THE INDEPENDENT THEINDEPENDENT 44/ Food&Drink FRIDAY20 APRIL 2012 FRIDAY20 APRIL 2012 Food&Drink /45 els and Easter arrive togeth- Fishy business: smoked eel from er. The eels are needle-sized the Severn & Wye smokery (left). babies, called elvers or glass Bottom: fishing on the Severn; My life in eels because they’re totally young eels; the smoking process food... transparent, reaching British shores at the end of an ex- in the big tidal rivers, 99 per cent of Hélène hausting 4,000-mile mara- them will die.” thon swim from the Sargas- Richard is even enlisting local schools Darroze Eso Sea where they spawn. and chefs in the recovery effort. Over For generations, the arrival of migra- the next few weeks he will take tanks tory so-called European eels used to be of glass eels into 50 primary schools anxiously awaited at this time of year whose pupils will feed them for around by fishermen on the Severn and Wye 10 weeks until the fish have doubled in tidal rivers. They collected them in nets size. The children will then release them at night then fried them up with bacon into local inland rivers – while sam- and scrambled eggs to make a delicious pling Richard’s smoked eel. Some tanks dish looking like a plate of marine in the Eels in Schools scheme are spon- spaghetti. The tiny glass eels gave it a sored by chefs including Martin Wishart, delicate crunch. Sometimes they were Mitch Tonks and Brian Turner. After working under Alain Ducasse, even mixed with herbs and transformed Some conservationists complain Hélène Darroze opened her own into a “cake”. restaurant in Paris in 1999 and Those fishy feasts, though, are large- “CHEFS SHOULD NEVER BUY received a Michelin star just two ly a thing of the past. The eel is in trou- WILD ADULT EEL. BUT WE CAN years later. In 2011, her restaurant at ble. The Marine Conservation Society NOW EAT SUSTAINABLE EEL the Connaught Hotel in London’s places eel on its Red List of Fish to Avoid, WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE” Mayfair also received a star from the classing it as critically endangered. Con- Michelin critics. servation groups want a total ban on there’s little evidence that such meas- eel’s exploitation until stocks recover ures are helping to boost stocks so still What are your most and least used and have successfully persuaded chefs advise consumers to shun all eel, farmed pieces of kitchen kit? from Gordon Ramsay to Jamie Oliver or wild. But Richard believes the meas- Most used would be my cocotte to drop adult eel from their menus. ures are the best way to ensure the oven-proof dish. I use it for Even London’s Japanese restaurants, eel’s future. “In the wild, two kilos of chicken, for fish or whenever I for whom oil-rich meaty eel is one of elvers will grow to nine kilos in adult simmer something for a long time. the most prized ingredients, are shun- weight. In a farm, they’ll become 1,000 I can put a piece of meat inside, ning it. Silla Bjerrum, who runs eight kilos,” he says. “Farming eel is a no- put it in the oven and let it cook, restaurants in the Feng Sushi chain, brainer.” The Sustainable Eel Group then remove it and just serve it hasn’t served eel for 18 months. is now labelling eel that it deems from that on the table. The thing Thanks to its unique life cycle, how- sustainably farmed with a logo that I never use is the microwave. I have ever, the eel’s predicament is different will appear on fish sold in shops and on one at home, but it’s a very old from other fish. Its collapse is not just restaurant menus. thing and we never use it. In my the result of overfishing but also of mis- restaurant kitchens – in London management of the tidal rivers, accord- he first packs of “sustainable” and Paris – I don’t have one. ing to Richard Cook, who has lived and eel went on sale this week in fished on the Severn all his life and runs Richard’s smokery. The fish If you had only £10 to spend on a smokery. “Although the number of was also served as a starter, food, where would you spend it with beetroot and horserad- and on what? “THE FLOOD PLAIN WAS THE ish, at an Action against I would go to a good bakery and IDEAL NURSERY FOR GLASS Hunger charity dinner buy a nice piece of country bread, EELS. NOW IT’S BEEN cooked by some of Britain’s or baguette. Then I would buy a DRAINED