BRIEFING MY KITCHEN Simon Stallard
Te chef and founder of the Hidden Hut in Cornwall, UK, tells Tina Nielsen about working around the British weather in his outdoor kitchen
W
e’ve been here, above Porthcurnick Beach in Cornwall for 15 years. I used to walk across the beach and
look up and think, “imagine if that could be somewhere people would actually come to eat.” At the time in the UK, the focus was much more on fine dining and polished food offerings, but what we opened is essentially a shed on top of a beach where people come as a hub to enjoy food. Moving here from conventional
kitchens was a transfer of skills; we had no power and only very little running water. Over the years we have become anoraks of wood-fired cooking and it has become a big part of our identity. I have the classic culinary school
training and have worked in restaurants and hotels. I’ve always loved the outdoors.
I love cooking and eating outdoors. Te weather is our biggest challenge
and we are always monitoring the forecast. You get three days of rain where no one comes, except for some walkers who need a coffee, but you serve no lunches. Ten when the sun comes out, it’s full on. It never gets boring to cook here. We are literally based in a hut and the
kitchen is purpose built. Tere’s a charcoal grill that we use for searing and cooking oily fish super quick. We’ve got two huge wood-fired grills, which is for the bigger joints of meat, or for cooking low and slow. We’ve got a purpose built 12-burner that runs on canned gas. Tere’s also a plancha in there, but I’d say our grills are essential to everything we do. We are well known for our feast nights
and they are incredibly popular. We sold all of last year’s tickets in two seconds. Tey are so rustic, we do the food and people bring their crockery, cutlery and drink. On a perfect day we sit at long tables on the beach. Our menu is determined by the weather
and the farmers. We get ingredients from the farms and growers, and we work out what we’re going to do with that depending on what the weather is the following day. If it looks like we have gales or it’s going to be cold or wet, we’ll do soups and stews, slow roasts, and if we’ve got a block of high pressure in, then we’ll focus on grilled fish and shredded meat salads. You become in tune with the elements
when you work here and it can take other chefs a long time to get up to speed. You have to be a Scout at heart to work here.
The Hidden Hut is open year-round, whatever the weather
The feast dinners are served
communally for diners
The popular spot has been on
Porthcurnick Beach for 15 years
The menu is
determined by the weather and the produce available
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