The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
From the rugged coastline of dramatic, salt-sprayed clifftops to the teal-blue harbours and grassy, wild moors, Cornwall has it all.
Home to an abundance of fresh seasonal produce: vibrant home-grown veggies, organic small-farm reared meat and fresh-as-you-like seafood, it’s no wonder it’s got such a pull on food-fanatics across the country and there’s been a surge in London chefs and restaurant owners escaping to the Cornish coast – Fitzroy of Fowey, Prawn on the Lawn, chef Tim Spedding and wine bar Lovetts are just some who’ve swapped the Big Smoke for a slower pace of life by the sea.
A progressive food scene puts sustainability high on the agenda and it’s common among the Cornish community for leftover ingredients to be swapped and recycled between farms, restaurants and breweries, making the zero-waste ethos a part of life.
A real food-lover’s hot spot, the Kernow countryside is ripe for anyone wanting to get down and dirty with ingredients, to feel the sun on their skin, seaspray in the air and mud beneath their feet.
Farmstays & Foraging
Coombeshead Farm, Lewannick
This 18th century farmhouse and restaurant sits on a working farm, with five guest rooms and a huge country kitchen to make you feel right at home. Grab some wellies and roam across the woods, hear the trickle of the stream and get acquainted with the Mangalitsa pigs, coated in curly, downy fur and as fat and free range as can be.
Dinner in the converted barn comes courtesy of award-winning chef Tom Adams, and is a feast of hyper local produce that comes mostly from the farm itself. You may even catch the chefs plucking herbs from the garden on the way to the kitchen.
Look out for varied flavours and texture like fresh cow’s curd with sunflower miso, or delicious house-made Mangalitza salami. With the huge guest room beds ready to sink into after an evening’s feasting, Coombeshead is a glutton’s heaven.
Nancarrow Farm, Zelah, Truro
Family owned for nearly 250 years, Nancarrow is a working organic farm complete with restored barns and kitchen, handsome bronze jersey cows, lambs, pigs, geese and even wild honeybees. Life here follows decades-long holistic practices and constant innovations in the nose-to-tail movement, which can be seen running through the larder, butchery and dry-ageing room.
Every month, the doors are thrown open for feasts and gatherings – soul-filling evenings of music, drinks (sloe gin negroni, anyone?) and a big old banquet in the barn, where chefs create wholesome menus based around the surroundings and produce from the farm. It’s a picture-perfect setting – think rustic buildings, fire pits and fairy lights among the lush green surroundings. Stay overnight in one of the Grade II listed millhouse barns, and tuck in to a hearty communal breakfast the next morning.
Tip: Don’t miss the 1000 Mouths Festival for an entire weekend of street food, live music, wild walks and workshops, feasting and dinners with guest chefs and collaborators from London and Cornwall.
Fat Hen, the wild cookery school, Penzance
Get back to nature and the source of food with foraging, cooking and feasting at this cookery school with a difference. Ramble across the Cornish cliffs to gather your own wild herbs, vegetables and berries from the hedgerows and seashores – you’ll be amazed at what you can find, from wild fennel and black mustard to the mystical-sounding mugwort.
Back at the cookery school, get to grips with filleting fish, butchery and making fresh pasta from scratch, and then settle in for a convivial communal feast with well-deserved a glass of wine. All of this takes place under the expert guidance of founder Caroline Davey, who set up the school to combine her love for nature with her deep knowledge of wild plants and their benefits, and she punctuates the information with humour and stories, such as the cheery tale of Socrates’ ‘death by hemlock’.
A weekend here will blow the cobwebs off any weary city-dweller.
Restaurants and Supper Clubs
The Gurnard’s Head, Zennor
A drive along the West Cornwall Coast Road, one of the most scenic stretches in the UK, will have you ooh-ing and aah-ing as it winds around the remote coastline, and has the added bonus of leading to the yellow Wes-Anderson-esque beacon that is the Gurnard’s Head – a ‘proper’ pub done right with a menu stuffed full of local goodies, and country-comfort rooms to boot.
