text: With Chris’ advice about the best flavour combinations, I chose mackerel with hard boiled eggs, clotted cream, samphire, and a dash of Cornish Orchards dry cider alongside those pasty staples of potato and onion.
  Chris started working with Ginsters 18 months ago as a collaborating chef after becoming the first ever Cornishman to be awarded a Michelin star for his amazing dishes at the Driftwood Hotel and Restaurant near Portscatho.
  He told me: “For a Cornish boy to do something with pasties is a dream come true. I work with Ginsters to help develop their range, looking at ingredients and flavour profiles. I’m completely blown away with what they do.”
  After mixing the ingredients, it was time to get our crimp on. It’s at this juncture I have to admit something – I am a Cornishman and yet I have never made a pasty. The prospect of crimping in front of a Michelin chef scared the chuck steak out of me.
  Pinch, twist, roll – that’s Chris’ ethos. I tried it and failed magnificently, even going so far as to crimp on top; sacrilege in some Cornish circles, I know.
  What made it even more difficult was deciding to turn the mackerel pasty into a stargazy pasty at the last minute, so I had to crimp around the head. Even the classiest of crimpers might struggle there.
  After 40 minutes in the oven, it was the moment of truth. You know what, they were good – the fish and egg combining beautifully with a creamy undertone and cider bite. Chris looked surprised … too surprised for my liking.
  Thanks for the opportunity, Ginsters. When you start producing the Stargazy Pasty just remember who deserves a slice of the profits.
  
  Obesity was classified as the 21st century pandemic, which makes perfect sense when thinking about chronic non-communicable diseases. Perhaps what we did not expect was to come to know another disease that was considered pandemic, in the 21st century, with a mortality as high as COVID19.
  
  Kelly Bennett, Associate Counsel for Corvias Group, was recently promoted to Captain, Judge Advocate in the Military Justice Division of the Massachusetts Army National Guard.