Paul Ainsworth

A remarkable culinary voyage has seen Paul Ainsworth sail down the south coast from Hampshire to anchor in Cornwall, with a fleet of award-winning restaurants and an enduring love of live-fire cooking. RUPERT BATES reports

Are great chefs born, made, or a product of their environment? Paul Ainsworth is undoubtedly a great chef, Michelin-starred and with a remarkable Cornish collection of restaurants.

Ainsworth’s environment growing up was a huge influence on him, observing his parents run a Hampshire guesthouse in Southampton, not only watching them cook and helping in the kitchen, but inspired by their work ethic and enthusiasm.

“Dad would do the likes of cottage pie during the week and mum, from the Seychelles, would cook Creole-style curries at the weekend – both great cooks,” says Ainsworth.

Fast forward to Padstow in Cornwall – via the London restaurants of chef rock stars, including his mentor, the late Gary Rhodes, Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing – and the Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at No6. Caffe Rojano, the 18th-century Padstow Townhouse, and The Mariners pub overlooking the Camel Estuary in Rock have all followed – a quartet playing the most captivating of tunes, each with their own styles and signatures, composed by Ainsworth and his wife, Emma.

With the hospitality business to run indoors, Ainsworth, an ambassador for Kamado Joe, gets outdoors and on the barbecue at every opportunity.

“I remember summers at home – my dad on the BBQ in a short-sleeved shirt with a can of beer. Nothing fancy, but good burgers and sausages and I’d help with lighting the coals.”

Ainsworth recently popped round with the family for a BBQ at his great friend Tom Kerridge’s seaside bolthole in Kent, where they cooked steaks and a whole turbot.

“I just love the atmosphere delivered by live-fire cooking; the smoke in that golden hour as dusk falls and the sense of freedom and friendship it evokes,” says Ainsworth.

“With BBQ, I love the spectacle, loading the logs, watching them burn down. No rush; it’s ready when it’s ready, relaxing and mesmerising.”

I love the idea of popping down to a casual BBQ and finding Ainsworth and Kerridge on the tongs; a bit like going for a kickabout in the park and seeing Messi and Ronaldo. Maybe I’ll gate-crash after eating my way through Cornwall.

“I love cooking for people and a barbecue is such a sociable way of doing it.”

While enjoying the cut and thrust of commercial kitchens and forever inquisitive and innovative, Ainsworth finds outdoor cooking incredibly therapeutic.

“BBQ is a wonderful way to cook; a mix of protein and vegetables and the subtleness of the smoke permeating the food, fat bouncing off the wood. At home I never plate up barbecue food. Put everything down the middle and build your own.”

Ainsworth then proceeds to talk me through his hog roast bap with stuffing, crackling and apple sauce that he cooked on his Konnected Joe, with its charcoal ignition, temperature control and Kamado Joe app. Three-hour pork belly, onions, sprigs of thyme, sea salt, a dash of Cornish cider and a chunk of maple wood. Ribs are sliced off the pork belly and put directly on the grill to caramelise, before slicing off the crackling (full recipe p58).

“The Konnected Joe is a very smart and digitally controlled ceramic grill, but even with the innovation and technology there is still a purity and authenticity to the cooking. I also love all the Kamado Joe accessories.”

We then discuss mussels in Cornish Doom Bar beer, steamed open on the Kamado Joe and then grilled. This is a man in love with outdoor cooking, but also bringing the open fire vibe inside.

“Caffe Rojano and No6 use Konro grills. The Mariners pub has a built-in grill. We love to cook our ‘hunter snags’, ribeye steaks and chargrilled hispi cabbage. Orkney scallops over smouldering juniper branches are another favourite, giving that lightly smoked nuance to the dish.”

Ainsworth is full of praise not just for the iconic red ceramic grills but also the people at Kamado Joe, working and cooking closely with international marketing director Ben Forte. “A great cook who knows his products inside out,” says the multi-award-winning chef.

While we all enjoy cooking outside – novices, enthusiasts and pitmasters alike – hosting family and friends, cooking over fire is also growing rapidly in commercial kitchens.

“Of course, it is nothing new, but it has tended to be stove tops and ovens in restaurants. Professional chefs are now increasingly embracing BBQ-style cooking. I also have so many friends, outside of the hospitality industry, who are investing in barbecues, outdoor kitchens and furniture,” says Ainsworth.

“One friend told me recently he was setting his alarm for 3am to slow cook a shoulder of pork. It is evolving all the time and BBQ is a huge part of British culture – both culinary and social.”

At home, Ainsworth will also cook up a curry in a hurry on his Joe Junior. “Not just superior flavour, but with the added advantage of no cooking smells inside.”

Memories of my trips to Cornwall usually stall around Stonehenge on the A303 and summer traffic jams – the wrong kind of smoke. But I have planned my next weekend: Sobrasada (aged pork shoulder bolognese) for Saturday lunch at Caffe Rojano; wild turbot for dinner at No6 after a cheeky cocktail at CI CI’s; and then a night’s sleep in the Georgian delights of Padstow Townhouse. Sunday lunch would be roast Cornish Dexter sirloin of beef at The Mariners, washed down with an ale from Sharp’s Brewery. That’s, of course, if I haven’t been invited to a BBQ in Kent.