Fish restaurant Graham Hollinshead

Fish restaurants catch their own dishes

Two fish and chip restaurants in Kent have a unique method of obtaining main dishes – their cod and haddock are caught by their very own boat.

Granite IV operates out of the Norwegian port of Alesund and fishes the northern reaches of the North Sea which rounds the North Cape of the country and the Barents Sea flows which against the shores of Russia.

“Caught and cooked by us” is the slogan of the company which runs the Catch restaurants in Ashford and Canterbury.

“I don’t know anyone else who operates this way,” said Graham Hollinshead who founded the business. “When I set out quality was my aim, so rather than going to a third party for funding and backing I went to the people who really know what fishing is about – those who do the work.”

His company reached agreement with the operators of the 67 metre long trawler and its captain Ola Inge Gronnevet who recently visited Canterbury and lunched on the fish he’d caught.

The Norwegian fishing fleet is subject to rigorous regulations designed to protect stocks with boats boarded for inspections and helicopters used for surveillance. Nets are checked frequently and quotas sent via satellite link to the authorities.

The measures have seen stocks rise to a level not seen since the 1940s as Norway’s “Fiske Forever” campaign seeks to preserve one of its major industries.

The ship spends around four weeks at sea on any one trip and can operate in gale force winds and 40 feet sea swells. The catch is gutted, its head removed then filleted and frozen at a temperature of minus 30 centigrade.

It is then shipped to England, defrosted and served amidst colourful surroundings with posters, newspapers and even a shark as decorations.

Hollinshead said: “We want to make our customers smile, so you will find a little humour here and there in our restaurants. We take our food and what we do seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously. Ultimately, nothing beats seeing happy customers once they have tasted and enjoyed our food.”

He added: “Our fish is top quality as you’d expect from a company with its own boats fishing clear Arctic waters. Fish for the shops is caught by the fishing boat and is delivered every few days to guarantee freshness and quality.

“It has full Marine Stewardship Council approval which means our stocks are well-managed and sustainable.

“These are two of our most important priorities. We don’t grow our own potatoes yet; they’re from good farms in the Fens and arrive in their natural state for us to freshly peel and chip at the shop each day. We cook with rapeseed oil as it’s one of the healthiest oils to use.”