Cornish man arrested over threats to Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver

The threats came via email and were apparently made on behalf of an extremist group in Cornwall where the two chefs have restaurants.

Stein runs his Seafood Restaurant and a number of other businesses in the Cornish port of Padstow - dubbed Padstein by some.

Oliver inspired the charitable Fifteen restaurant further up the coast at Watergate Bay, near Newquay, to train disadvantaged youngsters to be chefs.

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

The group's "directing council" also said his clients and customers would be targets as well.

The CNLA has accused Stein of being seen to "ride over local democracy".

However, Stein said local businesses had benefited from the "rosy glow" of publicity generated by his businesses.

The CNLA claims one of its activists was a member of the Free Wales Army which burned English holiday homes there, creating a "rosy glow" from the heat of the fires.

"At an unspecified date, Rick Stein will himself feel a rosy glow in our Cornish port of Padstow," the CNLA threatened.

"His vehicles and those of his clients and customers are also bone fide targets for our activists."

Devon and Cornwall police said a 36-year-old man from Padstow had been arrested in connection with threats to destroy or damage property.

He was arrested on July 4 and had been interviewed and released on police bail until August 14 when he will have to report to Newquay police station.

The police spokesman said officers were conducting parallel inquiries into the alleged threats made to the two chefs.

Oliver shrugged off the threats last month at the beachside Fifteen restaurant on the day his first group of trainee chefs graduated.

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

"I just think the answers to their worries is Government not a couple of poxy chefs," said Oliver.

Referring to his fellow chef, he said: "Rick, for instance, yes he has made a lot of money out of Padstow.

"You cannot knock the man after 30 years for making good. What a wonderful thing to get people right down there to the skirt of Cornwall."

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

He said Fifteen had used local produce, 80,000 people had used the restaurant and "millions of pounds has gone into the local community".