Head Chef Nik Tinney

With an abundance of fresh, in-season food at their fingertips within the store and a wild larder of produce in the great green yonder, Nik and his fellow chefs are in culinary heaven.

They have two main areas to look after – in-store food production and the café.
The golden rule, he says, is that everything is used seasonally and sourced locally, from the beef reared on moorland heather and gorse to the 50 species of fish landed on Cornish quays and the choicest asparagus, leeks and potatoes from the fields.

The golden rule is that everything is used seasonally and sourced locally, from the beef reared on moorland heather and gorse to the freshest fish landed on Cornish quays and the choicest veg from the fields.

Foraging the mild west

Hedgerows and shores are my happy hunting grounds.  One of my favourite wild foods is garlic leaf.  I love to go out and forage it. The garlic flavour is really intense and I can use it with loads of things.

I’m a Truro boy and left school at 16 to work as an apprentice chef at Langan’s, the famous Mayfair brasserie before moving on to a trio of top London hotels and then Le Palais du Jardin restaurant.

Cornwall lured me back and in 1999 I bought and ran Saffron restaurant in Truro with my wife Traci.

Our focus there was on seasonal and local food – perfect prep for my role at the Great Cornish Food Store which I joined when it opened in June 2016. Our MD Ruth and I are now the only two of the original crew left!

I’ve gone full circle since leaving Cornwall as a teenager. Now I’m in my home city working with all this amazing produce and a brilliant team of people.