Fish stories

The Crown

Meet the Chef: Andrew Swan - The Crown, Hastings.

The Crown boasts two Observer Food Monthly awards and holds the title of regional Parliamentary Pub of the Year for the South East. Dedicated to using local ingredients and just a short walk from Hastings seafront, The Crown is perfectly placed to make the most of Hastings Fish.

We spoke to head chef and owner Andrew Swan about the Crown’s relationship with the Hastings fishing fleet and how the sustainable catch is used on their award-winning menu.

“We use a couple of suppliers from the Hastings fishing fleet…we get regular texts from PH Fisheries telling us what is about to be landed that day, which inspires the dishes that will go on our menu. The boats often come in at night, then we prep the fish that morning and it’s served to customers that day.

Our USP is that mostly everything we sell is super local; we’re a stone’s throw from the beach here and it’s a no brainer for us to use Hastings Fish. We’re passionate about using local ingredients and one of the main reasons for moving here to start the business is that there’s a wealth of those in this area.

Our most popular Hastings Fish dish is the fish finger sandwich, it encompasses our food philosophy in one dish: the bread is made here using flour that’s grown and milled here, the fish is caught down on the seafront, the batter is made using local ale, the sauce uses Kentish rapeseed oil and local eggs, the coleslaw consists of all local veggies - we even make our own crisps out of those!

I don’t have a favourite fish to work with as such, but I enjoy the seasonality of working so close to nature. It’s exciting when you know that it’s mackerel season and they’ve been spotted, or guessing if the herring is due to arrive on time. We use regular catches like plaice and whiting quite a lot and then there’s also fish like cuttlefish that we like to make a big deal of when it arrives.

The local catch is varied and delicious - it’s great to show our customers how local our ingredients are by having a menu that changes with what’s available from the fishing fleet that day.”

Visit The Crown: 64-66 All Saints St Hastings, TN34 3BN
www.thecrownhastings.co.uk 01424 465100

St Clement’s

Chefs Kevin & Lucy moved from Edinburgh to Hastings in June 2018 to take over popular St Leonards restaurant St Clement’s, citing Hastings Fish as a major motivation for moving to the area.

We caught up with Kevin to find out more about what he loves about Hastings Fish and how they use the local catch on their menu.

“We ran a restaurant in Edinburgh for 15 years but decided to move to Hastings in June 2018 largely because of the fishing fleet. In Scotland you get fresh fish of course, but the bigger boats out of Peterhead can often be out at sea for over a week. In Hastings, fish can be on the plate just hours after being caught.

Take gurnard for instance - in Scotland we mainly get grey gurnard so I didn’t realise that fresh red gurnard from the south had a marvellous aquamarine edging on their fins when they’re really fresh, which disappears over a few hours after its caught. In Scotland it’s overlooked as a second-rate fish but down here, because it’s so fresh, we serve it up with some shallots, garlic, spinach, mashed potatoes and a butter sauce and it’s really delicious and really popular.

I love the seasonality that comes with working closely with a local fleet - it’s important to keep in touch with the seasons, plus it’s nice to not have everything all of the time because when you do get it, it’s really good and it feels a bit more special. You really feel it if the boats aren’t able to go out due to the weather too, it reminds us of that special relationship with nature.

When it’s fresh here, it’s really fresh - unlike anywhere I’ve known. The plaice on our menu today for instance was likely caught in the early hours of this morning! Grilled whole plaice with some hand cut fries and salad in a caper and lemon butter is one of our most popular dishes. Because the fish is so fresh and such good quality, people respond best to simple dishes that really respect the ingredients.

Hastings folk are so adventurous when it comes to eating fish in restaurants, dabs for instance - I would have never cooked them up in Scotland but down here they are so fresh and they’re proving really popular. We use Arcade Fisheries for all of our fish, we rely heavily on them and trust them implicitly to recommend what’s good or recommend something more suitable for a dish or budget. It’s important to us that we buy well, look after the ingredients and be prepared to run out.”

Visit St Clement’s Restaurant: 3 Mercatoria Saint Leonards-on-sea TN38 0EB 
www.stclementsrestaurant.co.uk 01424 200355