FOR FARMING” Tfood critics, including The Indepen- good piece of cheese, and choco- dent’s Tracey MacLeod. late, too. I love a good chocolate, elvers is down, there are still millions “Our message is that chefs and con- with a very good piece of bread. I during the season. We’re not talking sumers should never buy wild adult used to have this in the afternoon pandas, where just a few remain. The eel,” says Richard. “But if they buy eel with my grandmother when I was a elvers’ biggest problem is that they can’t WAYS WITH EEL carrying the Sustainable Eel logo they child, and for me there is nothing get out of the tidal rivers into the fresh- can serve and eat it with a clear con- better. When I was a child I also water streams and rivers where they Jellied eel science. If there’s no demand, people used to have warm milk, directly feed and grow into adults,” he says. Let’s get real about eel Relished by inhabitants of the will stop worrying about the eel’s future.” from the farmer. When you boiled Richard takes me to a spot on the Sev- East End of London since the As night falls, we join rows of fisher- it and left it a bit there was cream ern near his family home. “Places like 18th century and traditionally men on the Severn, each on their par- on the top, and my grandmother Walmore Common, on the river’s flood served with vinegar in Eel Pie ticular “tump” (fishing spot), often used to put the cream with the plain, used to be under water most of & Mash Houses. It’s made by passed down from father to son. Their bread and chocolate. It was just the year. It was the ideal nursery for simmering eels with chopped headtorches make them look like noc- wonderful. glass eels, which hid in wet ditches as onion and bay leaves. As turnal Ninja turtles, and they hold large ‘POTATOES GIVE YOU they slowly migrated upriver. Now it’s the mixture cool and sets it hand nets in the fast-moving waters. What do you eat for comfort? been drained for farming.” Once a working-class staple, the slippery fish are now considered forms a jelly. There’s a full moon, mists rise off the It will surprise you, but I like very He shows me a sluice gate. “These river like clouds, and the only sounds simple things. When I come back SOMANYWAYS TO are the other problem – the tidal rivers an endangered species. But efforts to boost their stocks mean they’ll Unagi kabayaki puncturing the silence are mobile phone home, my mother doesn’t need to are now sealed, so the eels can’t get out. The Japanese way. Eel (unagi) conversations checking tides and com- ask me what I want any more Pumps and hydro systems are disas- soon be coming back on to the menu. Clare Hargreaves reports is dipped in a sweet soy sauce paring hauls. From time to time they because she knows it will be a roast EXPRESS YOURSELF’ ters as the eels get caught up in them then grilled. Served on top of brush a clutch of wriggling elvers into chicken. One from La Londe, my and mashed.” steamed rice. plastic buckets. country. They are corn-fed so have Richard is part of a Europe-wide At 2am we leave them to it and head a lot of fat and a lot of taste – I’m at What’s your desert island recipe? that before. Four days I spent in coalition of conservationists, scientists, Eel pie for the weighing-in station inside a my most comfortable with that. I would take one of my recipes, my the kitchen with him – that was Environment Agency officers, Nation- Traditionally served with mash Gloucester warehouse where a hand- black rice signature dish, which is just a dream for me. al Rivers Trust members and industry and “liquor” in the East End. ful of fishermen place trays of their pre- If you could only eat bread or very successful with everyone, and leaders called The Sustainable Eel The TV chef James Martin’s cious catch on the scales and exchange potatoes for the rest of your life, which I love. It’s black rice with What’s your favourite cookbook? Group. The group is devising a recov- version includes leeks, whelks them for wads of £20 notes. which would you choose? calamari and chorizo and I love the first one by Alain ery plan that includes finding ways to and clams. It’s an insight into a hidden world I don’t know, but I suppose it parmesan emulsion. Ducasse – La Riviera. I worked unblock the eel’s migratory routes. that few know exists.