Our executive chef Adam Clark gave a bravura performance at this year's Cornwall Food & Drink Festival.

Adam gave a cooking demo at the festival, demonstrating how to make Gunnard Steamed on a Bed of Bladderwrack with Wild Mussels, Sauce Vierge and Organic Marrow with Bacon and Herbs.

The marquee was packed with keen cooks eager to hear more about how to make the most of Cornwall's native ingredients.

Sally Jamieson, who came to Cornwall from Devon especially for the festival, said: "I loved Adam's demonstration, he was so down to earth. When he first told us what he was going to cook, I was a bit intimidated. What do you do with seaweed? But he made it all seem so easy and manageable. I am definitely going to collect some seaweed while we're here and have a go at making it."

Adam's passion for local, seasonal produce means he is often to be found wild food foraging the cliff top and shoreline below the hotel. He regularly rustles his way along hedgerows and through bushes, treetops and rock pools looking for inspiration.

His use of wild ingredients including gorse, ramsons, rock samphire, sea beet and sea vegetables lifts his menus above the usual humdrum hotel fayre.

“I’m always on the look-out, poking through hedgerows,” he says. “Nature tells you what ingredients make good bedfellows for a dish."

Adam takes enormous pride in preparing dishes using a wide range of quality Cornish produce.

Adam’s tip: “Experiment with foraged ingredients. When you are out and about, walking the dog say, open your eyes and see what’s cropping up.
“If you come across blackberries and crab apples, grab a recipe book and experiment. A blackberry and apple jelly works really well.

“Don’t peel or deseed the apples, just chop them roughly and cook them until tender. They are packed with pectin, which is great for jams and jellies.”