Chef’s Secrets
Chef Paul Ainsworth reveals the magic of Cornwall’s larder to Georgia Boscawen
Hailing from the south of England, the early stages of Paul Ainsworth’s career were spent working alongside some of the biggest names in food, including Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road and Marcus Wareing at Pétrus. Today Ainsworth is a household name in his own right, often gracing food programmes on British TV. His one-Michelinstar restaurant, Paul Ainsworth at No 6, offers creative cooking in a Georgian townhouse in the Cornish foodie hotspot of Padstow.
How does Cornwall influence and inspire your food? We have incredible produce, with some of the UK’s finest meat and vegetables on our doorstep. It is important to us here at No 6 to use seasonal produce, which we continuously update and incorporate into the menu. We have brilliant operators and chefs in Cornwall, who match the excellent producers, farmers and artisan growers. When you have all of that aligned, it creates amazing food.
What is the most popular thing on the menu?
All of the dishes on the menu at No 6 are unique in their own right, but we do get lots of guests commenting on how much they love the Crabsticks & Scones, which is a crab tempura served alongside a warm cheese scone and a limepickled shallot relish. It’s the lightest tempura and just delicious.
What is your favourite flavour combination?
We have a dish on the menu called All of The Pigeon and I have to say the gamey flavour from the pigeon combined with the warmth of the black cardamom and bergamot sauce is really something special.
If you were stuck on a desert island, which three ingredients would you have with you? It’s a tough one, but I’d go for Cornish Sea Salt, Bird’s Custard and Henderson’s Relish.
What is your favourite local restaurant on the Cornish coastline? I would highly recommend Nancarrow Farm in Truro. I love what Jack Bristow is cooking there and his feast nights are unreal – I went there for my 40th birthday. Both the location and the food are very special.
Which restaurant would you most love to visit? Holmen Lofoten. It’s in Arctic Norway’s Lofoten Islands and is said to be out of this world.