Dining on the water with Blue River Table
In the summer months, Charlotte and Jess serve a moveable feast of seasonal food aboard their lovingly restored boat.
Blue River Table is a floating restaurant that cruises the River Fal in the summer months, catering to private parties who book for brunch, lunch or a sunset meal. It began when two childhood friends from Cornwall combined their love of fresh, seasonal food, traditional wooden boats and the open water.
We spoke to Jess about how the ebb and flow of their travels brought them back home to the river they know so well.
Charlotte and I have known each other since we were six. We went to Flushing Primary School together, so we’ve been friends for 28 years.
Our parents are sailors, so sailing is in the blood. We grew up around boats and have travelled and worked aboard them for most of our lives. Charlotte and her family did an Atlantic circuit on a traditional wooden gaff rig boat in 2010, and since then she has spent most of her summers working as cook and mate on traditional boats around the UK.
The sea has had a big pull on me, too. After years spent in Caribbean waters, I went through the Panama Canal in 2015 and spent twelve months cruising in the Pacific, ending up in Australia.
We were often in different corners of the world, though we always stayed in touch and often talked about starting a business together. In 2017 we both found ourselves back in Cornwall for the first time in a decade. After a summer spent on the water, the idea of Blue River Table started to evolve.
We both love cooking and traditional boats, and the idea of serving delicious, freshly prepared food whilst exploring our local area by water brought our passions together.
There is such a special feel about a wooden boat. Tethra is a Cornish ex-fishing boat from the 1970’s with a lovely, light, open feel. We cruise the Fal Estuary so the scenery and wildlife constantly change, then anchor in one of the creeks – the deep, meandering rivers shallow up at the mouths – where our guests can soak up the surroundings as we pile the table with local produce and sharing platters.
Our menus have a fresh, summery Mediterranean feel to them, lots of seafood with vibrant colourful salads, all focused on seasonal Cornish fare. We get a lot of our produce from within a 5-mile radius from Mylor Yacht Harbour.
The quality and taste are just so much better when it’s only been pulled out of the ground the day before, or even that morning.
Another lovely benefit is that we get to know the makers and growers, and have built relationships with other small businesses within our community.
We learnt to fillet and cook eight different Cornish fish with My Fish Kitchen, and have an event this summer with the lovely ladies from the Seaweed Institute, where you can learn about harvesting and cooking with seaweed. We also pass close by the Philleigh Way Cookery School on the Roseland, just off the River Fal. They do so many interesting and varied cookery classes. The area is also steeped in history and is home to many traditional boats, which is nice to feel a part of.
Charlotte and I have spent the last three summers more on the water than off working aboard Tethra, and we feel so lucky to be able to call these beautiful waterways our workplace.
Find out more about Blue River Table and book on their website.
Looking for an easy, bite-sized treat for riverside picnics and Jubilee street parties? Charlotte and Jess share their delicious recipe for a sticky, zesty ginger cake.