Celebrated chef Mark Hix is launching a new cookbook, Fishy Tales. And to mark the occasion, he’ll bring the publication to life at a one-off seafood dinner at Hotel Cafe Royal on February 5.
Self-published and limited to 300 copies, Fishy Tales is a 60-page coffee table book created in collaboration with illustrator Nettie Wakefield, who made the artwork for his last book, Hooked. More an art object than a traditional cookbook, it pairs illustrations with loosely structured handwritten recipes, drawing on the chef and restaurateur’s lifelong relationship with coastal cooking.
“I used to have an Andy Warhol book [Wild Raspberries] which was his illustrations and his grandmother’s recipes,” says Hix. “I had to sell it during lockdown, sadly, but I always sort of had it in my mind to do a similar version myself.”
The Hotel Cafe Royal event is co-hosted by the hotel’s culinary director Kevin Gratton, who worked with Hix at several of his restaurants. The one-night-only menu will take cues from Fishy Tales, with dishes including smoked salmon cured to Hix’s own recipe, a crab tart layered with Granny Smith apple and chives, and a baked Lyme Bay scallop with farmer Peter Gott’s black pudding.
Larger dishes will include silver mullet with pumpkin relish and coastal greens, followed by red gurnard with whipped potatoes and bone sauce, before finishing with a Kingston Black apple buttermilk pudding with Yorkshire rhubarb.
Hix will sign copies of Fishy Tales on the night.
The Fishy Tales dinner is at Hotel Café Royal on February 5.
