Rick Stein's Cornwall - Episode Guide

Rick begins at his family home in Trevose Head on the north coast, where as a child he would go fishing with his father.

Rick meets a family who make some of the best Gouda cheese in Britain, and uses their creations to make a tortilla dish with caramelised apples and onions. In the fishing village of Mevagissey, he discovers the origins of the sea shanty and the history of the pilchard fishing industry, when shoals of pilchards were so large they would attract killer whales.

Rick meets chef Tom Adams, who runs Combeshead Farm, a leading field-to-fork restaurant where they grow and produce all of their own food, from sourdough bread to pork pies, as well as rearing a small herd of Mangalitsa pigs, a hairy, old-world breed that produces exquisite hams. Rick tries out a new recipe - pork chops with a sloe berry sauce - before moving on to the village of Rock, where his son Jack holds a clam bake on the shore of the Camel Estuary.

Rick discovers an unusual superstition and a rare type of Norman castle in Launceston, before meeting musicians Graham Fitkin and Ruth Wall in the far west of Cornwall.

Rick meets his good friend, the actor and comedian Barry Humphries, who fell in love with Cornwall in the 1960s when he escaped London to develop his famous character Dame Edna Everage. Barry talks about his friendship with British poet John Betjeman, and asks Rick to review his home-made fishcakes. Rick also goes fishing for crab, before cooking a simple yet delicious crab omelette. The host then takes a dip in the chilly north Atlantic with an eccentric group of wild water swimmers called the Perranporth Blue Tits.

Rick journeys inland from the majestic Camel Estuary to one of Britain's finest vineyards, where he joins in harvesting the grapes to discover that the Cornish weather is perfect for making some of the best wine in the country.

Just off Pentire Point, as the sun sets, Rick rides the gentle swell of the North Atlantic with an old friend, casting his line to hook Britain's fastest fish, before firing up the barbecue to cook his catch with a recipe inspired by a trip to Goa.

Rick joins Tim Smit, best known for starting the hugely successful Eden Project, who reveals to Rick his new and ambitious idea in Cornwall.

Rick explores one of Cornwall's hidden secrets, the secluded and stunning Fowey Estuary, joining his friend on a boat trip to learn about the history of the area and getting a unique view of the beautiful buildings along the river bank.

Downstream, after a meal of crab scotch eggs at a fashionable new restaurant, Rick discovers that the historic town of Fowey was once a hotbed of piracy. Just above the town is a family making a prize-winning Cornish vodka, which Rick uses to make a delicious pancake with a wild blackberry compote and Cornish clotted cream.

On the wild north Atlantic coast, Rick heads out to sea to go fishing for lobsters with his old friend and celebrity chef Nathan Outlaw and learns about a revolutionary new conservation programme which is making lobster fishing a sustainable enterprise. In the historic and pretty harbour town of Port Isaac, Rick and Nathan cook up a fabulous lobster risotto.

At Tresillian House, near Newquay, Rick meets with head gardener John Harris to find out more about his Victorian walled garden, an oasis of calm where Rick discovers how harvesting by the phases of the moon means better tasting veg. Rick cooks a Cornish Briam, a tasty slow-cooked dish of fresh vegetables.

At Golitha Falls, where the River Fowey tumbles down to the sea, Rick meets Dawn French, Britain's queen of comedy, who has made Cornwall her home.

In the shadow of Devonport Dockyard, he boards the world's busiest chain ferry to cross the wide River Tamar, the ancient watery boundary between the counties of Devon and Cornwall, where he discovers an unusual event involving an elephant from the circus. And in a small pocket of the county is a man who thinks he's discovered the next superfood, which Rick uses to cook up a delicious duck dish.

Rick heads into the bowels of Cornwall, deep into the china clay pits to discover what is known locally as white gold, one of this county's most important industries. He then climbs the Cornish Alps, huge slag heaps created by the clay mining and some of Cornwall's highest land.

After a wild swim at one of Cornwall's picturesque hidden coves, Rick cooks a simple sea bass recipe, telling us all how to make the perfect homemade mayonnaise. In the far west of the county, on the Land's End peninsula, Rick introduces us to his niece, a modern artist who explains her deep spiritual connection to Cornwall.

Rick explores the beating heart of the postwar British modern art movement in the seaside town of St Ives, the home of leading artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Terry Frost.

At the Lizard Peninsula, known locally as the graveyard of all shipping, Rick heads out to sea to fish for a delicious seasonal visitor, the red mullet. And on the wild coast at Land's End, Rick discovers that Cornwall has a rather unusual animal as its emblem.

Rick is on the beautiful Roseland Peninsula. He begins his journey at a spot thought to have been visited by Jesus, which inspired the hymn Jerusalem. At the picturesque town of St Mawes, he embarks on a tour of the bay with Alex and Olga Polizzi, who own one of Cornwall's most luxurious hotels.

