Last summer Jonny and I met Caroline Davey from Fat Hen, a foraging and wild food cookery school, at the Rock Oyster Festival. I was thrilled when Caroline invited me to review the first Fish and Seafood Cookery Course of the year — I knew it would be a treat.
The school is housed in a charming barn conversion beside Caroline’s home on the far west tip of Cornwall, just a stone’s throw from Land’s End. The purpose-built kitchen is brand new, cleverly designed and flooded with sunlight — a bright, practical space that inspired a touch of envy among the students.
Our chef for the day was Mark Devonshire, formerly of Rick Stein’s Seafood School in Padstow. Mark’s relaxed, engaging teaching style kept us entertained while he guided us through a variety of skills and recipes.
The course was as hands-on as you wished, covering everything from filleting plaice to cleaning cuttlefish and picking crab and lobster. Over the day we prepared, cooked and sampled dishes ranging from light, crisp tempura cuttlefish to striking black tagliatelle coloured with squid ink.
A useful tip: if you usually buy squid, try cuttlefish instead. It’s often cheaper per kilo, prepared the same way, and has a lovely flavour and texture.
All the morning’s preparation led to a three-course lunch showcasing the seafood we’d worked on, complemented by Caroline’s wild food foraging touches. For starter we enjoyed stove-top smoked mackerel with a green salad of mixed wild and cultivated leaves and a freshly made wild garlic aioli — paired perfectly with a chilled glass of white wine.
The main course was hake served on rock samphire with wilted wild greens and a rich cream and wild fennel sauce. Since I avoid dairy, Mark adapted the sauce for me by blending a light fish stock with a spoonful of the wild garlic aioli — a handy dairy-free trick: mix mayonnaise or aioli with a little warm stock for an instant creamy sauce.
Dessert featured poached Japanese knotweed in a syrup infused with sweet geranium leaves. Those who eat dairy enjoyed a panna cotta set with carrageen, a seaweed-based alternative to gelatine, highlighting the school’s inventive use of foraged ingredients.
After a leisurely lunch and plenty of conversation, we returned to the kitchen where Mark demonstrated how to break into and pick meat from a spider crab, a brown crab and a lobster. Tasting them side by side revealed spider crab as the clear favourite for most of us — its flesh was sweet, juicy and utterly moreish, while lobster was the least favoured on this occasion.
To round off the day, Mark combined the picked crab, lobster and spider crab meat with the squid ink tagliatelle we’d cooked earlier — another delicious plate disappearing quickly. The combination of practical technique, fresh local seafood and Caroline’s foraged ingredients made the meal unforgettable.
I’ve attended several cookery classes and can honestly say this ranks among the best. The day was intensive and inspiring; I left tired but full of new tips and techniques that I’d recorded throughout the sessions.
Browsing the Fat Hen offerings, the Seaweed Foraging and Cookery class and the Game Cookery day also look appealing. If they deliver as much practical learning and flavour as the fish and seafood course, they’ll be well worth trying.
PS — before you go, take a peek at the Fat Hen compost loo — a fun and thoughtful feature of the site.
Many thanks to Caroline for inviting me to experience a day with the Fat Hen Wild Food Cookery School. As always, all opinions are my own.