There were three things I already knew about Cornwall.

First was that on every map of Great Britain, Cornwall is the long, outstretched foot that looks like it's playing keepy-up with a big beachball called Ireland.

Secondly, Cornish folk gave the world pasties in the same way that Yorkshire gave it puddings. And thirdly, also like Yorkshire, Cornwall used to have a huge mining industry – tin and clay pits rather than coal – which scarred and cratered many places, yet still couldn't damage the county's reputation for having some of the most beautiful landscapes in England.

As it turned out, these thoughts were a pretty good guide to enjoying a few days in Cornwall. The stunning beaches, delectable pasties and the sensational Eden Project, housed in a colossal clay-pit crater, were virtually the only things I wanted to photograph.

Especially the beaches. It's those gigantic bites that the Atlantic has taken out of the north Cornwall coast that make it different from most other parts of the English seaside. There seems to be a bay sandier than Filey's and more rugged than Robin Hood's around every Ravenscar-like promontory. While seaside resorts in other parts of Britain have struggled to compete with the new sunshine destinations in southern Europe, places like Newquay and St Ives are thriving, thanks to the huge popularity of surfing.

You can't avoid the surfers. Watch them bobbing like seals out in Fistral Bay, Newquay, or learning how to catch a wave at Watergate Bay, and I swear you'll start humming old Beach Boys' songs.

The bays are also great for walking, and it's especially exhilarating when taking a stroll at the very edge of the low tide, or keeping further back as huge spume-trailing breakers roll in from the Atlantic.

One of the finest places for this is the large swathe of reddish-blond sand at Watergate Bay, just north of Newquay. Or for another great beach, head south from the resort to Holywell Bay, a favourite location for makers of movies and TV commercials. James Bond fans will recognise it from the opening scenes of Die Another Day.

As for my other Cornish preconceptions, nothing quite prepared me for the impact of the Cornish pasty. It's gone way beyond being a local speciality, one of those products like Champagne or feta cheese that bureaucrats in Brussels declare can only be authentic if made in a specific region. The selling and eating of pasties dominates every town in Cornwall. As a street food, the pasty is probably more popular than hot dogs and burgers are in the US. Walk through the centre of Penzance, for example, and within a very short distance you pass six shops that specialise in baking the things. Everywhere you look, people are munching them out of paper bags.

Pasties were originally devised, it's said, as a convenient way for tin miners to have their meals while underground. The thick crusts were never intended to be eaten after being held in the miners' grubby fingers, and the rest of it was supposed to be a complete meal containing steak and vegetables at one end and a dessert of jam or fruit at the other.

If you have the stomach for it, you can still buy the original at some shops. But most people prefer the standard steak version (mince is considered a travesty of a pasty), although you can now get every mixture of ingredients known to man. Chicken and peanut butter, anyone?

It's hard not to get drawn into this Cornish cult. And once it's got hold of you, it's difficult to avoid going on a sort of pilgrimage to hunt down the perfect pasty at shops that everyone says make the best – places like the St Ives Bakery, or the Chough Bakery, in Padstow.

All of which is sheer lunacy if you've come to Cornwall hoping to experience the other extreme of the county's food fame – restaurants run by celebrity chefs.

So it might be a good idea to get Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall out of the way quite early. It opens for breakfast at 8am and puts on perhaps the best English fry-up you'll ever taste. Of course, the cheeky chappy himself doesn't cook for you, being far too famous to spend his mornings slapping divine rashers or links of real sausage under the grill. It's run by the charity he set up to teach young people the art of fine cooking.

Nor will you find the other big name of Cornish food, Rick Stein, in chef's whites at his eponymous café in Padstow (I know he detests it, but the village is often called "Padstein" because his name is everywhere you look). But the man's approach to food, such as sourcing the best fish straight off the quayside a few minutes' walk away, is evident in the menu.

Rick or Jamie haven't taken it over – yet – but Cornwall's biggest eating place is at the Eden Project, where the restaurants seem to occupy as much space as the vast tropical jungles and Mediterranean gardens. This is industrial-scarred landscape regeneration at its most imaginative. An old claypit crater some 160-foot deep and covering 34 acres is filled with huge golfball-shaped conservatories filled with themed areas such as temperate and humid, the latter being the biggest greenhouse on Earth.

The outdoor gardens are best described as Picasso meets the Aztecs with weird mixtures of tea and tobacco plantations alongside crazy sculptures.

The Eden Project has been named as the best wet-weather attraction in Britain. And returning on the flight back to Yorkshire, where the summer rain was sheeting down, I couldn't help wondering why the Eden Project had to be built at the end of the country that gets the least rainfall.


CORNWALL FACTFILE

Jet2.com provides a direct service from Leeds Bradford Airport to Newquay Airport, three times a week. Flights start from £19.99 one way, including all taxes. Visit www.jet2.com for more information.

Roger Ratcliffe stayed at The Bay Hotel, Esplanade Road, Pentire, Newquay. Tel. 01637 852221 or visit www.newquay-hotels.co.uk

Rick Stein's Café is in Middle Street, Padstow. For reservations, phone 01841 532700.

Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen Cornwall, is on the beach at Watergate Bay, near Newquay, TR8 4AA. For reservations, phone 01637 861000.

The Eden Project is at Bodelva, St Austell, Cornwall, PL24 2SG. Visit www.edenproject.com or phone 01726 811911.

Visit www.cornishpasty
association.co.uk to download a list of the best Cornish pasty makers.