A Passion for Seafood

06/10/2025

Wonderful weather in Newlyn for our Quay Connections port experience, organised for visiting elements of the Cornish fishing industry for a group of their supporters 🐟

Huge thanks to








Fantastic day learning about the true sustainability of a working fishing community 🐟

30/09/2025

It’s that time of year when the silver shoals will soon appear here off the East Anglian coast 🐟

So abundant were the herring back in the early 1900’s that some 1500 ‘drifters’ worked the eastern grounds from Shetland to the North Foreland and beyond into the Channel 🐟

The season started in the summer in Scotland and the shoals migrated south, reaching us here in about October, as did the Scottish herring girls who followed the fleets - gutting, salting and packing 🐟

In 1913, the total national catch was in excess of 600,000 tonnes (12,000,000
cwt) 🐟

Then came the Great War and the decline of the fishery set in 🐟

Are the herring still there - you’ll bet they are. Do we catch them? No, not really, not like our forefathers did. Do we eat them - no same answer 🐟

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be investigating the present day Norfolk and Suffolk herring fishery and seeing if we can’t revitalise it and celebrate the seasonal harvest of the ‘Silver Darlings’ - one of the most delicious, sustainable, heathy, nutritious and affordable fish you’ll ever eat 🐟

Watch out for recipes, tales, interviews, anecdotes and sign up for my Substack (link in bio) to get the whole download of the history of this iconic fish, that truly made history 🐟
🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

29/09/2025

What an incredible two days under some simply stunning Suffolk skies.

The weather gods smiled on us and the whole weekend passed in a huge foodie frenzy with thousands of people enjoying our 20th Festival 😎

On the Seafood Stage, we enjoyed some truly inspirational cooking from our guest chefs, but also some of the most entertaining and enlightening conversations surrounding food, producers, hospitality, kitchen hacks, passion, food memories and intuition, which is what it’s all about 👌🏻

Our chefs cooked with wild bass, cod, mackerel, sardines, langoustine, oysters, ray wings, scallops, prawns, mussels and salmon. Huge thanks to them and of course and her ever dependable and passionate crew backstage and who did an absolutely remarkable job with our new set up 👊🏻

Thanks also to and who helped keep the crowds fed with our sensational bavette steak and garlic lobster rolls 🦞

Sadly all over in a blur, but some incredible memories made. Thank you to all of you who came and supported us 🙏🏻

📷

29/09/2025

I’m delighted and honoured to have a recipe included in the new 2026 calendar 😊

Its beautiful design, with intricate and atmospheric lino cuts, depicting different seafood species and evocative harbour scenes have been masterfully created by Cornish artist 🦀

My recipe features one of my favourite local fish from our coast here in Suffolk and is so easy to prepare and assemble.

I’ve chosen Thornback ray or ‘roker’ as it’s called here (aka skate) and is super abundant, not just in our waters but all around the inshore coast from North Shields to Fleetwood.

It’s a tremendous flavour, great for children (or bone-wary diners) and the texture when cooked and lifted from the frame is perfect for fish cakes.

The paprika adds a little bite and if you serve with a home made tartare sauce or aioli you can’t go wrong.

Some ray species are less abundant and preferable to use, but with Thornbacks you’re perfectly safe and supporting our Great British inshore fishing communities. 👊🏻🐟🦞🦀

If in doubt over fish sustainability - always ask your local independent fishmonger. Or if you don’t have one you can always message me 😉🐟

25/09/2025

The annual herring migration will soon be with us. Such a fantastic and seasonal resource. Let’s once again get behind the fish that’s fed nations 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

23/09/2025

Delighted to feature in a super article in this week’s by about and the incredible beach lunch she hosted earlier in the summer on Aldeburgh Beach ☀️

Local fisherman Dean Fryer and his morning’s catch took centre stage stage, whilst I supplied oysters from and some new season Cornish sardines 🐟

Jess had invited me along with other noted Suffolk foodies to celebrate the upcoming launch of ‘Dean’s - her latest Manhattan project, a seafood-focused restaurant named after her eponymous fisherman friend 🐟

