Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Celebrity & Campaigning Chefs
When
Rick Stein
opened a restaurant in the quaint Cornish fishing village of Padstow in
1975, few realised he was about to transform a culinary landscape. By 1995, Stein's
Taste
of the Sea
TV series had placed Cornwall firmly in the foodie spotlight; his show
Food
Heroes
brought local produce to mainstream attention.
Others followed.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
set up River Cottage on the
Devon-Dorset border in 1998; now you can dine at his farm River Cottage HQ (
Click
here
)
, his canteens in east Devon (
Click here
)
and Plymouth (
Click here
), and learn how to
grow vegetables, make bread and butcher meat.
Along with creating a small-screen lifestyle idyll, Fearnley-Whittingstall is also pushing
for real change; 24,300 people signed up to Fish Fight, backing calls to cut the number of
dead fish being thrown back into the seas.
So, crucially, the region's celebrity chefs are also campaigning chefs.
Jamie Oliver
, who
battled for quality school dinners, brought Fifteen to a Newquay beach in 2006. This gour-
met restaurant teaches underprivileged youngsters how to cook, and batches of apprentice
chefs graduate each year. This is cooking as a community project.
High-profile eateries have a big impact on local towns. Stein has four eateries, three
B&Bs and a hotel in Padstow, prompting critics to dub the port 'Padstein'. Others point to
the jobs big-name chefs bring to areas badly in need of them.
And then there are chefs, famed in foodie circles, who dish up superb food:
Michael
Caines
(Exeter and Gidleigh Park);
Nathan Outlaw
(Rock and Looe);
Paul Ainsworth
(Padstow) and
Mitch Tonks
(Dartmouth).
DON'T MISS FOODIE EXPERIENCES
Wine
Perfect your palate just yards from the vines at the region's beguiling wineries.
Picnics
Watch from picturesque cliffs as the sun sets over the sea, surfers and your starter.
Rustic pubs
Drink in centuries of history, culture and top cider and beer.
Seafood
Watch fish being landed, then dine on gourmet delights or a super-tasty crab roll.
Cream teas
Just-baked scones, homemade jam and so-thick-you-can-stand-your-spoon-up-in-it clotted cream.
