Man held in chef-threat inquiry

Jamie Oliver said he did not feel threatened by an e-mail

Police investigating threats against celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein from a Cornish nationalist group have arrested a man.

Devon and Cornwall Police said a Padstow man, aged 36, had been arrested over phone calls to Mr Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in Cornwall.

He was arrested on 4 July and bailed to reappear at Newquay Police Station on 14 August.

Police are investigating threats via e-mail against Mr Stein and Mr Oliver.

A group calling itself The Cornish Liberation Army (CNLA) said in the e-mail Mr Oliver would be a target because he was "another incomer who has caused the inflation of house and other living costs at Cornish expense".

Mr Oliver said last month that Fifteen, at Watergate Bay near Newquay, used local produce, 80,000 people had used the restaurant and "millions of pounds has gone into the local community".

I just think the answers to their worries is government not a couple of poxy chefs Jamie Oliver

"I do not feel threatened by it because actions speak louder than words," he said.

"I just think the answers to their worries is government not a couple of poxy chefs.

"For me it is the government's problem. If there is an affordable housing problem that is government's problem - local government and government."

Mr Stein, who runs his Seafood Restaurant and a number of other businesses in the Cornish port of Padstow, has not commented on the e-mails.