Rock, Cornwall. Population: 1,330. One butcher, one baker, one hardware store. And one Michelin star. Rock may be a mere speck on the map of Cornwall, a blink-and-you-miss-it village on the edge of the Camel Estuary, but on the culinary scene it's big news. The Michelin star belongs to the Black Pig, a small 30-seater restaurant set up by chef Nathan Outlaw, his brother-in-law Colin Morris and Colin's partner Nicki Tigwell, less than a year ago. Set back from the road in a low brick building, 100 metres down from Di's Pantry "Food lover's temple of the west," Black Pig's simple interior has white-panelled walls, black chairs and £5,000 paintings on loan from Padstow gallery, a contemporary setting to compliment a menu based on local produce with a modern twist.
"Our philosophy is to use local produce and keep the menu simple and very seasonal. We're not the Fat Duck, we're not trying to break the mould. We're progressing slowly," says Outlaw. A modest claim coming from a 26 year-old chef awarded a Michelin star within eight months of opening. That there's a restaurant serving marinated squab pigeon with bitter chocolate followed by John Dory with dried zests, chicory marmalade tart, pistachios and grapefruit in a small Cornish village is a little surprising at first, but Outlaw researched his first solo venture well. Small it may be but Rock is one of the most affluent pockets of the county, known as Kensington-on-Sea thanks to the young Chelsea set who descend on the local beaches every summer for - according to the tabloids - drunken all-night parties. Whether or not the beach parties are media invention, this is very much second home territory where you're more likely to hear cut-glass home counties accents than the local burr.
Until the opening of Black Pig, holidaymakers after a gourmet dining experience stood on the beach at Rock waving a red flag to hail the bright yellow passenger ferry across the estuary (or took the longer route by car) to its bigger, better-known neighbour, Padstow - where Rick Stein opened his Seafood Restaurant back in the 1970s. Twenty-nine years and a bistro, cookery school, deli, patisserie, ludicrously expensive gift shop, hotel, and fish and chip shop later, you can't turn a corner in Padstow's cobbled streets without coming across Stein's trademark green-grey colour scheme. With characteristic enthusiasm Stein says his new quayside Fish and Chip shop is "the realisation of a lifelong dream"; it's certainly the trendiest chippy in town - all slate floors, chunky wood tables and battered monkfish on offer alongside the cod and mushy peas. Does Padstow need another chippy? That's not the point. Cynics may call it Padstein but the simple truth is anything with Stein's name on it sells, as the queue on the first day proved.
However, even Stein recognises he's done all he can in Padstow. For his next project he's ventured further afield - 10 miles round the coast to Newquay. It's his biggest challenge yet - an upmarket hotel and restaurant in a town better known for rowdy beer-swilling stag parties, but my guess is it'll work and no doubt prompt a host of spin-offs.
"We're aiming it at a younger group - 35-year-old professionals with a good income who have taken up surfing. If it works, it'll work spectacularly well; if it doesn't, I'm in trouble," says Stein.
If Stein is credited with kick-starting Cornwall's food revolution, it's been a long slow process but it's gathering pace. The Black Pig is one of three restaurants in Cornwall to be awarded the Michelin accolade in the past two years: the Abbey restaurant in Penzance gained its star in 2002 and Ripley's in St Merryn followed a year later.
Enter The Abbey and you find yourself in a dimly-lit, alcoved red bar which leads to the contrasting bright airy restaurant upstairs where chef Ben Tunnicliffe turns out beautifully presented plates of pan-fried fois gras served with aubergine caviar, Cornish lamb and delicious fish and seafood. Now, with the help of his Polish wife Kinga, he's turning his attention to the hotel next door. Crammed with antiques, gilt-edged mirrors, chandeliers and artefacts collected from round-the-world travels, the hotel, also called the Abbey and owned by former model Jean Shrimpton, is cosy and traditional without being at all stuffy. With just six harbour-view rooms and a walled garden, it's more like a well-to-do aunt's country home than a hotel and serves as a good base for exploring the local attractions - St Michaels' Mount is a 20-minute walk away and St Ives is accessible by a train which runs along the cliff. But it's never been able to pull in the punters. Under their management the Tunnicliffes hope to turn it into a bustling seaside retreat.
Their timing couldn't be better. Cornwall is changing fast and fine wining and dining is just part of the picture. Towns are being chi-chied up. Penzance, where New Look and Dorothy Perkins were once the cutting edge of fashion, now has Fish Boy, a deeply trendy clothes boutique, and Kitt's Corner for vintage wear. But there's also large-scale investment across the region; it started with the 2001 opening of the £100m Eden project, then came the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, and just last month Scylla, an ex-naval frigate, was deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef for scuba divers.
On the back of the restaurant scene, farms are booming thanks to demand for fresh, local produce and there's even a burgeoning wine business. Camel Valley wines - a Food Hero on Stein's latest TV programme - supplies many local restaurants, a couple of Waitrose outlets and, bizarrely, the Rio casino in Vegas. You can visit the vineyard at any time, or take the grand tour on Wednesdays and try four half glasses of wine for £5. The bubbly is on the menu at The Abbey at £25.50 a bottle.
