Captain's Galley chef celebrates 10 successful years
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THE Captain’s Galley in Scrabster celebrates its tenth anniversary this week but to its owners Jim and Mary Cowie, it is much more to them than just a restaurant.
For more than a decade, it has been at the forefront of championing fish conservation, sustainability and seasonality to not only protect the stocks at sea but the livelihoods that depend on an industry that helps make their menu what it is.
Having opened in 2002 after renovating the old Scrabster ice house and salmon bothy which dated back to the early 1800s, the couple have enforced a strict ethical policy of picking the freshest and best quality seafood from either the Scrabster fish market or directly from the fishing boats.
Its environmental policy determines that whenever possible, all the produce is sourced within a 50-mile radius of the restaurant; must be in season and a non-pressure species and is caught in sea areas of Scotland where the stocks are sustainable.
The restaurant has won many awards for its fishing-friendly policies, the biggest accolade coming earlier this year when it was named by Fish2Fork as the best restaurant in the UK for sourcing sustainable seafood.
The organisation invited Mr Cowie to become an inaugural member of its Chef Club, an accolade he views on par with receiving the Michelin star.
But despite dedicating his working life to promoting fish conservation, the industry is not without its challenges.
The son of a fisherman, Mr Cowie (62) never followed in his father’s footsteps to a life at sea but one which has been involved in the fishing industry for 45 years.
From working as a fishing agent to owning a fish factory in Wick, the only thing he hadn’t done until ten years ago was actually cook the fish. But from as early as the 1970s, he worked closely with fish laboratories regarding fish conservation and has taken issue with the amount of fish discarded.
But one of his biggest battles in conservation was the fight against smaller fish being caught before they should have been, a concern which first came to prominence when Mr Cowie started his career.
"I had a factory in Wick where we produced fillets but we received orders from shops and supermarkets that they wanted fish to fit a polystyrene tray," he said.
"I refused to do it and never took part in it at any stage, as that is not what fishing was about – fishermen do not go out to sea to catch fish that fits a polystyrene tray.
"However, there were huge factories that all of a sudden took a lorry load of small fish."
But it was realised it was encouraging fish to be caught a lot earlier than they should have been.
"A lot of it was going into fish fingers and fish cakes and a whole generation grew up identifying fish as being rectangle shaped and covered in brown.
"People were not seeing fish for the good natural product it was."
Mr Cowie said this practice led to the demise of the fishmonger on high streets across the country today, saying that the loss of an expert who can advise on different types of fish has had a detrimental impact on conservation efforts.
Earlier this year, he made his point when he took photographs of himself measuring immature razor clams that were four inches long, but the meat inside was only two inches. He called for restaurants and shops to help discourage the practice by throwing it back at the suppliers and demanding better.
However, despite saying that practices have much improved, he said the actual fishing techniques also needed to be upgraded to help conservation in the seas.
Practices such as long line fishing and gill netting – common in Scandinavia but not so much in the UK – have had a major impact on declining fish stocks, with a large percentage never making it to the plate and being left to rot at sea.
But Mr Cowie said that fish conservation organisations also had a lot to answer for, saying that certain fish should not be caught due to low numbers. This, he said, is the wrong advice given that fishing in season is the key to sustainability.
"The industry should not be governed by the conservation groups such as Marine Conservation Society who have traffic lights or ranking systems for the type of fish caught at sea.
"The MCS is a conservation society which recommends harmful practices such as gill netting.
"There is no depth into the logic of its idea of ratings at all and the one fish that everybody likes to hammer is Atlantic cod and if you follow people’s advice, nobody should be fishing for Atlantic cod.
"It is wrong to tell a fisherman what type of fish they should be catching, especially if they are using sustainable and seasonal methods of catching them.
"I just don’t agree with a do’s and don’ts list at all as it can have a negative impact on the fishing industry and without the fishermen who risk their lives to catch the fish, we can just all go home."
Mr Cowie believes that the British public are much more healthy-minded compared to 40 years ago, having a wider palate and more prepared to try new things.
He said that restaurants and shops had a huge role to play in promoting the wide range of fish that is available from the sea and although he does not want to blow his own trumpet, believes that more chefs could make a bigger effort to do their bit for fish conservation. Fish on the Captain Galley’s menu include gurnard, pollock, saithe, mackerel and sea bass, some of which his customers had never even heard of but have become firm favourites, resulting in more of this type of fish being landed and sold at Scrabster Harbour.
However, Mr Cowie said restaurants also needed to give credit to the actual fish and fishermen by calling it by its rightful name and not something else to make it look more attractive on the menu.
"Torbay sole is actually a witch that was probably landed at Scrabster and has never been caught anywhere near Torbay.
"What the fish is called is what should be put on the menu as people can then recognise the species.
"That is what we do at our restaurant, and now some of the fish that people would turn up their nose at are some of our best sellers.
"I feel we have a responsibility as a shop window for the industry to let people see what is available; not just serve one species of fish as there are lot of different species that people are unaware of.
"There is a fish for every dish and a dish for every season and the one thing I feel so passionately about is seasonality.
"If you eat everything in season, people would be a whole lot healthier and so would the fish stocks."
