SMALL FISH, SEA CHANGE

A few chefs across the country are championing small fish, showing diners the big value they have to offer.

- Arundhati Ail

There's an imposter in the chocolate dessert at Mumbai's Masque. In June this year, head chef Varun Totlani worked with chef Jordy Navarro of Manila-based Toyo Eatery to create a charming chocolate dessert served in a cacao shell. The dish was a neat three layers-a cacao nib and cashew crumb, pandan custard, and silky chocolate fudge. In the middle was a crunchy, salty surprise. And it had a head, tail, and eyes. The imposter in question was a dried anchovy. The dish, inspired by Chef Navarro's chocolate and fish sauce dessert at Toyo, had elements of fish throughout a bed of dried mandeli (golden anchovy), a fish sauce caramel, and the dried anchovies inside. One would think that a fish like anchovy, long regarded as bycatch, wouldn't ever find a place at an upscale establishment like Masque, which ranked #16 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023 list.

Fine dining has historically been about aspirational food and ingredients. Diners expect global exotics or hyperlocal foraged produce, not things one finds in their neighbourhood market. Easily accessible small fish doesn't quite fit into this narrative. But with the depletion of juvenile fish stock across oceans, small local fish are slowly taking space in a global conversation around sustainable seafood. In 2015, conservation group Oceana gathered the likes of Massimo Bottura, René Redzepi, and Daniel Humm to pledge to respect the ocean's diversity of species and use more small fish on their menus. This year, hotel group Relais & Châteaux partnered with France-based environmental organisation Ethic Ocean to explore the true meaning of in-season fish with their chefs. As part of the campaign, renowned chef Elena Arzak of Arzak Restaurant in San Sebastián, Spain, shines a big spotlight on the tiny European anchovy. In India, the catch is that while a variety of small fish is widely consumed across homes, their appearance on fine-dining tables is extremely limited.