HARTS KITCHEN
CELEBRITY CHEF
W
ith a long list of accolades and awards to his name, you’d expect Mitch Tonks’ new book to feature some pretty impressive fish recipes. You wouldn’t be disappointed. Whether you choose to whip up a batch of his Brixham calamari or get adventurous with Singapore crab, The Rockfish Cookbook engages and inspires, with everything from stunningly simple to creatively challenging dishes – as the 3 recipes on the following pages illustrate. The latest in a string of recipe books authored by the former fishmonger, acclaimed restaurateur, chef and father of 5 (a list that makes you feel worn out just reading it) has been described as a celebration of seafood, sustainability and seasonality. It is also the first to be named after his soon-to-be 9 Devon and Dorset-based seafood restaurants, dotted along a coastline he views as producing some of the finest seafood in the world. Mitch grew up in Weston-super-Mare, where early memories include helping peel and prepare shrimps and buckets of eels arriving at his grandmother’s back door to be boiled and jellied.
STEVE HAYWOOD
FROM FIGURES TO FISH
FISH FOR COMPLIMENTS From selling fish, to cooking and writing books on it, running seafood restaurants and championing the fishing industry, Mitch Tonks has a passion for poisson 20
Fast forward to the age of 27 and Mitch, then a father of 2, found himself working in accountancy to pay the bills. Feeling somewhat frustrated with his career path and seeking change, he decided to head in an entirely different route by setting up a fish shop in Bath. That led to FishWorks, a restaurant upstairs. Which led to another and then another. Things quickly snowballed to the point Mitch had an award-winning 13site chain of restaurants across London and southwest Britain. The expansion proved too rapid however, and Mitch parted company with FishWorks in 2008, a year before it went into administration. A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
Undaunted, he moved to Dartmouth and established The Seahorse with two other partners. The stylish restaurant, which commands views of the River Dart, has prided itself on sourcing the very best produce, and was a winner of the Observer’s Best UK Restaurant award.
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