Net Gains - how pub chefs can make the most out of seafood

Mitchell Tonks, owner of the FishWorks restaurant group, offers advice on how pub chefs can make the most out of seafood. Mark Taylor reports

Mitchell Tonks spent the first 24 years of his life by the sea - either sailing or skiing on it, or fishing in it.

After working as an accountant, Mitch opened a fishmongers in Bath. Along with his business partner Roy Morris, he now has five FishWorks restaurants - in Bath, Bristol, Christchurch and London's Chiswick and Marylebone. Each FishWorks site has a fishmongers, seafood café and a cookery school.

As well as running his restaurants and their cookery schools, Mitch also makes regular appearances on TV including on UK Food and BBC2's Saturday Kitchen.

He has written two award-winning books - FishWorks Seafood Café Cookbook and Fresh.

Where is the best place for pub chefs to buy fish?

There are plenty of suppliers, both in Brixham (Devon), and in Cornwall, who provide good, efficient services covering delivery and fish preparation. Reputations vary and it is important to build a relationship with your supplier, pay him on time and demand that you get the best produce. Many of these people will deliver daily and therefore orders can be left in the evening, with delivery the next day. My advice would be to buy fish on a "just in time" basis. There is nothing wrong with running out of fish in your restaurant during service.

What should chefs look for when buying fish?

The quality of the packaging is a reflection of the supplier. Clean boxes, fresh ice covering the fish, and possibly some acetate over the top of the box are all indications that the supplier has packed the fish with care. When fish is piled into a tray or a dirty box, with little or no ice, you can be sure that the supplier is just shifting a commodity around for commercial sake, rather than buying it and caring where it goes. Look for clear eyes, fresh smell ("ozoney" not fishy), bright red gills, firm flesh and plenty of slime on flat fish. Try to buy your fish whole, rather than filleted, as this will give you the best indication of freshness (you can't, of course, buy large fish such as cod like this). Be careful when buying fish like hake as the flesh can be soft and can be easily damaged during transport.

How long should fish/seafood be kept?

Fish and seafood should be consumed as quickly as possible. I reckon no longer than 48 hours, except for farmed fish, which may keep for up to three days. Warm-water fish, like tuna and swordfish, have a longer shelf life but in any case, as the days go on, the fish deteriorates. Fish should be stored in the coldest part of the fridge, at 0°C, preferably with some ice (except on tuna and swordfish) or just covered with a damp cloth so that it doesn't dry out in the fridge.

Which species should pub chefs look for?

Tuna and swordfish are an easy option as they have no bones, are easy to cook and store and are readily available. Try whole fish like lemon sole, but avoid Dover sole unless your customers are prepared to pay £20 upwards for their fish. Avoid turbot and brill as these command similar prices for decent sized steak - unless your customer base is prepared to pay it. Look at cheaper options. Mackerel is an obvious pub choice, so are large south-coast cod fillets, but try things like pollack, which is a fantastic fish, covered in parsley sauce and mash in the same way as a piece of cod. It will also stand up to quite strong flavours.

Which fish and seafood would you recommend for pub menus?

I think shellfish is fabulous on gastro-pub menus. There are plenty of suppliers who have live langoustines and scallops which I think gastro-pub customers would be prepared to pay for. A gastro pub is also a great environment for eating a nice plate of fresh oysters. Species like red mullet, monkfish, fresh anchovies and sardines always look good on this sort of menu.

What are the best ways to cook fish to order?

Fish generally cooks extremely quickly. If I was cooking a chunk of turbot, I would seal it in the pan to give it some colour, and just roast it straight in the oven and crack on with the next check - you can be sure that within 10 minutes, that piece of fish is going to be ready. As a rule, for a piece of fish on the bone, when the starters are gone I would start cooking a chunk of fish or roasting a whole fish. Removed from the oven, the fish will be properly cooked. And it will be very forgiving - a minute or two before being plated doesn't harm it. It just doesn't like being neglected under the grill or in the oven for any length of time.

What's the difference between farmed and wild fish? Should we use intensively farmed fish?

Farmed fish has its place in the food chain and it supports sustainability. I think sea bream have a great flavour when they are farmed, the best ones coming from France or Greece. The same with sea bass. For farmed salmon, I use and would recommend the Glenarm salmon from Northern Ireland. It has the most fabulous way of farming its fish using its own breed stocks with no added antibiotics or colourings and the fish virtually exist in their natural environment. Anything that has been intensely farmed with lots of antibiotics should be avoided.

How worried should we be about shortages and dwindling stocks? Any species that we should avoid buying?

It is important that chefs buy from merchants who buy from well-managed fisheries. The south coast, from Plymouth to Newlyn, is being fished by boats that are well managed by the ministries. In these fisheries we saw quotas increased for species such as Dover sole and monkfish last year. Large cod are regularly landed here, showing that they are big enough to have had time to spawn.

We should be concerned about dwindling stocks but with the right management, care and respect we will not run out. I would avoid buying species from the North Sea and any other fishery that has been highlighted by the Marine Stewardship Council or the Government as being in a poor state.

What are the top five best sellers at your FishWorks restaurants?

In whatever guise we cook them, sea bass, turbot, scallops, crab and sea bream are always consistently popular.

What do you try to instil in chefs at FishWorks?

The biggest thing that I try to encourage the guys to do is to eat out more. It is so important as a chef to understand what the eating-out experience is like. Being a chef makes you a great technician, however it is what is on the plate and what the customer thinks that is most important. By eating out more you understand that further and you get more exposure, especially abroad, to see how other nations cook their food. If you want to cook Italian food, spend some time in Italy, if you want to cook Spanish, go to places like Barcelona.

The second most important thing I try to instil is restraint. Look at the ingredients; respect them and do as little as possible as you can to them. Too often, chefs try to creep in the odd tower or a fancy ingredient that really doesn't belong on the plate. Leave the fish alone, adorn it with nothing else but good olive oil, salt and lemon juice. Let the ingredients speak for themselves and carry other flavours in side dishes, such as a well-made Greek salad. Never more than three things on the plate.

Mitchell Tonks' award-winning books, FishWorks Seafood Café Cookbook and Fresh can be ordered through www.fishworks.co.uk