Paul Webbe displaying a skate in Hastings Fish Market
One of my Christmas presents from Paul last year was a cookery morning with Paul Webbe, owner of the eponymous Webbe's restaurant just below our house, on Rock-a-Nore. I finally got along there this week, with thirteen others, and had a brilliant morning that started with a visit to the Fish Market, opposite the restaurant, and some fascinating details about sustainable fishing by the Hastings fishing fleet. Because the boats are small, they only fish up to six miles offshore, using trammel nets - i.e. nets that operate like a portcullis, with a mesh the right size to trap fish of a certain age only - unlike the trawler nets that drag along the bottom of the sea, catching everything in sight. I had not realised, either, that 90% of the day's catch is collected in the early hours of the morning and transported to Rungis, outside Paris - the "sustainably fished" label giving added value.
This was followed by a stroll down the sheds of the "boys ashore" to pick up fish at a third of the price you pay in a normal fishmonger's, which we then took back to a large kitchen beside the Stade Hall, where Paul taught us how to fillet the different varieties - which we then did with varying success. We filleted fish and dissected crabs for a potted crab starter, and finally, bewildered by science, repaired to the restaurant where we had a mammoth lunch of potted crab, carpaccio of salmon, bouillabaisse, fillets of lemon sole and finally a panna cotta with roast rhubarb. Although we had done the main task of preparing the fish, the end result was, needless to say, transformed by the kitchen's magic in the restaurant.
I found the whole morning totally inspiring, and although I shall have to do some practising with filleting, I'm no longer scared to death by the thought. The need to experiment further means that people coming to dinner tonight are getting boeuf bourguignon!
Antony Mair
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