Discovering the edible delights of the sea in Annie's fish kitchen

Martin Hesp expands his cooking knowledge with seafood mentor Annie Seabourne

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How many of us home-cooks think we know our way around a fish? Really know it, I mean, so that we can clean, gut and fillet any kind of swimming creature that is about to bless our dinner tables?

My guess is there'll be a smallish number who'll feel confident when confronted with any kind of raw seafood, but also a majority who will look at different kinds of fish and wish they were at the chip shop buying something deep fried and free of bones.

I would place myself in the first group, although having said that I can report that I am now 100 percent more knowledgeable than I was just a week ago. Why? Because although I thought I knew most kinds of fish, I didn’t.

I learned this truth after I spent two days with my new pal and seafood mentor, Annie Seabourne. A Cornish fisherman's daughter with many years’ experience working in the fishing industry, Annie now runs her own seafood cookery school, called My Fish Kitchen. Which is an accurate description, because it is actually based in Annie’s own kitchen in her small cottage in the village of Mawnan Smith - and the one thing she specialises in is teaching people about the edible delights of the sea.

Could I fillet a fish before I met Annie? Yes. Could I do it well? No. Did I know the different cuts and techniques you need to make a good job of different kinds of fish? Definitely not. Now I do. If I can remember them all, which is doubtful for me with a brain like a sieve. However, I am likely to remember the basics.

Because that is what Annie is very good at teaching. Even though I spent a day-and-a-half at My Fish Kitchen, what we did was to simply cover the basics. In such a short time, how could you glean the entire knowledge of someone who's spent the best part of 40 years in the fish trade? Annie began her career by setting up her own business selling seafood in Cornwall - and as such she is a walking encyclopaedia of all things marine and edible.