We love visiting Cornwall for lots of reasons. For some, it’s the stunning sandy beaches and the wonderful surfing waves, while for others it’s the county’s countless charming towns and coastal walks. But one of Cornwall’s biggest pulls is undeniably its rich food culture. Famed for its hearty dishes which tend to take advantage of the area’s fantastic produce, Cornish food may not be the lightest around, but it is rich, filling and typically heavy on the meat, fish and dairy front!

Cornish food is pretty broad as cuisines go, being influenced by different styles across the globe over the centuries. During that time, the county has become known for having created some distinct dishes of its own which can still be enjoyed today. There’s the Cornish pasty of course, but the likes of Stargazy pie and Hevva cake are less well-known. Whether you’re planning to head to Cornwall for the first time or are a regular visitor, these are the dishes you should be trying while you’re there.

There aren’t many dishes more distinct to look at than Cornwall’s Stargazy pie. Featuring the heads and tails of pilchards poking out from a golden layer of shortcrust pastry, which hides the white sauce-covered bodies of the fish below, it’s the perfect centrepiece for a thoroughly Cornish spread. It’s believed to have been created in the small fishing village of Mousehole in answer to a famine in the sixteenth century. A particularly stormy winter saw boats unable to leave the harbour, meaning that the villagers, whose diet was centred around fish, were in danger of starving. That is, until a fisherman named Tom Bawcock decided to brave the storm on 23 December and caught enough fish for the whole village. He’s said to have baked all of his catches into one giant Stargazy pie which was enough to feed the entire village. Since then, every year on this day, the people of Mousehole cook a Stargazy pie to commemorate Bawcock. The dish can also still be found on the menus of many traditional Cornish pubs and restaurants, and top chefs like Mark Hix have put their own spin on the classic dish.

Going by many names – including revel bun and Cornish tea treat bun – the saffron bun is similar to a traditional tea cake in that it contains dried fruit, such as currants. However, its distinct feature, as the name suggests, is that the bun is flavoured with saffron, which has historically been grown in Cornwall. Although saffron buns do tend to have a yellowish hue, nowadays this is normally achieved by adding yellow food colouring to the mix, as the amount of saffron required to change the colour of the buns would simply cost too much to make them worth baking. In Sweden, a very similar type of bun called a lussekatt is incredibly popular and traditionally enjoyed during Advent. These are usually baked in the shape of a backwards ‘S’, while Cornish saffron cakes look more like scones and are enjoyed throughout the year. When baked into a large loaf, rather than individual buns, it’s known as Cornish saffron cake.