We rejoice the world’s finest consolation meals by asking cooks and meals writers from various backgrounds to speak in regards to the dishes they love.
Flying Fish Seafoods founder Johnny Godden, discusses the significance of seasonality in seafood, the hardships of the fishing business and Johnny’s childhood favorite, fish and chips.
Described by Elystan Road chef Phil Howard as “fairly merely the most effective fishmonger within the land”, Johnny Godden’s journey to managing director of Flying Fish Seafoods began when he left faculty in Gloucester and joined a seafood provider, working his manner up from filleter to purchaser after which gross sales supervisor. The expertise impressed him to maneuver to Cornwall to be nearer to the supply of the fish and arrange his personal enterprise, with an ethos of accountable sourcing at its coronary heart.
“I didn’t do effectively in school – I left a 12 months early with none GCSEs – however my brother obtained me a job washing packing containers on the fish manufacturing unit the place he was working. Seeing all of the fish was superb. Once I first noticed salmon, after I first noticed a John Dory or a giant turbot, I discovered it fairly superb. And the vitality of everybody working collectively, getting issues completed. I liked it.
“I used to be filleting and have become higher and faster. I nonetheless get pleasure from filleting to today – it’s fairly therapeutic.
“By my mid-twenties I had labored up the ranks to grow to be gross sales supervisor, and I had my very own concepts on how a enterprise ought to be run. Step one was to maneuver nearer to the supply of the gorgeous produce, so I packed my automobile and moved to Cornwall and Flying Fish was born. Through the years, Flying Fish has grown from a one-man band into the corporate we’re at present. We’re so lucky to have constructed up an unimaginable listing of relationships with many Michelin-starred cooks and eating places.
“The pivotal second was after I was 19. I spent a day at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire and noticed not solely the high-quality seafood however the superb fruit and greens produced from their backyard. Seeing this distinctive produce solely drove residence the significance of manufacturing the best degree meals.
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“I’m from a giant household. My mum was a vegetarian and we had been introduced up vegetarian. She was a single mom, so she needed to prepare dinner rather a lot – and on a funds. She’d prepare dinner massive pies or massive bowls of pasta and stuff like that.
“It was like feeding time on the zoo! Mealtimes had been a giant factor – being collectively – but it surely’s humorous as a result of though I used to be introduced up as a vegetarian, I really like meat and I really like fish and I really like offal.
“Palms down, the factor I’d select over most issues is fish and chips. I don’t keep in mind the primary time I had it, however I do keep in mind it at all times being round.
“I keep in mind from an early age somebody coming in with a bag with packing containers inside. You opened it up, steam would come up and the fish and chips would typically be a bit soggy, however there was one thing fairly magical about it. I appreciated it once you’d get actually low-cost white bread – one slice with thick bits of margarine.
“We’ve obtained a extremely good fish and chip store in our city, however the bread and butter is absolutely posh, which isn’t good for fish and chips. It must be low-cost white bread. I get my fish in a separate field to my chips, then I rush residence as rapidly as I can so after I open the field the fish continues to be fairly crunchy, I add a great deal of salt and vinegar, then I wrap it right into a type of chip butty: one slice, not two, rolled over and squashed. And the opposite factor that I actually obtained into these days is mushy peas. I put a great deal of vinegar and pepper in my mushy peas, after which dip my butty in it.”