Top notch beers and ales sit alongside an award-winning wine list, wittily writ and clearly put together with love, as well as a few lively lines of character like, “sometimes you just need the good hard wallop of a well-made drink.” Preach.
Try the Sunday Sleepover for lunch, a flick through the papers and a walk in the hills before supper and a good night’s sleep.
The Old Custom House, St Ives
Overlooking the glistening teal blue St Ives Harbour, it would be easy to fall in love with The Old Custom House without even stepping inside, though it would be a shame not to venture in as both food and hospitality make it a shining light in Cornwall’s restaurant scene. The cosy dining room is small with just 24 seats but the atmosphere is huge, thanks in no small part to the warmth of service.
Yorkshire-woman Haley Sugden commands front of house with knowledge, ease, and a few laughs, while partner and head chef Steve Knowles sends out dish after glorious dish from the kitchen. Small plates of mediterranean-inspired dishes are as good to look at as they are to eat.
Bag the table by the window to watch the sky glow orange and purple as the sun goes down, before settling into darkness with a dessert.
Fresh From The Sea, Port Isaac
The pretty fishing village of Port Isaac is fast rivalling nearby Padstow as Cornwall’s foodie-destination thanks to restaurants by chef Nathan Outlaw. But there’s joy to be found in the lesser known spots, and Fresh From The Sea is as joyful as they come.
The humble seaside shack has just three tables and a counter stuffed full of seafood, rudely fresh and still glistening from the water. The catch of the day is brought in each and every morning by owner Calum on the ‘Mary D’ boat, prepared in-house and served simply to preserve the flavours.
The menu is as simple – and effective – as the concept: crab sandwich, lobster feast, a few oysters. The crab sarnies are the kind of thing you’ll pine for afterwards, and contemplate whether a 6-hour drive from London really is too far to go on a weekly basis.
Fitzroy of Fowey, Fowey
The folks behind London’s Western’s Laundry, Primeur and Jolene restaurants have escaped the city and skipped off to the seaside to open Fitzroy of Fowey on the Fowey estuary. Housed in an old bank, the daily-changing menu blends the local flavours of fresh seafood and home-grown veg with more exotic ingredients, think braised courgettes and goats curd alongside pork belly and Korean chili.
Add a roster of small-production, minimal-intervention wines, and you’ve got everything you need for a jolly good time.
A Supper Club by Chef Tim Spedding, Rock
An early adopter of the ‘chefs escaping the city for the open air of Cornwall’ trend, Tim Spedding, previously of Clove Club and P. Franco fame, headed for the Kernow wilds a couple of years ago, and this summer is hosting a series of supper clubs in the idyllic setting of Treverra Farm in Rock near Padstow.
Together with his partner Louise, Tim serves up dishes that blend the hyperlocal with the exotic. Menus could feature whole grilled turbot, asparagus from the farmhouse kitchen garden and cultured butter from a local independent dairy, as well as ingredients brought back from the pair’s travels.
The real inside-track, these are slightly clandestine affairs and booking is by word-of-mouth only, but keep an eye on Instagram for dates released throughout the summer.
Instagram @TimSpedding
Drink
Camel Valley Winery, Bodmin
The sunny south of England is perfect vineyard territory and Bob and Annie Lindo planted theirs back in the 80s. Now one of the most highly-awarded English sparkling wines, Camel Valley is a great place for an afternoon’s tasting. Take a tour through the vineyards before settling in to the onsite bar for a glass or three of bubbles overlooking the sun-drenched vineyard slopes.
Tip: If timing and location allow, hire bikes from nearby Padstow and cycle the Camel Trail there and back The old railway track runs the whole way from the fishing town, taking in jaw-dropping views along the way. Your map will tell you it’s an hour’s cycle, but leave much longer to enjoy the journey at a leisurely pace, stopping for tea and scones along the way. On the way back you can fall into Rick Stein’s fish and chips for well-deserved sustenance.
