A cookery book championing the ‘most marvellous ingredient in the world’ and written by a Pembrokeshire gastro-entrepreneur is set to be launched next week.

The Little Laverbread Book written by Jonathan Williams, who has built several businesses around Welsh seaweed, showcases versatility of the iconic Welsh food: laverbread.

Laverbread is made by boiling laver (porphyra seaweed) for hours until it becomes a dark green paste. It’s traditionally eaten with cockles as part of a Welsh breakfast, but as Jonathan’s book demonstrates, there are many other ways to enjoy it.

Growing up in Pembrokeshire, Jonathan first learnt about laverbread through the landmark seaweed drying hut at Freshwater West beach. He used to go cockling nearby with his grandmother, but it wasn’t until he moved to Swansea as a student that he really got to grips with laverbread as food.

“I remember being a bit scared of the laverbread ladies on Swansea Market – they were a feisty bunch,” he says. “That's when I started cooking laverbread for my uni mates and flatmates.”

Fast forward about a decade and Jonathan had left a desk job in Swindon to relocate back to Pembrokeshire, where he set up award-winning street food outlet, Café Môr, at Freshwater West beach which uses laverbread in everything from burgers to breakfast baps and lobster rolls.

Soon, interest in his seaweed creations was so high that he decided to launch The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company, which makes everything from seaweed salt and ketchup to seaweed biscuits and butter. He also launched another company, Barti Rum, which produces an award-winning seaweed spiced rum.

By 2022 Jonathan was looking for a new challenge, so he took on The Old Point House on Angle. A former pirates’ haunt, this atmospheric pub, which is reached via a tidal causeway, is the new home for Café Môr and also has an indoor menu built on seaweed sourced from the pub’s own secret sea garden.

“It’s an extraordinary ingredient,” said Jonathon of his beloved laverbread. Nothing looks so disgusting after seven hours of cooking – to put in a lot of work to produce something that looks like that is an achievement in itself!

“People are only just starting to realise how packed it is with protein, vitamins and minerals: its protein levels are 30 per cent plus, which is extraordinary.

Besides its fascinating history and the fact that he adores cooking with it, Jonathan’s commitment to laverbread is based on its promise as a planet-saving future food.

“It has the potential to be a hugely important sustainable food source because it doesn't require any land, fresh water or pesticides.

“It has a really high growth rate and holds more vitamins and minerals than any land-based vegetable.

“Having it as part of your diet could help future generations. It could be used in mass products and incorporated into everyday dishes such as baked beans or Bolognese to enrich them with extra vitamins and minerals.”

Jonathan’s mission to promote laverbread consumption led him to launch National Laverbread Day. He hopes his book will help people get to know laverbread better.

The Little Laverbread Book includes 20 laverbread recipes, with options ranging from laverbread Welsh rarebit to laverbread lobster rolls.

. “It works beautifully in a fish pie, and I love the pasta dish in the book which includes crab, lobster, laverbread, anchovies, chilli, Parmesan and garlic,” he said.

Besides recipes, the book includes sections on the history, cultural significance and science behind laverbread.

“The reason I wrote it in the first place is that this is an incredible ingredient and we should be proud of it,” says Jonathan. “We should be singing about from the mountain tops: it's uniquely Welsh, it's hugely versatile, and it's got fantastic potential as part of our future diets. I would like to see laverbread celebrated like the truffles are celebrated in France – so this book is a big celebration of what laverbread can do.”