming and food. Nine years on, having navigated some choppy waters including a recent battle with the local authority after the family were told they would have to leave the site, Paternoster Farm's idyllic 60 acres and its restaurant in a rustic old milk shed have gone from strength to strength, so much so you can’t book a table for two until October.

"I still think it’s a bit bonkers and it amazes me every day that people turn up to eat here," Michelle, 46, tells us with a modesty which encapsulates the close and homely eatery in the heart of the rural setting where you could hear a pin drop and where the family farms 140 ewes, 20 cows and a handful of pigs.

"I don’t make food too complicated. I don’t think I have the skill to do that. Everything we have to buy has to be the best. But I think I’m doing simple cooking, the way I'd like to eat. I'm surprised people rate it so highly but they do and that’s lovely."

Recently they've had folk visiting from far-flung places. "We actually often get people here from the US, where we've had a couple of really good reviews including in Bloomberg. My husband thinks it’s quite odd too that people are travelling from so far away.

"We had someone not that long ago who drove down from Manchester, ate here, and then drove back. Crazy. We'll often get people visiting from France and Germany too.