The first-ever Great Cornish Seafood Weekend is taking place on the 26th and 27th of October at the Great Cornish Food Store in Truro. The inaugural event will be a celebration of seafood, Cornwall’s fishing industry and all those who work in it. The weekend-long event will include live demonstrations, talks, tasting stations, a seafood bar, sea shanties and a host of children's activities.

Pete Murt, head chef at Rick Stein’s flagship The Seafood Restaurant, is one of the first guest chefs to be confirmed in the festival’s line up. Pete’s seafood journey began in 2000 at the age of 16 when he became a kitchen porter at Rick Stein’s St Petroc’s Bistro. After a stint of travelling in East Asia, Pete returned to Padstow and became head chef at The Seafood Restaurant, only the fourth in its 40-year history.

Joining Pete will be Stephane Delourme, former head chef and group chef at Rick Stein Restaurants, who will demonstrate the art of shucking and cooking oysters using different flavours. Acclaimed fishmonger Annie Seabourne of My Fish Kitchen will be using her renowned skills to show how to cook, pick and eat crab. Also making an appearance will be Jeffrey Robinson, one of the first chefs in the world to receive a Green Michelin Star, who has a passion for provenance and sustainability and is opening his own cookery school in his hometown of St Ives.

The Great Cornish Seafood Weekend is a collaboration between the award-winning Great Cornish Food Store and the Cornish Fish Producers’ Association (CFPO), which represents more than 160 member vessels. 

CFPO chief executive Chris Ranford is among the weekend’s speakers and will focus his session on the fishing industry’s vital economic role, with around 8,000 people employed west of the River Tamar. 

Chris said: “The Great Cornish Seafood Weekend is a great opportunity to celebrate how crucial the seafood sector is to our economy and how we are home to one of the most diverse, sustainable fleets in Europe, landing more than 50 different species of fish every year.”

Ruth Huxley, director of the Great Cornish Food Store, added: “With the first-ever The Great Cornish Seafood Weekend we want to shine a light on our brilliant fishing industry, the lifeblood of so many of our coastal communities.

“We found that when we asked people what food they most associated with Cornwall, more stated seafood rather than any other type of food.

“We are really looking forward to showcasing the huge variety available from our waters and encouraging people to explore lesser known species and different ways of using them.”

Also attending over the weekend will be the Cornwall Wildlife Trust promoting their Good Seafood Guide, the go-to source for advice on sustainable fish choice, and Falmouth singer songwriter Toby Webb as well as fiddle and double bass duo ‘Months Advance’, who will both be entertaining visitors with folk music and sea shanties on both days.

The store’s outside space will be transformed into a play area for children, with mobile rock pooling led by Cornwall and Devon-based social enterprise, The Rock Pool Project and fishy face painting. 

The weekend is part of the Agrifood Sector Development Project delivered by the team behind the award-winning Great Cornish Food Store.

The project has been made possible through the Good Growth programme, which is managed by Cornwall Council and funded by the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

For more information on Great Cornish Seafood Weekend or to book your chef demo tickets go to www.greatcornishfood.co.uk

Photos: Left-right: Stephane Delourme, Pete Murt.