But eating in Cornwall doesn't have to be an extravagant gourmet fest. At Polrode Mill Cottage, an idyllic 17th-century cottage with a vegetable garden, three bedrooms and a cosy living room where you can snuggle up next to the fire, three courses cost £24. Owners David Edwards and Deborah Hiborne make all their own preserves and bread and David cooks each night on an Aga.
Back in Rock you can dine on Thai curry at the bright and breezy Blue Tomato Cafe at Rock for £6.95. A sister restaurant has just opened at Polzeath with fantastic views of the bay where surfers battle the waves all day, no matter what time of year. Blue Tomato is competition for Finn's, a Polzeath institution. It reopened earlier this month after a revamp which ditched the lurid green and red colour scheme in favour of muted colours and bare wood boards.
Finn's appears to be a simple beachside caff - albeit a rather trendy one - until you notice that alongside the £11.50 organic house wine there's a £79.50 Chablis Grand Cru that, according to owner David Spurrell, "will sell by the crateload in summer," as well as a £159 champagne. Princes William and Harry take regular holidays in Cornwall and have dined out on Finn's decked terrace several times. But Spurrell doesn't close the restaurant for them - princes, lords, ladies, surf dudes and families tuck into ciabatta sandwiches side by side.
Royal patronage is just one example of how Cornwall has "arrived" or, as Spurell puts it, "gone insane." But if rubbing shoulders with lord and lady whatsit isn't your scene, Cornwall is big enough and wild enough for you to find your own sunspot on the long golden beaches or in the pretty fishing villages, that, despite the gourmet revolution, still serve a mean clotted cream tea.
School of fish
"We're in the chunky era," says Mark Devonshire, resident cookery teacher at Rick Stein's quayside Seafood School in Padstow. He's chopping avocados for a grilled tuna salad, chattering away about the latest cooking trends. "There was a time when we pureed everything, now chunky's definitely in - or rustic as we like to call it."
Sixteen of us are gathered in the school's swish kitchen, where the idea is not to turn us into chefs, but to give us confidence to prepare and cook fish - and let us into a few trade secrets.
Mark warns us not to polish off the entire fruits of our labour, but my finished tuna dish tastes so good - depsite the burnt bits - his advice goes out the window. By 10.30am my apron is covered in avocado and we're on to the second dish of the day: risotto nero with squid. It's the sort of recipe I'd usually dismiss as being too risky but Mark makes it look deceptively simple. I make a mental note to track down a jar of squid ink when I get back to London and get on with the revolting but strangely satisfying job of dismembering the squid.
I'd expected the group to be mainly women of a certain age. In fact there are equal numbers of men and women, young and old, the super-cocky (like the bloke who chipped in his tuppence worth from the back of the classroom) and the not-so-confident (a retired teacher, who "never really cooks with garlic").
At 12pm on the dot out comes the wine and a few swigs later we're ready to tackle the John Dory for our filleting lesson. The great thing about cooking good quality fresh fish is it needs very little fussing about with. Warm potato salads ready to go, we synchronise our grilling and a minute and a half later, voila, lunch for 16 is ready. Over lunch Rick Stein makes a surprise visit to sign our course books, and better still, a kitchen fairy nips in and whisks away all the washing up.
The one-day seafood course is cunningly devised so all the cooking is done in the morning. I thought this was a bit of a swizz until the wine, concentration and lunch start to take their toll and I'm perfectly happy to watch Gordon McDermott - our chef for the afternoon - cook a brill with poached oysters and, the piece de resistance, a red thai seafood curry.
At 4.30pm Gordon calls it a day and hands out certificates. I leave with a folder full of recipes, a taste for oysters (it was the first time I'd tried them) and, after watching Mark and Gordon's speed chopping, a promise to myself to buy a decent kitchen knife.
· The Padstow Seafood School (01841 532700, rickstein.com) offers a range of one-, two- and four-day courses from £155.
Way to go
Getting there: Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies Stansted-Newquay from £25 rtn inc taxes. Hertz cars can be booked through Ryanair from £200 a week in May.
Where to stay and eat: The Abbey Hotel and Restaurant, Penzance (01736 330680, theabbeyonline.com, Tues-Sun dinner; Fri-Sat lunch and dinner); doubles from £110; mains from £15.75, wine from £11. You can stay at Rick Stein's Cafe, Padstow, for £85 a night. Polrode Mill Cottage near St Tudy, (01208 850203), has rooms from £35pp. Black Pig, Rock (01208 862622, blackpigrestaurant.co.uk, Mon-Sat, lunch and dinner) has mains from £19.75, wine from £12.50. Burrdiges at Rock (01208 869399, Tues-Sat dinner) has mains from £15.50. Finn's, Polzeath (01208 863472, finnscafe.co.uk, open seven days a week from May bank holiday) mains from £5.95, wine from £10.50. Blue Tomato Cafe, Polzeath (01208 862333, open every day, lunch and dinner, except Mon), mains from £9.95, wines from £9.95.
Further information: 0870 442 0880, visitsouthwest.co.uk.
