Cornwall Archives - Nature & bubbles

Incredibly fortunately for me Cornwall has a food festival on today. Not a “run-of-the-mill” one but the GREAT Cornwall Food Festival. And great it was.

Wild venison, shallots, cornwall potatoes and camembert

Part of this trip for me to capture and talk to people about the currency of food.

Later this year I am presenting at a famous festival and want to have enough of a handle on it to bring to words and imagery that I can convince people to what I already believe.

It’s not just foods nutrient value that makes us healthy, it is the intent, the story, what the sun was doing and more.

Food has its own currency!

So I am filming, talking, writing.

It will no doubt, form the basis of a book to be written in the next 2 years.

I was privilege to chat with so many passionate foodies and all with wonderful philosophies and produce.

A few local farmers understanding that people don’t like to travel to food anymore (hence why supermarkets have been cleaning up the food supply) so are offering home deliveries. Good move people!

Emma helps her family run their vineyard down on the peninsula called Polgoon. Pol meaning pond and goon meaning down the hill. She said their are lots of little ponds dotted along their hilly property.

They make a couple of fruity ciders, the Grumpy Apple being delicious and the others all good too. But I am most intrigued with their wines. Because the climate isn’t a fantastic wine growing region they have to use a few blends to stable the wines. Grape blends I have never heard of such as Rondo and Seyval. I enjoyed them all but settled on the Rose. A beautiful drop and I am looking forward to visiting the vineyard and orchard next trip. Check out their website here.

Hunting used to be a popular sport in Europe but I gather it has received mixed complaints, as now you need an exemption license to hunt and shot.

I am not sure exactly but I do know that Chris from @venisonandgame has it sorted. He shoots all sorts of animals and creates amazing food with them.

Today he was making a few dishes at the festival but the one that caught my eye was the venison tartifilette. Local potatoes, venison, shallots, onions and camberbet cheese. Absolutely delicious!

There were other boutique foods such as Cornish flavoured salts (all sorts of yummy flavours – porcini mushrooms, pepper and pomergranate to name a few), edible insects, ice creams, cheeses, honeys, chutneys and MORE!

I had a long chat with Keith who has his own mead distellery. Mead is wine made from honey and is sweet but delicious. He had a few varieties on offer and of course sampling them all is essential.

Bees are so important around the world and each making their own honey is a process I admire.

The hipster lads at 32south distillery are all over the modern day marketing with a huge insta account and great gins to match.

And my favourite was talking to Hilary who , with many of her keen friends, want to demonstrate to children that food is everywhere and doesn’t come from packets.

EXACTLY! I think as i listen to her tell me about the hedgeways (which reap all sorts of fruit and even hazelnuts), the paddocks and crops. This is what I love about food. And I also believe it is OUR responsibility as nutritionists, parents and custodians of future generations to show kids, to excite kids, where it all comes from. Food is the currency of love and life and yes, it is all around us!

When my sister sent me a text from the UK saying “Fifteen booked for Sunday” I assumed 15 people were coming for lunch. Little did I know that it was the name of a Jamie Oliver restaurant.

Based a little north of Newquay in a pretty cove called Watergate Bay is Fifteen.

The winds whirl along the Atlantic Sea and hit the coast of Cornwall making for some dramatic coastal beaches and even some surfing spots. Today is a mild but very unswimmable day. As stick figures clad in thick wetsuits drag their foamies out into the wild surf we settle into Fifteen. Nice and warm and with wonderful views of the Ocean.

James is to be our waiter and after the usual courtesies I really want to see what James has in him as a waiter.

A waiter is after all, an liaison for us, the dinner and the kitchen.

I believe their role is to help us decide.

In doing this a good dinner will pry gently into your day… is it going well, are you celebrating something, what sorts of appetite and digestion do you have. From there, like a tour guide showing off the secrets of an ancient relic, he/she can navigate you around the menu. Which after all is just a guide.

James gets the idea and throws himself into a full explanation of the menu. I am very grateful. Because after reading it twice it still had no meaning. It was just words. But after James had read and explained a few things, it became an adventure and an excitement. That or the wine had time to kick in.

The restaurant has been set up by the famous English chef Jamie Oliver. It is a charity where people with “rough starts” as he puts it, can acquire some training and a new skill in the food industry.

I had already met three of the apprentice chefs at the festival in the morning so I felt great joy at supporting the restaurant. Jamie Oliver has a gift of connecting people and rubbing out the lines between dreams and opportunities.

The food was excellent

I had two starters to begin with – the zucchini flower and liver and rosemary.

The liver was absolutely devine and was like self cured pate. I will dream about it for a long time. Lightly grilled after being marinated (I am assuming) the little livers melted in your mouth. The simple butter sauce complimented it perfectly and the livers were served speared on rosemary stalks which gave them enough flavour.

Main course was fantastic!

I had a big pork chop cooked to perfection. Pork can be over cooked and dried out but this was perfect to eat. The polenta and wilted spinach that accompanied it suited the dish perfectly.

All this washed down with a light Italian wine.

The food was of a high restaurant standard, but I found the atmosphere weird. It was a very large place, kept warm but lacking warmth if you know what I mean. I felt the music needed to be different to bring it all together. Maybe some Avenders playing. The decor was funky and fun yet the staff didn’t seem to be having as much fun as they could.

Maybe the music and a few more cheeky interactions would rate this restaurant higher in my opinion. All in all, great and I will definitely be returning one day.

You can also donate to help keep this grand project ticking over but probably the best thing to do, if you can, is to dine there.

Category Archives: Cornwall

The Great Cornwall Food Festival

Fifteen Cornwall