With the Rock Oyster Festival hitting the Cornish coast at the end of July, residents and tourists will soon be able to enjoy food and drinks prepared by some of their favourite chefs.

Headlining the Open Fire Cooking on Saturday July 31 will be chef, author and occasional TV presenter, Valentine Warner, who will no doubt be dishing up some delicious culinary delights for those in attendance.

Warner is no stranger to the South West, having previously been part owner of a pub in Tintagel, Devon, and, growing up in rural Hampshire during the 70's would often spend time at his father's dairy farm in Dorset.

Speaking to The Packet, Valentine claims that, as a keen fisherman, it's the Cornish waterways that would often draw him down to the Duchy.

Valentine said: "It's those rivers that I like going to, where all the sea trout will be coming in at this time of year.

"I'm no stranger to crashing around in the woods in the pitch black with my fly rod trying to listen out for the plop of a fat sea trout.

"That's what, quite often, takes me down that way.

"I've also got a lot of friends that live in Cornwall, it's a wild place, the Cornish are a wild race and I love them"

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His fondness of the natural world is also what gives Valentine his deep understanding of ingredients, and also the reason he's been described as seeing life in two ways; edible and inedible.

"My father was a diplomat, but he also had a dairy farm and knew all about the plants, animals and offerings from the hedgerows so he was forever bringing in large handfuls of mushrooms or showing us things in the hedgerows that we could eat.

"I've also been very interested in food and spent my early life biting everything, from table legs to erasers or licking paint just to see what everything tasted like, and as a result was constantly being whizzed to the doctor for eating something I shouldn't have.

"But I think I grew up understanding the world through my mouth in a funny kind of way and so, it started as a joke but I guess do kind of mean it, and I guess I do judge the world as edible or inedible."

This world-view may well be the reason that Valentine has ended up where he has and is now headlining one of the most popular festivals in the South West.

Not only this, but the chance to engage with fellow food-lovers and help people discover new ways to both feed themselves and enjoy food is also a big reason as to why Valentine finds himself at events such as the Rock Oyster Festival.

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"It's sharing information and sharing stories, although we eat a lot, we watch a lot of food TV and we read a lot of cookery books, there's something that's going on at the moment were we have less and less time to eat.

"So I like to remind people of the wealth of stuff we have in this country and what you can do with those things because, in short, while we're surrounded by food, there's an argument to me that we know less about food than ever before, and certainly in this country.

"And so I just want to remind people of how to enjoy things in as many different ways as possible.

"And I also love oysters."

You can catch Valentine Warner at the Rock Oyster Festival on July 31 2021.

For more information, visit: rockoysterfestival.co.uk