My Coast: Lisa Faulkner

I first visited Cornwall years ago, but it wasn’t until I had my daughter Billie that I fell in love with the place. I went camping at Featherdown Farm in Penzance and I have been going back ever since. It’s like its own country; it’s got its own weather, and it’s the only other place I could live apart from London.

I love that on a sunny day it could feel as if you were in Europe somewhere. And on rainy days, you can wrap up and walk along a beach and feel as though you’re carried by the winds of Cornwall.

Kynance Cove is my favourite beach. Sometimes you can get through to little caves, but when it’s high tide, you can’t. The sand is so white and the sea so blue, and because the cove’s so small, when the sun comes out, there are little sun traps. I love Porthcurno as well. My favourite thing to do is to walk along the beach there, or at Sennen Cove. Billie enjoys bodyboarding, because she’s only seven. She’s got her own wetsuit and she just loves it.

I think Cornwall’s great for food. I like Fresh From The Sea in Port Isaac a lot. It is run by a fisherman, Calum, and his wife Tracey. We sit outside and eat delicious crab sandwiches. When we stayed in Penzance I also used to go to Newlyn all the time and pick up fish. We’d get crab claws and big sea bass and lovely lobster and just barbecue them and make potato salad. And I love the Porthminster Café in St Ives. I think the food’s amazing there.

I haven’t spent Christmas in Cornwall – I’m a bit of a homebody – but it’s definitely somewhere I’d like to go for New Year. I’m completely traditional, so we have roast turkey and bread sauce and about seven different stuffings and red cabbage and roast potatoes and parsnips. I make my own Christmas puddings and cake, mince pies and mincemeat. There is so much food preparation for just one day, but I love it.

The Way I Cook… by Lisa Faulkner is published by Simon & Schuster (£20).