Hylton Espey, owner and chef of Culture in Falmouth answers our questions
What first inspired you to become a chef?
Trips out to the Cape Winelands in South Africa with my mom, visiting wineries and independent restaurants and experiencing the area's great, regional cuisine.
What is your proudest career moment?
My own restaurant, Culture, receiving a Green Michelin Star and Three Rosettes in the same year this year.
Tell us about your signature dish
The Collins family potato, we infuse the potatoes with garden herbs, aerate them and dust them with beurre noisette. It’s a potato like you have never had before.
Where is your favourite place to eat in Cornwall?
Besides the beach we love to go to The Mulberry in Falmouth, Kota, Porthminster cafe and in the sailing season we are at Castaways in Mylor almost every Sunday.
What is your favourite meal to cook at home?
Being South African we love to braai (barbecue), I love to cook outdoors and this is where you will find me at the weekends. Korean BBQ pork neck basted with hoisin and sweet chilli is a family staple.
What is your culinary guilty pleasure?
Slow roasted fatty offcuts after a butchery day.
What is your favourite Cornish delicacy?
A pastie and a pint after a surf in January.
What’s in your fridge?
Leftover Korean BBQ pork, stilton, brie, home-made miso and IPAs.
