Meet the chefs of Shell Bay and Purslane Restaurant

Interviews with the chefs of Shell Bay and Purslane

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. What if the same could be said for our favourite staycation spots? Perhaps the best way to discover the best of the Cotswolds, Dorset, Cornwall or Yorkshire is through the dishes you’ll find there and the chefs that create them?

Regional self-catering holiday specialist Hideaways Holidays, whose regional offices are all run by experienced and local teams, have launched a campaign to discover more about some of the UK’s best holiday destinations via the food of locally renowned and awarded eateries, and their superbly talented head chefs.

Two of those featured include Dish Cult’s very own Shell Bay in Dorset and Purslane in Cheltenham.

In a series of interviews the Hideaways Holidays team have spoken with a number of chefs, including Alex Naik of Shell Bay in Dorset and Gareth Fulford, Chef Patron of Purslane Restaurant in Cheltenham.

The chefs reveal what they love best about their counties, what drew them to or back to these regions, what local dishes they love to cook, where they source the best local or sometimes not-so-local ingredients, what tourists to their counties can expect to find and more.

They even provide some top tips for you to make their favourite recipes yourself!

Alex Naik, Dorset chef of the year 2018, started his chef life in a kitchen in Scotland as a kitchen porter and worked his way up from there. He decided to leave Scotland, to get away from the rain and move to sunny Dorset.

“Myself personally, the thing I love about Dorset is I could be in the forest in 20 minutes, I can be in the sea in 20 minutes, I can go anywhere in 20 minutes in Dorset, that’s why I Love it,” he says.

His work at Shell Bay involves cooking everything over an open fire, which has so many benefits including the smell and ambience of the restaurant. He provides his top tip on this: “…manage the fire correctly making sure it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, it’s just right (said Godilocks).”

As the restaurant specialises in fish and fresh, local seafood, Alex went onto share his top tip for cooking fish: “My top tip for cooking fish is very similar to cooking steak and that is to rest your fish – slightly undercooked and let it relax a little bit. It’ll be perfect.”

Alex has shared a recipe for Wild Sea Bass Ceviche with Sweetcorn. “One of the freshest things you’ll eat at Shell Bay,” he says. The seabass ceviche is one of his favourite dishes to make using line caught, fresh Dorset Seabass and as thinly sliced as possible. “Super easy to make at home but make sure you get hold of some great Dorset gin and make this dish when you are ready to eat it, it will be ready to go quite quickly. Fresh fish is essential.”

You can watch Alex’s interview and get his recipe here.

Gareth Fulford comes from a family of butchers where, as a child, fish was seen as a rare luxury at the dinner table. Purslane is a small, independent, family-run restaurant in the heart of Cheltenham, which specialises in the freshest, sustainably-caught seafood from British waters combined with the best local, seasonal produce the Cotswolds has to offer.

“The diversity of different seafood species found along the British coastline and the textures and flavours they can bring to a dish is fantastic”, he says.

Purslane tries, wherever possible, to put sustainable species on the menu to help preserve fish stocks for future generations.

Gareths’ recipe is for Cornish Plaice with Heritage Tomatoes, Seashore Greens and a Prawn Beurre Blanc Sauce. “This dish is a bit of a tour of the counties really,” says Gareth. “We are making use of the freshest seafood you can find in the trade, caught yesterday and couriered overnight to us alongside freshly picked cotswold veg and our favourite seashore greens, including our namesake. Make sure you take time on this dish, don’t rush the fish and source the best ingredients. This dish is all about good ingredients.”

Get Gareth’s recipe and full interview here.