The secret Cornish hut that's feeding the G7 leaders this weekend

I was sitting on Porthcurnick beach earlier this week, looking up at the queue forming for The Hidden Hut, the cult-hit café perched above the sand, blissfully unaware that its chefs were feverishly preparing for a feast for the leaders of the G7 this weekend.

“It’s wild, isn’t it,” says the Hut's owner and chef, Simon Stallard, 40, on the phone to me just half an hour before he heads off to start the weekend’s preparations. “It’s been months in the making and now it’s finally about to happen, I’m buzzing.”

The Hut has a story that charms everyone who encounters it along the coastal path just along from the village of Portscatho.

It has been there for more than 80 years and was previously run for the National Trust; Stallard’s wife, Jemma, used to work there as a teenager and Stallard himself would regularly walk past it (years later) when he worked at a hotel restaurant further up the path. The couple eventually won the lease and since 2010 have slowly turned the hut into a place that sells restaurant-worthy lunches, cooked by Stallard and his team.

Lunch scribbled on the blackboards this week, for example, was crab soup, a chunky dhal and a slow-cooked beef stew, along with locally-made cakes and pastries more typical of a beach hut. In normal times they also do feast nights, where Stallard and his team use their giant (50ft) portable grill to cook huge, 100-person meals serving up locally-caught lobster and chips or seafood paella (I’ve been to a few – everyone brings their own cutlery and booze and sits on the hillside over the beach; it’s bliss).

Not confined to the beach, Stallard takes his team and his custom-made grill along to big events, including weddings, corporate gigs and festivals.

This weekend the Hut team have their most important feast yet. They are transporting the grill over to Carbis Bay, to cook an al fresco (and therefore Covid-secure) meal for the Bidens, Johnsons, Macrons, Merkels and the rest of the G7 summit.

Why was Stallard picked for the job over other big Cornish culinary names such as Rick Stein (arguably the godfather, if not king, of the county), Nathan Outlaw or Paul Ainsworth? He modestly admits he doesn’t know, except to say, “there aren’t many people with a 50-foot grill who are used to cooking in remote locations,” he laughs.

Stallard is, however, naturally collaborative. He has involved more than 150 Cornish artisans to help him with his G7 feast, from the suppliers of his ingredients (lobster, scallops and Moorland beef are on the menu, which he insists is actually largely plant-based), to the wood that fires the grill to the table settings that include pieces by local glass cutters and handmade napkins.

His local florist who makes jam-jar flower arrangements at the Hidden Hut has created a custom-made live herb garden to run down the length of the table. “I want it to be a celebration of what Cornwall has to offer; this is more than just about me, or the Hut,” Stallard explains. Not that many of his suppliers know – yet – due to the secrecy around the project. “I can’t wait to tell them,” he says. “It will have a lovely effect on everyone, as well as the people behind the scenes.”

One of the more fun elements planned for tomorrow evening is the singing troop Du Hag Owr (Cornish for Black and Gold) from his home village of Portscatho who will be performing the Cornish anthem Cornwall My Home. “Some of these guys are in their seventies; they say it’s the musical highlight of their careers,” he says. Not only will the world leaders will be eating from food made over Stallard’s enormous wood-fired grill, but they will be surrounded by fire pits to keep them warm and add to the beach-side atmosphere. "The plan is for a warm, nice vibe around the fire,” Stallard says. “It softens the mood and pulls people in.”

Along with Stallard’s Saturday night feast, the Eden project is hosting a formal Friday night dinner for the G7 attendees prepared by Emily Scott of Watergate Bay hotel, based near Newquay.

The boost is needed desperately for the area. “This has been a tough year; the local economy needs the help,” Stallard says. “The lights have gone off, then on, then off again. When they’re on, they come on so bright. It’s been a year of feeling like you’re bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. I know some people will say that Cornwall is full enough, but we live down on the opposite coast and so we’re not affected by road closures and things like that.”

Are locals worried about masses of tourists coming down in the summer, potentially bringing Covid cases with them? “No, that’s not what I’ve heard anyone talking about; we’re all just grateful to be open again.”

But how will this specific gig affect trade at the Hidden Hut? Its name already belies the fact that it is now one of Cornwall’s worst-kept secrets: the queue earlier this week before the news leaked out was already an hour-long when they opened at 12.30pm.

“The Hut will just keep doing what it’s doing,” Stallard predicts. “We’re just grateful to be open and be trading again. But this [G7] meal will be about what we hope to offer more of; the more polished meals that my team and I take on the road. I’m hoping that we get the opportunity off the back of this to do more of this kind of thing in remote places.”

As for Saturday night, he says he can’t wait. “It has felt like a long time in the planning. The cooking is the bit I love; that’s when I’ll be happiest. I just think that when I’m there by the grill, surrounded by the team I’ve worked with for 10 years, serving food to world leaders with the Red Arrows flying overhead, I’ll think: that’s pretty cool.”

Read more: Fishy feasts from a seaside gem: recipes from The Hidden Hut in Cornwall