Five minutes with: Mitch Tonks

Celebrated chef Mitch Tonks is one of the biggest names and most important voices in British seafood. Here, he speaks to Brummell about the creation of his Seafood at Home service and how he’s bringing boat-fresh fish and seafood directly to your door

Food and Drink 1 Feb 2022

Chef Mitch Tonks
Seafood at Home delivers fresh fish and seafood from Brixham Market to your door

What can we expect from Seafood at Home?

You can expect a service that gets you the freshest seafood, directly from the boats, prepared on the quayside, along with all the help you need to cook world-class seafood at home.

How did you come up with the idea for Seafood at Home?

It was during lockdown when we sold fish directly from our small trawler. I was amazed at how many people just wanted to get their hands on the freshest fish. Then I considered how the supply chain currently worked – very clunky, lots of polystyrene involved and fish just waiting on fish counters to be sold. Nobody is really winning – not consumers or the seafood with all that waste. So, I dreamt up, ‘What would it be like if people could buy fish directly from boats and have it all portioned in their homes? To take away the smells and the challenges around what to do with it, how to portion it…’ And that was it – it was born in lockdown. I had a chat with my dear colleagues Ed and Laura and said, ‘This is the idea, let’s do it’ and it developed from there. We’ve really started it as an absolute disruptor for the seafood industry and to change the way retail currently is. 

Cook restaurant quality fish and seafood at home
Cook restaurant quality fish and seafood at home

What do you wish British people knew about fish and seafood?

We live on a fantastic island, surrounded by some of the best seafood in the world. I’d love us to be an island nation that celebrated that and made seafood a key part of our diet. Not just cod and chips and ready meals, but a nation that celebrates its coastal communities and its seafood. 

Can you explain how you’ve changed the way the fish is picked, packed and delivered to make Seafood at Home different?

One of the things we do is that we buy directly from the auctions and directly off some of the fishing boats, including ours. Within two or three hours of the auction, we then have the fish portioned on a premises that is set up and designed specifically for that. 

It then goes to another premises next door, where the fish is packed in vacuum packs so that none of the packaging is tainted at all with the smell from the fish unit. The fish then travels just up the road, to our final dispatch unit, where all our sauces are made in small batches every day and where our packaging is stored. Finally, we pack the fish in the boxes and it’s on its way to the customers in the same day. It’s a logistical challenge but one we’ve got over. When people get the fish in their homes it is just completely untainted, no fish smell at all. It’s just perfect.

Seafood at Home includes everything you need to create delicious dishes at home
Seafood at Home includes everything you need to create delicious dishes at home

What ingredient can you not live without?

Olive oil. It goes on absolutely everything from toast to pasta to salad. It’s just the best!

What are your biggest passions outside of food and drink?

I love to walk, I love to throw myself in the sea, but most of all I love sailing my boat.

What is your favourite restaurant in the world and why?

That is a very difficult question. I would say Al Gatto Nero in Venice. It just typifies everything that I believe in a restaurant: family, hospitality, wonderful seafood, and the most incredible setting.

Who, living or dead, would you most like to cook for and what would you make them?

My dad. And I think we’d eat… nothing spicy because he never liked that. I think we’d eat a bowl of mussels, with a couple of beers and a really fantastic steak.

Seafood at Home delivers fresh fish and seafood from Brixham Market to your door, ready filleted and portioned and with all the sauces and butters you need to create restaurant-quality dishes at home. Seafood at Home’s online market opens at 6am, Monday to Friday, and by noon your delivery will be on its way to you in its unique eco-packaging. Visit the Seafood at Home website to find out more.