Fish And Chips

The Observer:

We're still used to paying a fiver, or less, for fish and chips: a sum that reflects not the plenty of our seas (our waters have not been truly bountiful for decades), nor the unfashionability of fish (eating fish is hip: just ask any supermodel of your acquaintance), but the many and monstrous industrial ways it is caught and brought to our tables.

The fish at Tom's Place will be mostly line-caught, because it is the nets of vast trawlers that have put stocks in such peril. It will also come from sustainable, Marine Stewardship Council-approved sources. He is using small, family boats in Newlyn, Plymouth, Hastings, Lowestoft and Peterhead, owned by fishermen with pride in what they do, expertise and morals. If a customer wants to know more, their questions will be answered. Will he able to persuade people to pay these prices? "I think so," he says, carefully. "It's a case of people realising what is going on."