FIVE years ago, Abergavenny's famous Walnut Tree restaurant was struggling and called in Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares in a bid to turn it around.

Now, under owners who took over in 2007, it is being named Great Britain’s Restaurant of the Year by a leading food website - beating top chef Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant, once voted the best restaurant in the world, to lift the prize.

The award by the Gourmet Britain website saw the Abergevanny restaurant beat top quality competition from around the country.

The Walnut Tree, which was credited by many as putting Wales on the culinary map in the 1960s, when it was under the ownership of Italian-born Franco Taruschio and his wife Ann, is now co-owned by chef Shaun Hill and Abergavenny hotelier William Griffiths.

Mr Hill said: “It’s an honour to have won the award and to beat some of the restaurants we were up against is a real achievement.

“Our goal when we took it over was not to do an imitation of what had gone before, which was a specific regional Italian restaurant using good Welsh ingredients.

“I think our style using simple ingredients well is what came through in the judging.”

Mr and Mrs Taruschio ran the restaurant close to the Skirrid mountains for more than 35 years and made it a household name.

So much so that Mr Taruschio was awarded an honorary OBE for his services to the culinary industry and to the community in Monmouthshire.

In 2001, the couple sold the business to Francesco Mattioli and his then business partner and Michelin-starred chef, Stephen Terry of Great British Menu fame, who has since left to set up on his own restaurant in Abergavenny, The Hardwick.

After the Taruschios departure, Mr Mattioli and his wife Enrica did not enjoy similar success, with the couple eventually seeking help from Gordon Ramsay and his “Kitchen Nightmares” programme in 2004.

During the programme Gordon Ramsay clashed with Mr Mattioli over its menu and prices. The couple eventually closed the restaurant in 2007, blaming the programme for its demise.

Mr Hill added: “I think Francesco had taken over a poison chalice from Ann and Franco who had been hugely successful.

“Any change in style was always going to cause grumblings.

“It was a mistake calling in Gordon Ramsay. I think Francesco was expecting it to be a gentler programme, like a garden makeover series. Instead it was horrific.”

After its closure, The Walnut Tree was re-opened six months later by Mr Hill and Mr Griffiths. It won the AA restaurant of the year award last September.

“We were starting straight for scratch and decided to wipe the slate clean,” Mr Hill added.

“Now we hope to continue to grow from strength to strength.”

Restaurant uses 'top-quality local ingredients, treated with respect'

THE Walnut Tree was among a top five list of finalists for the Great Britain's Restaurant of the Year crown with The Kitchin, Edinburgh; Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, Bray-on-Thames; The Square, London and Lindsay House, London.

As well as quality of food, judges also took into account accessibility to the general public when deciding a winner.

The chief executive of Gourmet Britain, Simon Scrutton, said: “The Walnut Tree ticks all the boxes. Shaun Hill has used all the experience to return the Walnut Tree into something we think Franco Taruschio would approve of.

“Using top-quality local ingredients, treated with respect, so that the flavour of each main ingredient shines through.

“Not just that, but doing it at a price private customers can afford."