Webchat with Waitrose fish experts, Mon 22 June, 1-2pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

As some of you may already know, our friends at Waitrose are sponsoring the film The End of the Line, which is all about ocean sustainability and the dangers of over-fishing.

And on Monday (22 June, 1-2pm), Quentin Clark and Neil Nugent from Waitrose will be joining us for a live webchat all about fish.

Neil is an executive chef at Waitrose and will no doubt have lots of lovely fish recipes up his corporate sleeve. Quentin is Waitrose's fish buyer and knows all there is to know about responsible fishing (and fish-eating).

We hope you'll join us for the chat on Monday but, as ever, if you can't (or you can't wait), please post your advance questions here.

You couldn't steal a squid could you.

Wow - the stuff about the salmon is very eye-opening - had no idea - have always felt pleased with myself whenever I manage to get a bit of salmon into DS

Anyway...I'm not, and never have been, a fish-eater - I would, however, like DS (age 2.5) to eat a bit more of it for the health benefits (although having a rethink about the salmon now-Eek!) ...Can you recommend and blandish tasting fish that I can tart up with a sauce that is (very) easy to cook and is sold in small portions?

Thanks

cod
haddock?

I've been a vegetarian for 20+ years. I'd like to start eating fish. Where should I start?

squid is fine on the whole.

Huffwardly - this is probably not the answer you're after but I started eating fish after 13 years veggie-ness in a little village on the south coast in Portugal. Once a year they have a festival where all the statues from the church are taken out to sea and the priest blesses the fishermen and their catch for the year. Said fish are caught and cooked within a few hours. It seemed the best possible way to try... (was there by coincidence not design!) I had a sea bream, very tender flesh and a mild flavour like the sea, if that makes sense.

Gosh, I must tune in for this one!

I have a question for Quentin - why do lady gardens sometimes smell of fish?

Sadly I don't think I can tune in at 1pm - I have to take the baby trouser shopping ...

But for one reason or another I know an alarming amount about fishing politics

So my question is...

The Common Fisheries Policy (under which quotas are set for UK and EU fishermen) has been deemed a failure by almost everyone - politicians, fishermen, scientists etc. (This is because whilst out at sea and unobserved some commercial fishermen maximise their quotas by throwing back dead the fish they catch which won't fetch the best price).

If Waitrose's fish experts ran the world, what would they replace the existing CFP with (and importantly how would they pay to police their new regime, if quotas, bans etc are involved, because the hard bit is not so much making the rules as enforcing them)?

Thanks, MrsBaldwin

Oh and BTW I am looking forward to seeing the film at the Frontline screening in July - hoping there will be fishy canapes sponsored by Waitrose (hint hint)..

jeez, have been hiding head in sand about salmon

Do Ocado Waitrose sell wild salmon then?

And does anyone really poach a whole one in the dishwasher? Really?

stakes!?

Or should that be sheam?

i wonder

geektastic

heh heh that's so funny. What a 'kin arse: putting it in with the dishes and a tablet.

And not a whole salmon.

Justine will be on in a min
i heard a rumour they paid £1k to have this

i think there is a real opportunity for waitrose here for them to be at the vanguard of changing attitudes and educating about fish.

please please do read my posts and don't come back with an argument that the farmed salmon you stock is better because of less stocking in cages and faster flowing water because in the end they all use SLICE and the differences are minimal. All the health and environmental issues stand unaddressed.

The public don't realise that we're paying a potentially health and planet threatening price for fish like salmon (which used to be a once or twice a year luxury for most) to become cheap and plentiful.

I've started with salmon but we could go into farmed seabass, prawns etc.

There are fish that are sustainable, plentiful and that waitrose can and should be plugging like crazy.

Waitrose is a supermarket that demarcates itself as treating it's customers with intelligence. You've lead the way on free range eggs. It's time you stopped stocking fish that is both bad for us, for the ocean and ultimately for the planet.

Thanks for all the questions so far - Neil and Quentin will be along soon to start answering them.

Hello
This is Quentin Clark and I am the senior fish buyer at Waitrose. Thanks to all of you for joining us today. Just to let you know why we are here hosting this chat. We supported the launch of the film "End of The Line" because this was a great way to raise the profile of something we have been working on for a long time- the sustainable sourcing of fish. It a complex area so a web chat is a really good way to discuss the issues with interested people. Hope I can help and excuse my spelling when typing at speed.

Hi All
My name is Neil Nugent the Exec Chef at Waitrose- I develop food for our brand as well as recipes etc. Happy tp answer any Q's on cooking and preparing Fish- Cheers Neil

Just wanted to say that the people on the fish counter in the Bath store are fab - knowledgeable and considerably more helpful than at the very expensive fish mongers close by.

But would definitely like more information on which fish are sustainable and ideally for you to stop selling the ones that are over-fished.

And more recipes please for the cod pretender type fish.

Neil-is there a failsafe way for me to cook fish and NOT have it stink the whole house out?
Even when wrapped tightly in foil I see to have the problem.

First off lets look at how you can tell if fish is sustainable. You can look for some third party certification such as the MSC which has a blue tick on the pack or ticket but the trouble is there are lots of them around the world so it gets confusing. We know that so we took the decision to make sure all the fish we sell meet the following criteria.
Must not be an endangered or threatened species
Must come from a fishery that is scientifically managed so the stocks are healthy
Must be using the most environmentally friendly catching method possible
Must be fully traceable so no illegal fish can get into the supply chain ( and keeps up the quality)- you need to ask.

Just the questions around cooking fish for younger children-
One thing in preparing the fish is to remove the bones- you can ask your fishmonger to do do this but a pair of tweezers are a handy tool to remove the odd stray one-
cook the fish very simply either by poaching, pan frying or roasting- Sauces that enhance fish or encourage kids to eat fish are good- sauce depends on fish species. Example poaches salmon- tomato sauce- works well. N