Cornwall's unexpectedly vibrant food scene
It seems not so long ago that people would say that British food was terrible as a breezy off-hand generalisation. Which feels completely cuckoo. There can be no city in the world pushing culinary boundaries like London. And, more importantly, it’s not happening only in London. If you look up the best restaurants in the UK right now, the compass points to Birmingham, to Manchester, to the Lake District, to Yorkshire and to the furthest reaches of every corner of Scotland, its highlands and its islands. And it also points firmly down to the southwest too.
Cornwall is England’s southernmost tip, a peninsula surrounded by sea, where things feel a little rugged, a lot remote, with otherworldly dawn light, sunsets pink as a pint of prawns and all four seasons on any given day. The climate—relatively warm—and the coastal breezes means that the produce is king-pin brilliant: Falmouth native oysters, Cornish crab and lobster, the sweetest first new potatoes of the year, knobbly kohlrabi, foraged mushrooms, freshly-plucked seaweeds, milk as thick as cream, cream as thick as molasses. It’s a field-to-fork, boat-to-bowl, dairy-to-dining table siren call to any chef. The key is to not mess it up.
Fortunately, the so-simple-it’s-wildly-clever menu has become practically par for the course. At the lo-fi waterside café Four Boys in Rock, the kind of place that you dream of stumbling across but so rarely do, there are plates of fried red mullet on a saffron-punch rouille to make your heart soar and rainbow salads of grilled radicchio funked up with shallots and anchovy. I sat here in the summer on a little stool at the counter as rain hammered the awnings, and I felt happy as a Porthilly clam. Across the estuary in Padstow, if you can wade past the Rick Stein empire of restaurants and fish and chip shops and coffee shops and gift shops, make a beeline for fishmonger Prawn on the Lawn. At tiny wooden tables, Cornish seafood is taken on a travelling jaunt: gurnard ceviche shows up with North African ras el hanout, sardines share the stage with Greek vibes of feta, mint and dill. The local ingredients are still stealing the show, but there’s a wink of inventiveness too.
Harbour House, in sleepy fisherman’s village Flushing, quietly rolled onto the scene last July. Just over the water from Falmouth, its setting is knockout and so is its cooking. Pub grub has been subbed out for pickled pollock with rhubarb and wild fennel or apple smoked salmon pastrami. It is properly elevated, deeply seasonal and delicate. At The Standard Inn, a traditional Sunday roast is of course top billing, but Simon Stallard is absolutely mad for grilling anything he can get his hands on—the blackened whole St Ives Bay mackerel with charred spring onions and tarragon mayo is worth the six-hour drive from London and back again.
There are bakeries more than worth that drive too. Flora at New Yard, where the menus chalked up on a blackboard are always zippy and vibrant and thoughtful. Gorse at the Lanteague Studios, where toasted sesame and fenugreek loaves and the most moreish rye crackers sell out by lunchtime. At Crocadon, former Claridge's alum Dan Cox may have already swooped a Michelin star for his soil-centric farm restaurant, but there’s magic happening in the café too: blackcurrant jam and woodruff cream croissants dipped in Italian meringue that look like a work of art. And a new wave of dialled up wine bars and bottle shops have popped up—Little Palais and St Eia in St Ives, lovely Lovetts in Newlyn. The list could go on and on.
There is an alchemy at play, or a meeting of like minds, or a shift in the lay lines that is bringing all these creative mavericks and entrepreneurs to the forefront. Whatever it is, I am here for the feast.
Hungry for more? Feast your eyes on the rest of our Cornwall guide.
Issy von Simson
Still strongly tethered to her hometown London, Issy certainly knows what’s groovy in the UK capital. But, lucky for us, her knowledge extends far beyond the reaches of Zone 6. Perpetually drawn to the coast – the brinier the better when it comes to the air – Issy is our go-to for seaside getaways. Opinionated and organised, she’s pretty much our ideal travel companion; you know you’re going to get a perfectly planned trip when Issy’s in charge. So, follow her tips and do as Issy does. You’ll end up in the most gloriously unexpected of places.
