Hunched on the hill above Padstow, the Elizabethan façade of Prideaux Place gazes out to sea. Below is the empire of Rick Stein’s four restaurants, deli and pâtisserie, but here, a different kind of food event is taking place. There is one woman doling out crab soup, and another tending a mountain of chocolates. People are wandering around clutching paper cups of fresh coffee. In the corner of the room, a man is rhapsodising about piña colada ice-cream.

It might resemble a cheery village fête, but the day is actually a chance for small Cornish producers to show off their wares. Unthinkable a few years ago such a show of pride in Cornish food is part of a growing trend. It started with Rick Stein, of course, but now a smattering of Michelin stars and a greater appreciation of local produce mean the county’s foodie stock is rising. Chic hotels, such as Olga Polizzi’s Tresanton, serve first-class food to an increasingly discerning breed of tourists, and last summer saw Cornwall’s first food and drink festival. From Paul Ripley in St Merryn, to Ben Tunnicliffe in Penzance and a crop of stylish imitators – suddenly eating out in Cornwall isn’t all about pasties and cream teas.

According to Nathan Outlaw, who won Cornwall another Michelin star just a year after opening the Black Pig in Rock, and who is now head chef at St Ervan Manor outside Padstow, the key to Cornish success is the produce. “There is fantastic game: beautiful venison, partridge and pheasant. As for the seafood, it is simply the best in the world.” But Outlaw admits it is only recently that people have begun to appreciate Cornish food. “It has always been here, but ten years ago it just wouldn’t have been tapped into.”

One person who is tapping into Cornwall’s natural bounty is Angie Dodd. Her mail-order company, Seriously Good (0870 2417027; www.seriously-good.co.uk), sells food sourced from all over the county. From Porbeagles shark steaks to Sue’s Keltic Gold cheese, the range is astonishing. The day at Prideaux Place was Dodd’s idea: a chance for her producers to show off their wares, and for Dodd to launch her own range of chutneys.

With such a devotion to Cornish produce, it is hard to believe that less than 18 months ago, Dodd was living in Hackney. With a hectic job in film promotion, she indulged a passion for organic food from the likes of Abel & Cole and Graig Farm. But it was on holidays that she began to nurture a love for Cornish cuisine. “We basically ate our way around Cornwall. I was blown away by the sophistication. I remember one meal at the Gurnard’s Head Hotel – a trio of Cornish fish in nut butter. It was as good as anything I ate in London.” It confirmed her belief that Cornwall was one of Britain’s unsung gastronomic heroes: “The more food we tried, the more I thought, ‘Why isn’t this food readily available to everyone?’”

Dodd hatched a dream (“the jam plan”) to bring Cornish food to the masses, but it wasn’t until she became pregnant that she made it a reality. “It’s such a cliché, but I thought, right, that’s it: time to get out of London.” A new Ryanair flight from Stansted to Newquay made that patch of the West Country more accessible, so she and her husband, Tony, cast around for somewhere to buy close to Newquay airport, and fell in love with a cottage in Padstow.

After moving, they began a trawl of the farmers’ markets and delis, looking for the cream of Cornish crop to sell online. The emphasis was on fresh food: “We wanted to avoid that hamper full of fusty stuff you’re never going to eat.” As well as sourcing food, Dodd always intended to start her own range – of which the chutneys are the first step. She looks for inspiration everywhere, from memorable meals in local restaurants to “old WI books”, and turns them into unusual flavours. She is also secretary of the new branch of Slow Food in Cornwall.

For the producers, Dodd’s London-honed marketing approach is a blessing. Hugh Eddy, a 27-year-old sheep farmer, sells yoghurt through Seriously Good. He exemplifies why the past few years have seen a mini-explosion of artisan producers in Cornwall: after realising it wasn’t economically viable to take over his parents’ farm as it was, he branched out into making sheep’s yoghurt and cheese. He thinks Seriously Good has become a much-needed rallying point for people like him, who wouldn’t otherwise have had an opportunity to supply direct to the consumer: “They’ve become a focus for producers. There is real integrity to what they’re doing.”

Angie Coombs, manager of Cornwall Taste of the West, an organisation that promotes Cornish food and that helped Seriously Good get started, echoes his views. “People already know about the fantastic restaurants in Cornwall, but the customers want to buy the produce for themselves, and until now that hasn’t really been possible.” She thinks that things are changing fast in Cornwall. “It has suddenly become a real hotbed of interest, driven by a different breed of visitor, who expects sophistication in terms of eating out.”

Angie Dodd is well aware that there is money to be made in selling food as memories to tourists, but starting Seriously Good remains much more than a shrewd business move. “I’ve always been obsessed with food. This is living what I’ve always wanted to do.”

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