British chef Isaac McHale on what it takes to create his one-bite fish dish
Talking to Isaac McHale, you would never guess the softly spoken chef is one of the pioneers of contemporary British cuisine.
The only hints that he is fastidious about his food and drink is when he asks the staff of Cafe Causette at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong to make his green tea at 90 degrees Celsius, and when he reveals he was fascinated with Cantonese cuisine from a young age.
The chef, who was in Hong Kong recently to cater for a private event, recalled an early attempt to recreate the city’s food.
“For my ninth birthday, all I wanted was money to cook a Cantonese dinner for my friends. I got the recipes from a cookbook and I made congee, pigeon and celery stir-fry, and all kinds of stuff. I’ve always been excited by Hong Kong and I love travelling here,” McHale says.
For the uninitiated, McHale is the chef behind The Clove Club, which started life as a supper club in London and became a celebrated two-Michelin-star venue renowned for its innovative take on traditional British dishes.
Opened in 2013, The Clove Club was a trailblazer in the UK’s dining scene, and debuted on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2016 at number 26, surpassing Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck (which was 45th that year).
McHale blends British traditions with inventive techniques and uses seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. His dishes are visually stunning, and show meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to quality.
As an example, he explains what it takes to complete one of the signature dishes of The Clove Club, the sardine sashimi. “It looks very simple,” he says. “It’s grilled sardine on top of a little potato crisp, served alongside sardine broth with whisky and cream, but there’s so many steps.”
Because sardines deteriorate quickly once fished, McHale says he works with fishermen to ensure that he receives the last catch of the day to ensure its freshness.
But that is just the start of a long process to prepare the dish. “First we cut the heads off, take the guts out. Then put them into iced water and squeeze along the blood line inside the belly cavity to push out the blood, otherwise there will be bitterness in the fish.
“Then we put the fish into iced water to clean. After that, we fillet the sardines and then painstakingly debone [them] and once they’re all cooled down again, we pick [them] up to be pin boned. Then [they go] back on the ice again so we can peel off the skin.
“On a busy day, we will have about four chefs working a total of 16 hours on this one-bite dish. It’s totally worth it.”
Last year saw many reports of the unsustainability of fine-dining restaurants, with labour shortages and rising costs in the UK postBrexit. As a result, many have thrown in the towel.
Fortunately The Clove Club has long been a champion of British produce and has not had to scramble to find new suppliers, but rising costs have trickled down the supply chain.
“It’s been a perilous time for British farmers,” McHale says. “Agricultural policies which gave subsidy payments to farmers across Europe have not been replaced after Brexit.”
He acknowledges there is a sea change coming to the restaurant scene. “Delicious food is one of the joys in the world that people will always gravitate towards, but it doesn’t have to be in the form of fine dining,” he says.