A truly wonderful lunch set on the beach, yards from the sea and on an idyllic summer’s day, which only Aldeburgh could summon up 😎

Simply the best way to celebrate the seasonal bounty of our seas and the guys who bring their catch to us year round and who contribute massively to the economy, heritage and culture of our coastal communities 👊🏻

Bravo Jess and thank you for inviting me 🦞

You can read the full article - link in bio 🔗

07/09/2025

Here’s few more pics from our brilliant lobster workshop on Aldeburgh beach yesterday, for a private birthday weekend event organised by 🎉

It was scheduled to be a crab picking masterclass, but unfortunately due to this year’s extraordinary octopus bloom in the South West, I wasn’t able to source the crabs I wanted from Brixham due to dwindling numbers 🦀

So hey ho…. We had to upgrade to lobsters much to everyone’s annoyance - not 😉🦞

24 willing and able guests enjoyed a superb afternoon on the beach learning not just about lobsters, but the stories behind the culture, heritage and history of our local fishing community here.

A taste of fishing reality and some deep insights into what it actually takes to bring our seasonal catch from ‘net to plate’ 🐟

After dressing their lobs, everyone enjoyed the spoils with some bitter leaves, fresh lemon and mayonnaise on the beach in wonderful early autumn sunshine 😎

Teaching folk how to source, prep, cook and eat fish and shellfish is part of my passion and goes hand in hand with the explanation of what ‘sustainability’ actually means. Not just for fish populations and ocean ecology, but also for our fishing communities and their socio economic importance.

It’s all about balance and harmony between environmental, social and commercial criteria and sadly in so many cases around our coasts those elements are out of kilter 😔

Support our inshore fisheries !🦞🐟🦀🦑🦪

Years ago Aldeburgh supported around 30 boats all launched from the beach. Now there are only really two that fish year-round on a commercial basis 😮

To learn more about how our UK fisheries work and to try your hand at prepping the seasonal catch, join me on the beach for a unique experience and reach beyond the conjecture and misrepresentation that is so commonly perpetrated in the media.

27/08/2025

It’s been 30 years since ‘Taste of the Sea’ graced our screens.

An absolute milestone in familiarising the UK consumer with the joys and realities of native British seafood.

An inspiration for so many of us, I’ve decided to write about what it meant to me and the legacy that’s it’s left behind. Groundbreaking, pioneering, call it what you will, Taste of the Sea is as relevant today as it was back then.

We’re an island nation - we harbour the most sustainably and responsibly caught seafood in the Northern Hemisphere and yet we are still so reluctant to embrace it…

Join me on a trip down memory lane and relive those heady days of the mid nineties, when suddenly the realities of UK seafood and its production were brought right to us with a certain passion and knowledge that lives on today.

You can read about how this iconic series and book put the hook in me and prompted me to say farewell to a 30 year career in farming and embrace the wonderful world of our fishing communities, their heritage and culture and the myriad and abundance of fish and shellfish, landed to our ports and harbours.

Taste of the Sea - still as relevant 30 years on. 🐟🦞🦀🦪

Link in bio 🦞

📷 creds Graham Kirk - BBC Books

26/08/2025

What an earth are we walking into?

Wind farms could make shellfish too dangerous to eat, study warns

Scientists call for more research into potentially harmful levels of metals released into sea

09/08/2025

We have some of the most productive and responsibly fished waters in the Northern Hemisphere and yet access to them is becoming a nightmare thanks to the offshore energy elephant.

Fishermen are being excluded from areas where they once reaped rich harvests

04/08/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/apassionforseafood/p/full-of-kintyre?r=212x2v&utm_medium=ios

The Tarbert Seafood Festival

31/07/2025

Huge opportunity 👌🏻🦞🐟🦀

There’s a real shortage of new workers entering the fishing industry, not to mention the many barriers fishermen face if they do pursue it as a career. We are working to upskill fishing communities through the development of educational training programmes for fishermen.