New Forest Living Mar - Apr 2020

"I think when Fishworks
failed…well it gives you
plenty of time to reflect on
what’s really important to
you and what’s not"
So I made a phone call to my agent who
was on the train on the way up. He was
mortified! All I could say to everyone was
that 'I’m sorry, I just don’t want to do
it'. Financially it was suicide as it was a
very well paid job but it was prime time
television and all the things that go with
it and I didn’t want to be known as a guy
on telly. I wanted to build my reputation
as a restaurateur and a chef which is
what I actually really enjoy.
I think when Fishworks failed…well it
gives you plenty of time to reflect on
what’s really important to you and what’s
not and allowed me to make my own
choices, not get swept along with ‘this is
a great idea’. It was a great idea, it was
magnificent. The TV show would have
been great but it just wasn’t for me. So
the answer is I am regularly asked to do
television bits and I will 99% of the time
turn them down and occasionally I might
do the odd thing but I don’t wake up
thinking ‘I’d like to do more television’.
26
for, how can we have a really amazing
strategy over five years that gives people
top pay, freedom, how can we create a
development programme so that people
can develop in the organisation.’
I tend to think of the restaurants like a
community now. Everybody who works for
us belongs to the community. We talk a lot
about family but of course family are hard
to get rid of and communities are made up
of people all contributing, so when people
don’t contribute they move out of the
community and new people move in.
One thing I didn’t realise is that you
made significant changes to your menu
with regards to being gluten-free. That
must have been a big change?
Yes! About ten years ago we set about
rebuilding all of cooking ranges and
changing all of our practices so that offer
everything gluten-free. We committed to
the business being gluten-free, not just
by saying ‘here’s a gluten-free menu’.
Everything we do is gluten-free. If we
have to swap a bun for a gluten-free bun
we do, and it basically means that the
whole menu is available to somebody
with a gluten intolerance rather than
them feeling in a minority and only being
able to choose from say five things on
the menu.
Going back, I first met you at the
beginning of the century! 2000, a
long, long time ago! Since then you’ve
appeared on TV, most notably with
Matt Dawson, the rugby player, but
do you find yourself too busy to make
room to do any shows as of late?
The television career took off back
around 2008/09. The series Mitch and
Matt’s Big Fish became very successful
and Denham Productions and the BBC
wanted to do series two. So there was a
lot of euphoria and excitement from Matt
and the team, and they were on their way
to London to sign the deal.
We had agreed it, gone through it all and
I started to get cold feet. I was sat in the
restaurant having a brandy and a coffee
and I was just thinking to myself ‘I don’t
actually want to be a television chef, I
want to be in this restaurant cooking’.
Surely your heart has to be in it if it’s
what you are going to do?
I think you are either on telly to drive
people to your restaurants, well I’ve been
there when you are in a restaurant and so
many people want to talk to you because
they’ve seen you on telly but never for
the right reasons, and the thought that
somebody comes to the restaurant just
to catch a glimpse of the person they’ve
seen on telly is just the wrong motivation.
I want people to restaurants because
they are really great places socially to
go and they have importance in the
community and they like your food and
that it’s somewhere they want to come to
celebrate birthdays and all of that stuff!
Absolutely, and you’ve done so, I mean
The Seahorse is just brilliant I’ve got
to be honest. It’s just delightful the
minute you walk in there, it’s such
a lovely place to be and I absolutely
love coming down there and hopefully
when the weather brightens up I’ll be
back. One last question; are you doing
Salcombe Crab Festival this May?
I’m still not sure if I’m going to do it this
year. I didn’t do it last year, but I did
the year before, but I am hoping to do
a fish festival in Brixton, a crab festival
in Dartmouth which we always do, and
also Dartmouth Food Festival in October
which is always great.
www.mitchtonks.co.uk