This is the coolest scene in Cornwall right now

Times

4 days ago

It's a midsummer evening at the Padstow Kitchen Garden in Cornwall and I have just finished supper with its owner, the farmer Ross Geach. Almost every scrap of it has gone. The courgette flowers stuffed with sausage meat served with an elderflower emulsion and wild fennel — I ate most of those. The same goes for the barbecued lobster with nduja salami butter. Before he turned to market gardening, Geach was head chef at Rick Stein's Café, and from start to finish every flavour has been breathtakingly fresh. No wonder, given that he grew or foraged most of the ingredients.
The only things defeating me are his new potatoes — I just didn't have room, but if I could fill my pockets with the remainder and somehow avoid looking like Oliver Twist on ravenous day-release from London, I would. Of all the things I've eaten tonight they are the most delicious, not least because as I gaze out from his open-ended feasting barn towards the silvery streak of the Camel estuary, I can see the spot where they were picked this afternoon. The distance travelled from soil to plate has been 50 yards.
Geach is now sharing this deep slice of serenity on the north Cornish coast with a few lucky guests. He was already laying on periodic lobster or lamb feasts in his barn (from £50pp), and is now also offering the chance to stay the night — in three shepherd's huts in the field next door.
Built by his friends at Pumphrey and Weston near Bodmin, the huts stand — wrapped in corrugated, Prussian-blue cladding — overlooking the estuary, and open up to reveal carefully curated bolt holes for two people. Among the highlights are a well-equipped kitchen with a fancy Everhot stove, a punchy electric shower in the tiny bathroom and, best of all, a double bed that fills each hut's far end. Later, when I climb into mine, I feel like a pea returning to its pod — 'snug' doesn't come close to describing its sense of comfort.
From the end of summer Geach will also be offering a bespoke catering service for guests staying in his shepherd's huts, starting at £65pp for dinner. The way that he barbecues his lobster — guided by his thermometer rather than the clock — is not to be missed.
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Only one thing bothers me about this arrangement as I sit in the barn, feeling the weight of the working week lift off my shoulders. Tonight it's a gorgeous spot — quiet, calm and deeply refreshing. But what's it like in high season? Geach laughs. 'Sean! You're on a farm, remember?' And he nods towards the land that fills the foreground. 'That's just shy of 105 acres — and it's been worked by my family for seven generations. I can absolutely guarantee it will be no different when every beach car park round here is overflowing.'
Still, if you are a guest of Geach this summer, don't let that stop you from exploring the restaurant scene beyond his farm, because a new mood is sweeping through this part of Cornwall, and it has a lot in common with his unfussy style and high standards.
Take Newquay, for example. Lately, England's surf capital has been toning down its stag-do personality and catering to the tastes of its digital nomads and remote workers.
It's not by any means a top-to-bottom transformation. But down by the mega-pubs overlooking Towan beach you'll find Counterculture, a chatty, off-the-cuff little restaurant devoted to the pintxo snacks of the Basque Country that has just been named the best restaurant in the southwest by the Good Food Guide (pintxos from £6; pintxocornwall.co.uk).
Round the corner, on Fore Street, Parlour has added a slice of South Beach Miami to the town's sundae scene (instagram.com/parlour.nqy).
And just outside Newquay, on the edge of the village of Crantock, Halwyn has made golf driving ranges surprisingly hip with the addition of bold, tasty food from Matthew Haggath, formerly of the Idle Rocks hotel in St Mawes. It also has a crazy-golf course that's as much a Cornish rock garden as a place to putt (mains from £20; halwyn.co.uk).
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Add SeaSpace in Porth into the mix and these charismatic and inexpensive businesses are beginning to look like a fresh, new wave. In the upcycled shell of a 1970s hotel, SeaSpace offers funky and well-planned clifftop apartments for up to four people from £150 a night, as well as a slew of facilities that are open to guests and locals, so even in mid-winter its padel courts, swimming pool and coffee shop are buzzing. After a long wait its restaurant is now fully open too, with homemade pasta, ricotta gnocchi and mighty steaks doused in a gorgonzola sauce on the menu (mains from £15; sea.space).
It feels as though we've come a long way from the highfalutin hotels that turned our heads 15-odd years ago.
Meanwhile, back at Padstow Kitchen Garden I sleep for nine and a half hours on the first night in my shepherd's hut. When eventually I do get up, Geach is already busy, preparing deliveries of padron peppers, black kale, courgettes and 14 different types of salad leaves. But still he finds time to see how I'm getting on.
I tell him about the skylarks. They're the only thing that I've heard this morning besides the kettle I boiled for my bedside cuppa. 'Actually I was worried about them for a bit after I put the huts in,' he says. 'I thought I might have disturbed their nesting sites. But I'm happy to say they haven't budged.'
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I'm happy too — with their song rising and falling through the morning air and a walk beside the Camel estuary beckoning, I have all the luxury I need.Sean Newsom was a guest of the Padstow Kitchen Garden, which has self-catering huts for two from £150 a night (padstowkitchengarden.co.uk)