James Ginzler - Fishy Fishy Cookbook

I turn the corner and see the tables and blue umbrellas in the cobbled square, hear the murmur of contented punters and the clinking of glasses suggesting that just one more glass could be squeezed in before the sun sets, and breathe in the smell of the sea drifting up East Street, as well as the delicious aromas coming from our restaurant kitchen. I get butterflies as I descend the steps as quickly as possible to find the usual chaos of a kitchen in the middle of service. Im always fascinated to discover what has been brought in that morning and to see what magic Loz and his kitchen staff have worked on the days catch.

From the very outset, all of us involved in setting up Fishy Fishy Paul, James, our better halves Alice and Dee and I made it absolutely clear that the kitchen had to be the heartbeat of the restaurant. Before anything else was confirmed (including, I recall, the funding!), we were making sure our chef Loz was busy creating a superb menu, with an awful lot of unnecessary help from us five clucking hens. We wanted something that reflected the best Brighton and the Channel has to offer, a feat weve since repeated with heartfelt passion in our second restaurant in Poole.

The idea is simple. Well, thats it exactly, simplicity. We have an incredible larder right on our doorstep, which if fished and managed correctly, can provide us with a varied and delicious menu. I really dont think that the words local and seasonal are mere fads our parents and grandparents (in fact everyone before them) always bought their food this way. Or course they didnt have as much choice as we do now and you were unlikely to find exotic fish flown half way across the world in your local supermarket half a century ago. But we do have a choice now and buying local produce, in season is both the right and tastiest thing to do.

Its what we, the Fishy Fishy family, all passionately believe in, as important as the way the place looks and feels, the welcome you receive, the pleasure you get from whats on your plate and whats in your glass.

We really hope you enjoy these recipes many of these are dishes straight off our menu but weve included others from further afield. And perhaps you might come and pay us a visit...

Dermot OLeary

Back in 1946, Animal Farm author George Orwell wrote an essay in the London Evening Standard about his perfect pub, The Moon Under Water. This was a place where the whole was so much better than its parts. Other places might do particular bits better, but no one offered such a perfect package.

Through my work I have eaten in countless different eateries around the world, from palatial places in Paris with three Michelin stars, to back-street pizzerias in Milan. And believe me, very few have come anywhere near perfection. So when I was first asked to be involved in Fishy Fishy I felt that here was the restaurant worlds answer to Orwell's fictitious hostelry somewhere just around the corner that you could eat at once a week, if you so wished, as well as a destination restaurant you would make the effort to visit. A place where you could have a quick bite because you couldn't be bothered to cook that night or really push the boat out for a special celebration. I am happy to say that I was right and that the Fishy Fishy team has achieved this balance brilliantly.

At home I have shelves full of cookbooks, but very few of them live up to their expectations, so Im delighted with the book that the Fishy Fishy team has produced. In the same way that I want to eat every dish on the Fishy Fishy menu, I want to cook and eat every recipe in this book. Inspired by the restaurants menu, you can recreate some fantastic dishes, from quick healthy suppers to lobster feasts that would make any occasion a celebration, to simple and delicious food with which to impress your friends. It is designed to be a book you will open and enjoy again and again. So go on, push the fishing boat out.

Robert Johnston
Associate Editor, GQ Magazine

Its always been pretty straightforward: fresh, local, seasonal fish and shellfish caught in the most environmentally friendly and sustainable way.

The freezer has had a dramatic effect on the supply of fish and shellfish from far-flung corners of the globe. You can pretty much buy any fish from around the world at any time. A boat can fish in deep seas with huge nets for weeks on end. It can hoover up whole shoals and sort, fillet and freeze until its bursting from the seams before returning to port to sell its catch to the manufacturers of fish fingers and frozen fish pies. And while this may mean that we can fill our freezers with cheap fish, the real cost, apart from the obvious damage to the oceans fish stocks, is to the taste.

Fresh fish, caught in the least damaging way possible (both to the fish and the sea) using a hook and line, or tidal nets, transported back to port and sold the same day, simply has a superior taste to anything you can find in the frozen food section. Fresh fish does not smell of fish, it smells of the sea and this flavour flows through the body to the fillet.

Our fish and shellfish are delivered fresh every day, sometimes twice a day and, in the case of our shellfish, still alive. This is not because we buy in particularly large quantities, its because we want our suppliers to deliver the freshest fish possible. So when you are next at the fishmongers or standing at the fish counter at your local supermarket, just ask a simple question: is it fresh? If the answer is no, then go elsewhere.

Here in the United Kingdom we celebrate the fact that we are an island, surrounded by sea which contains a fantastic assortment of fish and shellfish. So why do we fly thousands of tonnes of fish into this country from around the world? Lobsters from Maine, prawns from Indonesia, farmed bream and sea bass from Greece and even green-lipped mussels from New Zealand. Most consumers have never been to these places so why are we offered food from there when we have perfectly good alternatives here in the UK? The UK mussel industry has taken great steps towards producing grit-free, organic mussels. Most towns have at least one fishmonger who can source alternatives to these exotic specimens, either from the local fishing fleet or from the bigger fish markets. And youll be surprised how little they can cost.

When we started to look at what we were going to serve at Fishy Fishy, the seasonal availability of fish and shellfish did take us by surprise. It seems obvious to us now but the types of fish available vary enormously depending on how warm or cold the sea water is. We are all so used to eating strawberries at Christmas or lobster on New Years Eve that we never really think about when food is actually in season and, therefore, at its best. So if you want to save money while still enjoying good-quality fish, think carefully about whats in season you can usually always find a suitable alternative (see the chart on ).