Meet The London Chef Who Wants Us To Embrace Every Part Of The Fish

19 hours ago

The gill to tail dinners at Dinings SW3 promise plates and plates of inspiration

This post may contain affiliate links. Learn more

Chef Masaki Sugisaki is leading a charge for sustainability in London’s seafood scene with his ‘Gill To Tail’ dinners, which uses every part of the fish, in a series of collaborations with top chefs. We spoke to the chef about how we can make considered choices when it comes to seafood.

Interview: Chef Masaki Sugisaki On His Sustainable Vision For Seafood

The Gill to Tail dinners

How are you feeling about this year’s series of Gill To Tail dinners?

I’m kind of glad that this event is getting shape from last year. We’ve been working on them quite aggressively; the feedback last year was amazing.

So obviously it highlights how to eat fish more sustainably. What was the original inspiration for the dinners?

Japanese cuisine’s basic philosophy is to not waste – especially of fish – because we respect that we have to consume the lives of things to sustain ourselves. We have a saying before every meal that basically translates to: ‘thank you for your life’.

I started working when I was 15 in my parents’ kitchen, and the first thing they’d do each morning would check the bins to see if we were wasting usable parts. If they found anything we were obviously in big trouble for the whole day!

So for me, this is quite a natural thing.

I’ve been in London for 20 years now, though, and what I quickly realised was that a lot of people were not eating as much of a fish as compared to meat. And I started to realise how much wastage was created here, edible parts being thrown into the bin, and that was kind of shocking.

Why do you think this is?

I think it’s a lot of things but I think that a lot of fish here is not the most fresh. I started to look where I could source more directly… And when I was talking to fishermen about how and what they catch, I began hearing a lot about how the majority of their catch was being exported to France or Portugal. And then, sometimes, re-imported to London.

Which, then, in turn impacts the amount of money a fisherman can make because there’s a lot of middlemen. If you think about it, they’re selling whichever species at £4 a kilo, and then when it comes to the restaurant it’s more like £20 per kilo, because of these middle men. And, as you can imagine, fish needs to be fresh, and it’s easy to lose freshness when it’s exported and then re-imported, it’ll be four or five days old at least.

What do we do about this?

So for my part I’ve started dealing directly with the fisherman, paying them more, and getting fresher fish. Since I’ve started building the relationship with the fishermen, I’ve been going onto the boats and helping them fish, showing them how to kill the fish to give that freshness, and basically it helps us give more respect to the fresh ingredient.

Which brings me back round to my original point. This is such a precious ingredient. So how do we maximise it? We work with European and British chefs to teach them how to maximise the yield of the fish. And that kind of brought about the dinners, eventually.

So, say we’re beginning this journey ourselves, how do we maximise the fish? Is there a part you’d say is criminally underused?

In the first instance, if you are planning to eat fish in London, what do you do? You go to the supermarket to get vacuum packed fillets. Already there are lots of parts wasted: head, bones, the bits of fillets on the bones you’d otherwise split with a spoon that might go into a tartare.

That concerns me. As does the variety of fish we use. Everybody knows cod, salmon and mackerel, but there are a lot of species out there that fishermen are catching. But because there’s no market for it, they’re throwing these fish straight out.

On that part, I think restaurants have a part to play in terms of changing the perceptions of our customers; if we can cook a more unusual or underrated fish, we can help people realise that this seafood is really tasty… And they’ll eat more of it.

And from there, we should…?

When cooking at home, find a respectable fishmongers who works with seasonal and local (where possible) fish. You can learn to fillet the fish, and it becomes so much more sustainable. The bones make amazing stocks – there’s no sense in buying a ready to eat fish stock from the supermarket.

At the Gill To Tail dinners, every part of the fish will be used

You speak about restaurants influencing its customers. That brings us to the Gill to Tail series – talk me through the chefs you’re collaborating with for the 2025 dinners.

So, Jamie [Lee of Kødbyens Fiskebar] is obviously into sustainability in the same way as I am; he’s directly dealing with the fishermen, working with the catch of the day, utilising all the parts of the fish. Our dinner was the first in the year and he brought some exceptional creativity. For instance, a tuna heart, which we smoked, dehydrated and then glazed. What a sustainable idea; we don’t tend to eat the tuna heart. He’s so invested in the future population of fish, as well.

When it comes to Kyu and Duncan [Jeong Jeon and Robertson, co-owners of Bristol restaurants Bokman and Dongnae], I visited their restaurants and was so impressed not only in terms of sustainability but also, cuisine-wise, Japanese and Korean share similarities. Korean food uses so many parts of ingredients – fermentation for example. So we connected. They were looking into how to better use Cornish produce, too, so for that dinner I’ll take them to Cornwall and share my learnings.

And Harriet [Mansell of Lyme Regis restaurant Lilac]. She’s got these high-level foraging skills, and where she is is one of my favourite areas in the UK, so I’m keen to learn from her. I’m very into foraging, and so working with her made so much sense.

Masaki, foraging

How did you get into foraging?

Even back in my parent’s restaurants 40 years ago, my parents were into this wild vegetable-based cooking, so every spring time, we’d go into the countryside and mountain, find what we could and preserve it for the year. And in the Autumn, we’d go mushroom hunting. Doing it on a bigger scale, it’s a great way to stay local and seasonal.

How do you expect foraged ingredients to influence what lands on diners’ plates during the Gill to Tail dinners?

It depends on what we find! I spoke to Duncan recently ahead of the event in a few weeks’ time to get a sense of his idea, what they might want to showcase. And I’m planning to go to Harriet at the beginning of April – with Duncan, too – and Harriet will show us the best seasonal vegetables. But it all depends on the weather – we can’t plan until the very last minute even if we have brief ideas, as it’ll depend on market availability. We’ll adapt!

Quick Fire

Is there an in-season fish we should be eating?

Mackerel is about to be in season. Monk fish will become really nice, too.

But if you do want to eat these fish, really it’s more about trying not to buy filleted fish. If you’re not confident about filleting at home, why not cook it as a whole? You’ll be amazed aboutt the taste of the bits you don’t normally eat – fish cheeks, for example. Eating the skin, too, is a great way to get collagen too. And it packs an umami punch.

What’s in your fridge at home right now?

Nothing. If I am cooking, I buy all the bits I need and cook it that day. So there’s nothing in my fridge!

Where do you go when you don’t want to cook?

Quality Chop House. I cook so much fish that sometimes my biggest craving is meat. And Quality Chop House is amazing, traditional and proper cooking. Their ice cream is so good as well.

How do you use up leftovers?

I don’t tend to have any – if I buy a chicken, I divide it into parts for not just one meal but the whole week. Today, for example, I’ll cook the legs, tomorrow I’ll make a homemade stock. No leftovers, no waste!