Six Brighton & Hove restaurants will put less familiar fish on the menu

Six Brighton & Hove restaurants will each serve at least one catch of the day made with a fish other than the usual favourites from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 November. The week, called Hook a New Favourite, ends on World Fisheries Day.

The rule for the kitchens is that the dish must use “a species beyond the Big Five and mackerel”. The Big Five are cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns, and the campaign says about 80% of the seafood eaten in the UK is one of them.

The opening list is The Little Fish Market in Hove, English’s in the Lanes, The Salt Room on the seafront, Cin Cin, Wild Flor in Hove and Plates, one of the city’s newest restaurants. More restaurants are due to be added.

The campaign page names six Sussex species to look for on the specials board: plaice, dab, gurnard, pouting, cuttlefish and spider crab. It calls cuttlefish “a Sussex speciality”. Ordering them spreads demand across more species and supports Sussex fishermen, the page says, when local fish are often “shipped abroad” instead.

To join in, book a table at one of the six between 16 and 21 November and ask about the catch of the day. Front-of-house staff will be ready to say where the fish was caught and how the kitchen chose to cook it.

Restaurants Brighton^1,2 is running it with the University of Brighton and The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere. Ivanka Majic, the site’s co-owner, worked with two University of Brighton researchers this summer on a book chapter about Brighton restaurants and sustainable seafood. She cites a University of Exeter study of Good Housekeeping recipes: in the 1920s they used sole, oysters, halibut and herring, and even fish baked in custard.

“Whether we are talking about our health or the health of the sea – diversity is the answer,” she writes.

A workshop on buying, preparing and cooking fish at home and a talk for chefs on menus built around the daily catch are planned, with dates still to come.