At one of the county's oldest butchers, Rick looks into the ancient practice and benefits of ageing meat, before showing us how to properly cook a steak and make the perfect Bearnaise sauce. And in the attractive harbourside village of Mousehole, Rick meets a potter who finds inspiration in the Cornish landscape.

Rick is at Tintagel, Cornwall's most mythical location, where he discovers that it was an important trading port with Europe and the birthplace of perhaps Britain's greatest legend, the tale of King Arthur.

At Camborne, once the richest mining area in the world, Rick explores how the Methodist religious movement was so important to Cornwall, and how Methodists would cook a rather unusual bun during special feast days. And on the Roseland Peninsula, Rick meets a family who are continuing the surprisingly ancient tradition of growing the exotic spice saffron.

West Penwith is as far west as it is possible to go in mainland England. Here Rick explores its rich and diverse history, from Lamorna Cove, made famous through song and art, to the UNESCO protected tin and copper mining area of Botallack, where Rick talks with a mining explorer.

With the Atlantic sea mist enveloping the landscape, Rick follows an ancient track in search of Cornwall's oldest building. And from the safety of his kitchen, Rick tells us how, as a young lad on the Lizard Peninsula, he fell in love for the first time and tasted his first exotic French fish stew, known as a bouillabaisse.

As Rick's Cornish odyssey comes to an end, he takes a city break in Truro, where he discovers an unusual ghost story and tours the magnificent cathedral.

Deep in the Cornish countryside is a family passionate about offal, who prepare Rick a delicious meal of pickled ox tongue and beef heart tacos. In Cornwall's most northerly parish, Rick tells the story of an eccentric vicar, Robert Stephen Hawker, who would retrieve and bury the bodies from nearby shipwrecks in his church, and who is credited with writing what has become Cornwall's unofficial national anthem.

Rick Stein takes a trip back in time to his early days running a nightclub in Padstow, before making the ultimate fish pie with some deliciously plump pollock.

Rick meets Springwatch presenter and biologist Gillian Burke, who takes Rick on a walk through a rare habitat called an Atlantic temperate rainforest on the banks of the Helford River.

Rick meets a man who is paid to eat 700 samples of cheese a week before heading to Newlyn, the unlikely setting of one of Britain's most revolutionary art movements.

Rick roams the dramatic north Cornish coast to tell the story of one of Britain's best loved writers, Thomas Hardy, and his little-known love affair with a Cornishwoman.

Cornwall has more than its fair share of folktales. Perhaps the most famous is found near Land's End, where Rick recounts the tale of the Mermaid of Zennor.

Cornish king crab is on the menu for Rick as he heads out of Newquay to catch and cook this tasty crustacean, before heading to Bodmin Moor to meet explorer Robin Hanbury.

Rick boards the ferry in Penzance to take him to the Isles of Scilly, where he learns about one of the Royal Navy's worst shipping disasters and meets a beekeeper trying to breed a native honeybee.

Rick meets a man who is paid to eat 700 samples of cheese a week. He then heads to Newlyn, the unlikely setting of one of Britain's most revolutionary art movements.

Rick is in Falmouth to learn how Cornwall was at the heart of the Empire's communication system. He also meets William Golding's daughter Judy to learn about the inspiration behind Lord of the Flies.

Rick goes on a tour around the beautiful Camel Estuary, visits his long-time fish supplier Matthew Stevens and examines the impact of second home ownership on Cornwall with actor Ed Rowe.

Rick joins a team diving for razor clams, makes a dish of grilled shangurro clams, visits Newlyn's ordnance datum and is shown beautiful copperwork at the Penlee Museum.

Rick discovers how Cornish landscape influenced the work of Turner, counts the daily catch with an auctioneer at Newlyn Fish Market, and learns about Caerhays Castle's link to Victorian plant hunters.

Rick visits a mausoleum with a macabre story on the River Tamar, meets chef Emily Scott to taste the meal she cooked for Joe Biden, and takes to the waves with a organisation offering surfing therapy.

Rick learns about a time when the Cornish were taken as slaves by North African pirates, joins one of the last fishing boats in St Mawes and meets with two mackeral-cooking entrepreneur chefs.

Rick visits the Rame Peninsula, far from the traditional tourist track and known for its beaches and cliffs, while also exploring the history of the Cornish pasty.

Rick returns to Cornwall in the spot where his passion for seafood began, at the exposed rock pools below his parents' old house on the Cornish Atlantic coast. With his freshly foraged mussels, Rick heads home to Padstow, where he rustles up a delicious seafood omelette for breakfast.

On Bodmin Moor, he and son Jack reminisce about the Cornish ghost stories Rick used to tell, but this time Rick has a tale that he's never told before: the horrific murder nearly 200 years ago of a young woman called Charlotte Dymond.

