Seaweed - calls for Devon's restaurants to make more use of the ingredients on their doorsteps
Local tastes and flavours should be the hallmark of Devon, according to one of the county's top chefs
A Devon chef - who featured on TV show The Great British Menu - says restaurants here should be foraging more for things like seaweed and not be too afraid to experiment.
Charlotte Vincent, who has taken over the cooking at the famous Burgh Island Hotel, says most items can have uses and we still all throw too much away.
The chef has been cooking with foraged kelp from the Devon coast for over a decade - long before it became a chef’s trend - and now grows it on-site, using it in low-waste ways she says ‘add real flavour while boosting biodiversity and capturing carbon’.
Ms Vincent believes if restaurants want to stand out they should better understand their local areas and be prepared to try something unique.
She said: "If you come down through to Dorset to here in Devon you will have different types (of seaweed) as it all depends on the weather and the beach.
"Here around Burgh Island we're sandy and a lot of seaweed likes to grow around here - and you can swim in our famous Mermaid Pool area and look up and see some of the items that might be in your dinner at night.
"As you move around the different coves it does change so the rockpools will yield different types of seaweed like sea lettuce or sea moss.
"Kelp, for example, is a natural Umami - so when you eat it, it makes your tastebuds expand on your tongue and gives you the same effect as salt, but much more healthy.
"I'm using less and less salt throughout the business and I'm just using seaweed and I'm trying to find a way of promoting that out now so people understand how healthy it is - and actually it's free. You can walk along the coastline and find so many things you can forage and use in food."
Ms Vincent also believes local dishes should include items that might otherwise end up being thrown out, saying: "Things like eggshells to clarify Consommé and we use carrot pins here to make marmalade. With potato peelings you can dry them out to make a potato dust to garnish a potato dish - there's always ways."
The chef is supporting The Devon Good Food Partnership, helping build a more resilient local food system
She is also sourcing almost all produce from within five miles of the island — dramatically cutting food miles and supporting local suppliers while simultaneously reducing the hotel’s carbon footprint