Wholly smoke

There's a world of difference between mass-market smoked salmon and the traditionally produced kind, as Tom Howells discovers on a trip to London's Secret Smokehouse

- Tom Howells

SECRET SMOKEHOUSE began like many fine artisan endeavours: in a garden shed. A decade on from these humble beginnings, its founder Max Bergius has fully revived the art of cold and hot smoking salmon (and trout, haddock, mackerel, mussels and kippers). The convivial Scotsman grew up near Oban, Argyll and Bute: a region famed for its abundance of wonderful seafood ('langoustine, lobsters, brown crabs, mackerel... all beautifully sweet'). Traipsing up and down the coast, he would see 'all these little smokehouses, run by old fishermen, one-man bands. They were clamped onto the sides of the houses. There was nothing pretty about it; just fish hanging, wrapped in newspapers'.

At the age of 19, he moved to London, working in marketing and PR for 15 years before a moment of self-realisation saw a return to his father's home in Loch Awe. Taking some old pallets, he built a makeshift smoker and approached the local fish farm for donations of trout to his DIY cause. 'The deal they gave me was: “Whatever you smoke, give us half back, and we'll give it to the lads,”' says Mr Bergius. (The lads, he confirms, were delighted.)