Award-winning seafood chef Mitch Tonks loves cooking with the fish from our waters. Find out more in our interview.
Who is Mitch Tonks?
Mitch Tonks is a highly acclaimed restaurateur, food writer and fishmonger who has three restaurants - The Seahorse and The RockFish Seafood & Chips restaurants in Dartmouth and the RockFish Grill & Seafood Market in Bristol. He is also consultant chef at the boutique hotel South Sands in Salcombe.
He looks familiar. Have I seen him somewhere before?
He co-presented the TV series Mitch and Matt’s Big Fish and writes regularly for magazines and newspapers, including Great British Food and Devon Life.
What’s he up to at the moment?
He has developed the first iPhone app dedicated to seafood, which includes step by step guides, recipes and 17 video technique guides – a unique new platform for de-mystifying the buying, cooking and eating of fish.
The app will be regularly updated with new recipes and info on seasonality and sustainability. You can download it from iTunes for £2.99. Find out more
What makes him such a seafood expert?
Mitch founded the FishWorks chain of 13 fishmongers, restaurants and cookery schools, before parting company with it three years ago to set up his restaurants.
Since then, he has collected a string of awards for his cooking, including Tatler’s restaurateur of the year; best fishmonger; London restaurant award’s Best new restaurant; World Gourmand’s Best Fish book; and a contributor to the Bafta nomination BBC web series ‘Get Cooking’.
His restaurant, The Seahorse in Dartmouth, was recently described by the Times food critic as ‘perfect’ and was awarded ‘best restaurant outside of London’ by Fork Magazine.
The great thing is, he loves cooking British fish as you'll see from the lovefood.com video interview above. "Tomorrow's menu is in the sea," he is fond of saying.
Can I make his recipes myself?
Yes you can, and there’s no need to download the app to try one. Try out Mitch Tonks’ grey mullet with mussells and let us know how you get on!
Also worth your attention:
- Tom Aikens' pan fried sea bass
- Learn the secrets of celebrity chefs
- Recipes by Mitch Tonks
- Mitch Tonks' book: Fish: The Complete Fish and Seafood Companion