Twinkling lights on calm waters; a coastline path flourishing in wildflowers and hues of green; and a sweet scent of charred oak drifting in on the wind. This, for us, is summer on the sea.

Join us this season as Le Chameau sets sail with renowned wild outdoor chef and food writer Gill Meller, who serves us up a handful of seasonal mouth-watering recipes that perfectly celebrates the season’s long and warm summer days.

Meet Gill, a chef and food writer based on the Dorset/Devon border. Having worked alongside Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage for over a decade, Gill now has a library of cookbooks behind him and specialises in cooking seasonal dishes out in the wild.

We invited Gill onto our Le Chameau summer sailing trip along with the Coastal Exploration Company, exploring the creeks and wider seas of the North Sea. With the sail up, calm waters ahead and the saucepan set to heat over oak embers, Gill begins the first of two recipes he’ll be cooking for us during our exploration – steamed local harvested cockles and mussels. With the olive oil, onions and garlic sizzling nicely in the pan, we ask Gill more about what inspires him to cook in the outdoors and what he’s looking forward to cooking most this summer.

“I fell in love with the environment around me, where I live by the coast. I have tried to forge a real relationship with the land and sea and with cooking outdoors. Nature inspires me throughout the calendar year, cooking as seasonally as possible and using good homegrown produce. I love to source produce from local farmers and growers, and it’s that forging relationships with those people that is almost as important as the cooking itself, knowing where the food I cook has come from and how it's been grown is really important. My cooking philosophy is then letting the ingredients speak for themselves.”

As the onions and garlic soften, Gill then adds plenty of butter and white wine into the bubbling caldron to cook further before adding in the cockles and mussels to steam.

Summer brings with it a glut of fresh produce like fruit and vegetables and wild foods that can be foraged. Sailing the coastline, there is no end to what can be foraged, from sea purslane and sea kale to samphire and sea beet.

“It’s very exciting time of year to be cooking and growing your own produce.” Gill says, who has his own small vegetable garden at home. “My freshly dug homegrown new potatoes are probably one of the most delicious things. Boiled in salted water, and then finished with lots of butter, flaky salt and black pepper. It’s an absolute treat and a real highlight of the season.

“A little bit later on in late summer, seasonal homegrown tomatoes are sensational. Simply cut in half if they're ripe, sprinkle with salt, good olive oil and lovage – one of my favourite herbs with tomatoes. If I choose to cook them, barbecuing tomatoes is actually one of the great ways to cook them. Not everyone does it, but they respond really well to high heat, almost searing and smoky, crisping up round the edges. I tend to slice little slithers of garlic and poke these into the soft, seedy cups of the tomatoes where the seeds sit. When they are on the barbeque, I add some thyme, lovage and rosemary. Wait until they're soft and blistered and even sort of blackening around the skins, then just smudge them onto toast – a most delicious way to eat tomatoes.

“Near to me is Lyme Bay, an area of water that spans from Portland down to Dartmouth, where you get some beautiful fish and shellfish. Perhaps some fresh fillets of mackerel grilled on the fire alongside my new potatoes and tomatoes – just wonderful.”

For the steam cockles and mussels recipe Gill is making, he adds in a little foraged sea beet that grows in abundance out here on the coastline, plus some smoky bacon, touch of cream and parsley to finish. As Gill says, “See it as a shellfish stew with fresh foraged ingredients”.

As Gill serves up his shellfish stew to the crew, above us the skies are crowded with an abundance of sea birdlife. Arctic terns shoot into the water beside us for their own lunch of minnows and shrimp, spoonbills glide overhead like over-sized swans, and swifts soar, duck and dive catching all manner of insect life. With plates clean and a mountain of empty mussel and cockle shells, the rest of the afternoon is set for more sailing deeper into the wash.

Watching Gill prepare and cook outdoors is positively mediative. Everything he does, from arranging his kindling and lighting the fire to finely chopping fresh herbs and cooking over fire, he does it with consideration and skill. He also has the kit to match, using his flint striker, maya sticks, his beloved knives and pots, and wearing his Le Chameau boots.

Gill wears Le Chameau Vierzon in Iconic Green.

When asked why Le Chameau, Gill tells us, “It's always been my choice of wellies. They are incredibly well made, they look great and they are just a great all-rounder. Whatever season I’m cooking in they are perfect. In the depths of winter, they'll keep my feet warm and dry being lightweight and super comfortable. Or if I'm working outside in the summer, they will protect my feet, support my ankles; everything you want in a boot. If I'm down on the beach, working out on the boat or if I'm digging potatoes in the garden, they're just a solid and reliable product.”

If you want to learn more about Gill Meller and his upcoming events this year, head to his new website here (gillmeller.com). “I've got a list of supper clubs and events and things that I'm doing up on there, but I've also got my entire recipe archive. So, if you're looking for new recipes – like these two I’m sharing with you on Le Chameau’s latest newsletter – or you just like some of the things I cook, get on there and you'll find a whole host of good stuff.”

Discover Gill Mellers' summer recipes.