Five exclusive recipes from Paul Ainsworth’s first cookbook
A schoolboy in Southampton, Paul Ainsworth would come home to the guesthouse his parents ran and help his father make trifle. With the jelly set, they would put on the custard: ‘Always Bird’s,’ says the chef, whose Padstow restaurant Paul Ainsworth at No6 has held a Michelin star since 2013. ‘And I would be allowed to lick the bowl afterwards. That’s where my love of custard started.’
More than 30 years later, trifle still appears on the menu at Ainsworth’s pub, The Mariners in Rock, Cornwall, albeit with ‘a few cheffy touches to the custard and jelly’. That big-hearted bowl of joy neatly sums up his journey: growing up in hospitality, leaving school at 16 to find first his passion, in the kitchen of a three-star hotel – and then his feet, at catering college, both in his home city.
The finishing layer? A hefty apprenticeship in London’s top kitchens. First there was Rhodes in the Square – ‘Gary was ahead of his time in terms of emphasis on letting ingredients shine’ – and then Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, followed by stints at Ramsay’s Pétrus and The Berkeley, both under Marcus Wareing. It was his ‘hard-working, intuitive and humble nature’, in the words of Ramsay, that set him apart.
Moving 250 miles away to Padstow enabled Ainsworth to develop his own style. He has made a name for himself serving up food full of flavour, freshness and – in a nod to his mother’s Seychelles homeland – sunshine. Any reservations he may once have had about settling so close to another Cornwall adoptee, Rick Stein, have long passed. Today, he has an empire of his own: two restaurants, a pub, a cocktail bar, a boutique guesthouse and an apprenticeship scheme, plus TV appearances on programmes including Great British Menu and Next Level Chef.
And now, at last, he’s publishing his first cookbook. ‘I feel it has helped me more than anything to write this book,’ he says of the long wait. ‘I’m genuinely putting stuff in there that’s heartfelt, rather than ticking that box of, “Oh, I’m a chef, I must do a cookbook.”’
Ainsworth has full confidence in the nearly 100 recipes that make up For the Love of Food. ‘This is not a coffee-table book. It’s the book for people to get messy and fill with Post-it notes and have for the rest of their lives. I want people to have go-to recipes that they know will work every single time.’
The emphasis is on food to put in the middle of the table and share. ‘That is my favourite way of eating. It’s the only way I eat at home. Even when we have a full English, there’s a plate of sausages.’
You’ll find the same kind of dishes at The Mariners, which he took over in 2019 along with his wife Emma, mother of his two daughters, Ci Ci, eight, and Audrey-Bloom, three months. Winning over the locals, rather than the critics, is what matters most to Ainsworth. ‘Cornwall means everything to me. I never thought my life would end up here and I’m really glad that it has.’
While the distance from London means he has to work twice as hard to be noticed, he is close to the ingredients he loves. ‘The first place I really learned to cook scallops was Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and I just fell in love with that ingredient. I love prepping and cooking them. Scallops, along with crab, are absolutely my favourite shellfish.’
The influence of his father, who died in 2015 of pancreatic cancer, gives his work its heart. ‘I look back now and think how lucky I was. Other people’s dads didn’t have a clue how to cook.’
Despite his impressive career, Ainsworth’s food remains relatable and fun. ‘Even when I was naive and a young chef, I was always thinking, “Is it tasty?
Is it delicious?” And just bringing a smile to people’s faces. That absolutely is the magic of food.’
For the Love of Food, by Paul Ainsworth, is published on 4 July (Pavilion Books, £26)