Below the moor, Rick meets a former car mechanic and cleaner who now farms over 200 goats. Using their artisanal goat's cheese, Rick shows off his his foolproof method for making perfect cheese souffles.

Rick meets the author of The Salt Path, Raynor Winn, and her husband Moth in the ancient apple orchard where she and Moth make delicious cider, filtered through straw, in the way it was a hundred years ago.

Inspired, Rick cooks a chicken, leek and cider gratin for his old friend John Harris, head gardener at Tresillian House, who regales Rick with his memories of cider-making as a boy.

Rick also delves into the rich history of the Cornish sea shanty, meeting an all-female group whose shanties celebrate the colourful lives of some fascinating Cornish women.

Rick visits Europe's largest tea plantation beside the River Fal in Cornwall, where conditions are just right for the perfect cuppa. He indulges in his greatest pleasure, afternoon tea, with a freshly baked fruited tea loaf and some plum compote. Afterwards, he takes a day trip to Penzance and an invigorating dip in the UK's largest outdoor sea water lido, with its stunning art deco design and modern geothermal heating system.

Rick also uncovers the fascinating and little-known story of Charles Dickens's time in Cornwall and how the county found its way into one of the most famous novels of all time, A Christmas Carol.

Rick glimpses life in Cornwall 2,000 years ago as he explores the atmospheric ruins of the ancient village of Carn Euny. He soaks up the lively ambiance of Truro cattle market, an important social hub for local farmers but one of only a few live cattle markets still operating in the UK.

He cooks his favourite Sunday lunch, a hearty steak and kidney pudding, and goes for a bracing ride on a beautiful hand-built boat, a replica of one of the most famous and fastest vessels to sail the waters around Falmouth a hundred years ago.

Rick encounters a fishing method frozen in time, going under sail without engines or winches for what he considers to be the best oysters in the world. Back on dry land, he cooks a warming fish soup called Cullen Skink, the perfect lunch after a morning on the water.

He discovers the surprising story behind Charles Napier Hemy's famous painting of oystermen at work and the equally surprising story of Cornwall's former capital, now the sleepy town of Lostwithiel but once a cosmopolitan and internationally significant port, which boasted an important political and administrative complex of buildings.

Rick meets Pip and Matt Smith, with their herd of 600 red deer, on a north Cornish farm that has been in Pip's family for over three centuries. With some very fine organic venison, Rick returns to his kitchen in Padstow to make a magnificent venison wellington.

He spends an afternoon on Porthgwarra beach with the artist Hannah Woodman, whose work is inspired by the sea-worn landscape of west Cornwall – one of the oldest of the land masses that make up the British Isles. And over a pint with the Cornish comedian Jonny Cowling, he attempts to define the thing he loves most about the Cornish – their sense of humour.

Rick boards the King Harry Ferry to enjoy a crossing voted one of the most scenic in the world. Once safely across the River Fal, he explores his passion for fresh and unusual salad leaves, with a mosey around an organic market garden called Soul Farm, and is inspired to make a radicchio tart.

He shares memories of his friendship with the famous composer Sir Malcolm Arnold, who won an Oscar for his film score for The Bridge on the River Kwai, and is joined by BBC radio broadcaster and Cornishman Petroc Trelawny to talk about how Cornwall inspired Arnold's best work.

Rick delves into the stories of those who worked in Cornwall's mines, from the men who laboured in extreme heat a full hour's journey beneath the earth's surface to the young women known as 'bal maidens', who earned their living breaking rocks with heavy sledgehammers.

In the heart of mining country, he discovers a church with some astonishing 600-year-old wall paintings, which rank amongst Britain's greatest church treasures. And after a merry visit to a maker of botanical spirits, he adds a cheeky nip to his version of the 'platinum pudding' created for the late Queen's platinum jubilee.

Rick's idea of bliss is to spend an afternoon scaling and gutting a freshly caught sea bass before using it to make a simple yet delectable dish which ranks amongst his absolute favourites – steamed sea bass with garlic, ginger and spring onions.

He travels to the far west of Cornwall to meet a potter whose work captures the rugged beauty of her surroundings, before heading to the far east of the county on the trail of the poet Charles Causley, who spent his entire life in the Cornish border town of Launceston. There, Rick meets another illustrious Cornish writer, Patrick Gale, who has written a book on Causley's fascinating life and considers him this country's greatest Second World War poet.

Rick drops in on the fishing port of Boscastle and finds a fabulous seafood restaurant in a building which once housed rockets used to fire safety ropes out to sinking ships. A trip to Cornwall's only dedicated organic mushroom farm inspires him to cook a stir fry with lion's mane mushrooms, which are said to regrow neurons!

After a surreal afternoon spent watching a German film crew at work in the fishing village of Mousehole, he discovers that a major reason so many Germans love Cornwall is a long-running TV series, watched by millions, that is based on the romances written by Rosamunde Pilcher and set in Cornwall.