Despite being a fisherman’s daughter – there again, maybe because of that – my fish filleting skills are often a pitiful sight involving gut-spattered youtube videos and too much fresh Newlyn fish flesh in the bin. Still, the situation has improved recently – mainly thanks to a commission to write an article for coast magazine about a course at the Rick Stein Cookery School in Padstow, combined with use of Mitch Tonks’ ingenious iPhone fish app.
I attended the classic one-day Seafood Cookery course and it was the business – a highly intensive course introducing beginners/improvers to all elements of seafood preparation and cooking.
The snag is that it is pricey (£175 for the day), which might explain why there was only one other Cornish resident on my course. But should you chose to splash out, that does include about five lunches and wine throughout the afternoon, and access to the minds and tips of some of Britain’s finest dedicated seafood chefs for a whole day. And obviously – this being Stein – it takes place in nice chic surrounds with a dedicated work station for each person and estuary views.
If you’re interested, you can read the whole feature in April’s coast magazine, which has hit the stands (stands?! We don’t even have stands in Cornwall).
I even successfully filleted a lemon sole from whole the other day, which is one of the hardest things known to man.
ismay atkins
pasties & cream cornwall blog 
3 comments
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April 4, 2012 at 9:29 pm
mr h
Interesting point you made about the price and the low take form Cornwall residents . Shame really.
April 3, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Lynn
That looks like a wonderful day – from the setting to the food, and learning a skill that most people don’t have. Seafood in Cornwall always tastes so sweet, whereas our Pacific shrimp and most of the fresh fish sold in markets here in California are disappointingly tasteless, like cotton wool. The best I’ve had for a while was halibut caught off the beach last week, and it was a pleasant surprise.
April 3, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Helen
I’ve always wondered what that class is like! Is there a lot of shellfish? I only ask because I’m allergic and, although I can handle it without a problem, I wouldn’t be able to eat prawns and things like that. And did you really eat FIVE lunches??