Fish, Fish, Fish! at Brixham Market with Top Devon Chefs

Brilliant summer sunshine kissed The Chefs’ Forum’s latest Devon event, this time held at Brixham Fish Market. Budding young chefs from HIT Training got the opportunity to cook with International Restaurant Consultant, Peter Gorton and Pattard Kitchen Chef Owner, Bjorn Moen as well as talk to skippers about life at sea. Top chefs from across Devon learnt about commercial scallop fishing and life at the fish market from boat to buyer!

This event celebrated collaboration between industry networking organisation The Chefs’ Forum and Kingfisher Brixham with a common purpose to teach chefs and hospitality students about where the fish they use in their everyday profession comes from and factors facilitating its availability.

Gary Goddard, Sales Director at Kingfisher Brixham said:
“The event at Brixham Fish Market was something that we as a business loved to be a part of. We at Kingfisher Brixham understand the value of having access to one of the UK’s top fishing ports, which fortunately is on our doorstep. Brixham Fish Market gives our business the ability to supply the catering community with the diversity and quality that they expect, while also utilising the capabilities of the industry professionals for their knowledge and expertise. Additionally, witnessing the variety of catering personnel at the event also demonstrated the ability to bring both industries together, without each other long-term collaborative partnerships cannot happen. Great location, fantastic produce, with excellent professionals bringing everything together”.

Peter Gorton, Committee Member at The Chefs’ Forum said:
“These events are all about the chefs and what they want to learn to continually develop their knowledge and skills. Today, it’s all about fish and it’s great to be here in Brixham at the fish market. The young chefs from HIT Training have been excellent today and have showed real professionalism and talent. I urge chefs to contact The Chefs’ Forum and let them know other subjects and specialism they would like to know more about”.

Peter then asked the visiting chefs on the floor and some great suggestions were put forward, from sugar work to molecular gastronomy and everything in between – Plenty of food for thought!

Barry Young of Brixham Trawler Agents stated: “It was great to be able to host The Chefs’ Forum here at the fish market, the market was transformed into a kitchen for the day and the HIT Training learners worked with the top chefs to brilliantly showcase Brixham market fish in producing some excellent canapés. We are very pleased that so many chefs throughout the country praise Westcountry fish and it was great to have our local chefs celebrating the wonderful produce we have on our doorstep”.

He continued Inviting the chefs and students to the market was a great way to show them where the fish comes from and a great opportunity to talk to Drew McCloud, skipper of scallop/beam trawler Vanduick BM362, featured on ‘Fish Town’, a televised documentary on Sky Atlantic”.

Bjorn Moen performed a fantastic cookery demo of cured mackerel, then judged a fish filleting competition with the HIT Training learners. Zoltan Sipos won the student competition which secured him a ‘money can’t buy experience’ of a day shadowing Bjorn in his kitchen.

Bjorn said:
“I have really enjoyed working with Peter Gorton and the HIT Training learners today. It has also been a great chance to showcase my food which is greatly influenced by my Scandinavian heritage. I fully opened Pattard Kitchen in April 2017 and it has been non-stop since then! I am very much looking forward to welcoming Zoltan into my kitchen for an experiential day where I can share knowledge with him. He proved himself to be a talented chef in winning the filleting competition”.