Beer: Harbour Brewing Co, Bodmin
Taking ‘craft beer’ a few hops further, Harbour Brewing Co is a progressive brewery in the middle of a working farm with its own pigs, goats and chickens, a herb garden and an orchard. Working with incredible raw ingredients and applying production principles similar to natural winemaking, the results are a little more wild.
The brewery resembles something of a mad scientist’s workshop, with oddities like an amphora lined with beeswax, and beers fermented with wild yeasts from the orchard. A tour will take you around all the wacky and wonderful goings on, and ends in the taproom where you can taste through the creations.
Try the Raspberry Sour brewed with lemon thyme from the garden, and, if you can, take a trip outside to see the adopted pigs.
Lovetts Bar & Shop, Newlyn
Lovetts serves up coffee and cake in the morning and low intervention wine and toasted sarnies in the evening. All the of the by the glass selection comes from eco-friendly bag-in-box formats, while bottles include a roster of tried-and-tested natural wine faves like Gut Oggau and Lamoresca.
Though many miles from Hackney, this neighbourhood hangout would be at home on any east London high street, bustling, busy and full of hip folk.
Yallah Coffee Kiosk, St Ives
Coffee and doughnuts worth queueing for at this cute harbourside hatch in St Ives. Yallah specialise in single origin coffee with a focus on sustainability, like biodegradable packaging and milk from local dairies, and the coffee is among the best in Cornwall.
Stay
Chapel House PZ, Penzance
A grand, Georgian townhouse perched at the end of pretty Chapel Street, Chapel House is more of a relaxed guesthouse than a typical hotel. No reception desk adds to a feeling of privacy and you can float through the hallways, sweep down the stairs and drape yourself over the elegant mid-century furniture, pretending you live there. Bedrooms are spacious, soothing and drenched in gorgeous natural light with views that stretch out over the harbour.
Add plush super king beds with silky soft linen, free-standing bathtub and soft reading chairs, and you’ll really have to tear yourself away to explore the outdoors.
Food is a serious highlight and weekend suppers and Sunday brunch are not to be missed. Wake to the sound of the chapel bells and smell of fresh coffee and toast wafting from the kitchen, you’ll find just-whizzed smoothies, mountains of fruit salad and proper bacon sandwiches on fluffy white loaf.
St Tudy Inn, Bodmin
Chef Emily Scott is one to watch, having already scooped a Michelin Bib Gourmand, been listed in the top 100 most influential women in the hospitality industry, and starred in the Great British Menu 2019. You’ll find her behind the pass at her rustic country gastropub, St Tudy Inn, in the historic 17th century village of St Tudy in Bodmin.
With precise understanding of flavour but a gentle approach to handling, Emily’s menu is a celebration of seasonal Cornish produce, presented by a cheery team who seem to love what they do – an atmosphere that’s infectious and will have you enthusiastically mopping up last morsels and equally enthusiastically sloshing down wine.
Once you’ve devoured both, you can potter over to one of the guest rooms at the Inn – the motto here is eat well, sleep well and you can do both very nicely in this Cornish countryside retreat.
St Petroc’s and St Edmund’s House, Padstow
Brilliantly located on a handsome street leading down to Padstow harbour, St Petroc’s is part of the Rick Stein group and the charming building oozes character. The rustic bistro features tastefully designed ocean-themed interiors, spacious and comfortable rooms, and en-suites complete with huge, fluffy towels and Jill Stein toiletries. An easy distance from the harbour, and all the shops, restaurants and boutiques within, St Petroc’s is an ideal base for exploring.
For another step up in luxury, try St Edmunds just a few feet around the corner. Part of the same Rick Stein empire (they don’t call it Padstein for nothing) the elegant townhouse comes with its own private garden. Bag one of the ground floor rooms and enjoy doors that open directly on to the lawn, so that after an evening’s dinner you can grab a bottle of bubbles from the mini bar and relax with a blanket and views of the night sky.
rickstein.com/stay/st-edmunds-house
