Author of Guyrope Gourmet: A Camping Cookbook, Josh Sutton is a food and travel writer who can often be seen writing for Camping Magazine.

His mission to lead a campsite kitchen revolution leaves us drooling and so we're delighted to help him avoid the washing up by having him join us for an Expert Interview!

Hi Josh, thanks for joining us. Can we start by asking about your favourite place in the UK?

Snowdonia is my favorite place to camp. Welsh mountain rivers and the coast of west wales both fulfil my urge for wild swimming.

There's a lot to love about Snowdonia. What about your favourite micro adventure?

A couple of years ago I went walking in the Howgills with a good friend of mine. We opted for the ultra lightweight bivouac experience for the weekend. Setting off from Tebay, we were mobbed by mosquitos on the Friday evening. Neither of us had thought to bring a suitable repellent, so we ended up using single malt whiskey instead. It didn't work, but tasted a lot better than 'bug off'!

Even on that trip I carried a couple of neck fillets of lamb and managed to russle up a decent lamb stew on my Trangia stove.

Away from the hills and mountains, do you like a good beach too?

My favourite beach is Pembryn in West Wales. There's a good ten minute walk down to the water's edge from the car park, so it's rarely crowded. There is also a superb little beach café called Cartws Café, which does amazing home cooked food.

Rather sneakily, my family and I camped out under the stars on the back of the beach one summer night. We built a small fire and stayed up late looking at the stars. An experience my children will never forget. My highlight was a breakfast of cockles with bacon in a creamy sauce from Cartws in the morning.

Those are definitely the sorts of experiences you remember forever. What's your best camping memory, cooking or otherwise?

One of my earliest camping memories stems from a camping trip on a boat on Ullswater in the Lake District. As I handed the box of food for the weekend up to my father on board, the bottom of the box gave out and the entire contents came to rest on the bottom of the lake.

My younger brother dived in and surfaced minutes later with several tins of baked beans. I told him to leave the corned beef, Muligatawny soup and processed peas on the bottom. It seems that from a young age I was choosy about what constituted camping food!

We're with you on the corned beef! What is your favourite campfire meal these days?

My favourite campfire meal is probably paella. Either cooked over the embers, or on a regular camping stove, I love the fact that you 'build' a paella with whatever ingredients you have to hand; fresh seafood if you're camping by the coast, or a locally caught rabbit from the village butchers, paella is real country food and surprisingly easy to master.

What about a campfire cooking experience that should be on everyone's bucket list?

Marshmallows over an evening campfire is perhaps the one that many would think of, although I've never seen the logic in giving the kids a massive sugar rush just before bedtime.

We did some filming recently for the BBC Food & Drink programme and I showed my daughter how to fillet a fresh mackerel, which she then cooked on a stick over the open fire. We made mackerel Pâté. A fresh fish cooked over the fire is pretty hard to beat.

What about a recipe that you think will be brilliant but haven't tried yet?

I like to think that I'm ambitious, but not unrealistic when it comes to campsite cooking and I'd really like to try my hand at cooking meat in a Hangi. The only problem is, I've yet to find a campsite owner who wouldn't object to me digging a huge fire pit in the middle of their site.

Definitely one for the more adventurous that one! So other than losing your supplies at the bottom of Ullswater, what has been your worst camping experience?

I once showed up for a camping trip with my brother, we decided on a site near Brothers Water in the Lake District, which seemed apt. I managed to arrive with two different types of rock salt (smoked and unsmoked) but I had forgotten to pack my sleeping bag. Talk about getting one's priorities right. I was cold in the night, but we did eat rather well.

Brilliant! What is the strangest thing you always pack now?

A few years ago now, I picked up an old oblong steel tin. It contained a little methylated spirit burner. Its original purpose was for sterilizing medical instruments, but I instantly saw its culinary potential, and now use it as a fish kettle. Its perfect for gently poaching a sea bass or trout, so it always comes with me if I'm heading for the coast.

That sounds inventive! What other cooking gear you always take with you?

If I'm going lightweight, then it's my trusty Trangia, but if we are in the van, then I seem to take everything, including the kitchen sink. One of the ways of ensuring that you have a good time while camping is making sure you have all the right kit with you. I keep all of my herbs and spices in an old army ammunition box. It keeps all the stuff together and is handy to pack away in the car or van, it also means I can usually knock together a decent meal out of anything I might find.

And what about something everyone should leave behind when packing?

It's not so much leaving behind, as being prepared to take something with you. I always take a sense of adventure, a preparedness to try new things and go new places. I love that expression that says; "if you always do what you always did, then you always get what you always had", or something like that!

That's a great motto to live by. Is there any other advice you can share?

The essence of being a Guyrope Gourmet is to try to use fresh local ingredients when you go camping. Tinned and processed food has its place, but not only is camping a great way to explore the British countryside, but it is also a great way to discover the amazing food that farmers and growers produce in this country.

If I had one piece of advice, I would encourage people to give it a go, don't be afraid of making mistakes and don't worry if the food you are cooking doesn't look like the picture in the recipe book. Get stuck in!

Good tip! And finally, who is your ideal campfire meal companion?

My ideal camping companion is my wife. I proposed to her while we were wild camping on the shores of the Pacific ocean in California. In many ways, the whole Guyrope Gourmet thing emerged from my efforts at impressing this girl I had met with my camping skills.

Beyond that, I really enjoy the camaraderie of camping, more often than not you find yourself in a field with like-minded people. It's a great way of making new friends.

That's a nice note to finish on. Thanks for taking part Josh, we really appreciate it!

If you fancy yourself as something of a campfire chef, visit Josh's website, or follow him on Twitter.