(^18) Cornwall Life: August 2019
L
ooking at Nathan Outlaw’s current
place in the British culinary scene,
it’s hard to imagine the cheerful,
bearded chef as having been
anything other than a bona fide seafood
aficionado throughout his life. Outlaw’s
rise from Rick Stein protégé, to seeing his
eponymous Port Isaac restaurant become
the first fish-specific restaurant to attain
two coveted Michelin stars in 2011, is
indicative of a man who was assuredly
comfortable amid fillets since he first
picked up a knife – surely?
“When I was a child, I really didn’t like
fish,” the 41-year-old admits. “I guess I had
fish and chips and fish finger sandwiches
and that sort of thing, but I didn’t really
ever eat proper seafood. It wasn’t really
something we ate as a family. But what I
was exposed to was at the seaside, because
whenever we went away on holiday when
I was a child it would be to the seaside.
So, I think it planted something and put
that interest there. So, when I came to
start cooking professionally, I was really
interested in seafood because I knew a bit
about where it came from.”
This culinary ethos, and the tangible
link between place and plate, has always
defined Outlaw’s cooking. Now a globally
renowned authority on the fruits of our
nearby seas, the connection between this
chef and the county of his birth runs far
deeper than proximity to the centrepieces
of his internationally acclaimed recipes.
“Because of the way Cornwall is as
a county, being so narrow and long,
it actually has so many different
environments in it,” he explains. “So, you
have the north which is quite rough and
rugged, and you have these lovely fields of
grass with all these beautiful cows grazing
that produce great dairy, and these little
coves where the fishermen can get in and
out with the tide in day-boats, and that
brings freshness and quality. You have
great grain conditions, albeit it is quite
windy so there are some things that won’t
grow, but if you’re talking about things like
potatoes, cauliflowers, all the brassicas,
strawberries and apples, obviously, which
they use for scrumpy and ciders.
“Even something as simple as a Cornish
pasty, if it’s done properly, is amazing. So,
there’s a real food heritage in Cornwall.
Stuff like clotted cream is only made in the
West Country; it’s one of those things that
relies on the quality of the milk produced
and those cows, so it’s not something that
can be done anywhere else necessarily. So,
there is that uniqueness.”
And then, of course, there’s the catch
of the day – over forty different species at
places like Newlyn alone. “I think mackerel
is definitely my favourite, but the season
for that is quite short,” Outlaw nods. “It
starts about early April and will go until
Big
Fish
With a new restaurant opening, a new
book just out, and an industry-defining two
Michelin stars already in the bag, Nathan
Outlaw has put Cornwall’s culinary heritage
on the plates of an audience of global foodies
without ever forgetting his regional roots