The quintessentially British fish and chips is endangered. Why?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
HASTINGS, England — Ever since she was old enough to walk, Terrilea Coglan was climbing aboard fishing boats that set sail each morning from the rocky beachfront of Hastings to harvest the key ingredient in Britain's most iconic dish: fish and chips.
The day's catch travels just a short way from the boats up to the seaside fish and chips shops, or "chippies," that pride themselves as much in the freshness of the fish as in the secret recipes for their gooey batter.
Coglan's parents and grandparents were in the fish trade, and now her sons are, too. But these days Coglan fears they may be the last.
"It's our way of life," says Coglan, leaning against a fishing boat during a break from hawking filets at her beachside kiosk. "It's in my blood. It's part of me. And it's quite sad to think that it might not be here for much longer."
All along the British coast, towns like Hastings are being squeezed by a cost-of-living crisis that's hit the supply chain behind fish and chips, pushing up prices beyond what some are willing to pay for a humble, if comforting, weeknight meal.
The cost of diesel to power the fishing boats, the sunflower oil to fry the fish and the electricity to run the friers have all skyrocketed as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, figures from the U.K.'s Office of National Statistics show.
Fish that Coglan used to sell for a couple of British pounds (about $2) per bag now go for a couple of pounds per fish. Coglan says her customers complain constantly. Recently, the dwindling revenues forced her to get a second job, also in fish, as a salesperson at another monger's shop.
"It's always been a cheap thing, fish, and now it's just really not," she said.
Over the next few years, the National Federation of Fish Friers, which represents "chippies," predicts that a third of the U.K.'s roughly 10,5000 chippies may close for good, while the company Sarson's, which makes the malt vinegar served ubiquitously alongside the fried fish, has predicted as many as half could shutter.
The high prices are threatening a billion-dollar business and a staple of the British menu: Every year, Brits eat more than 382 million orders of fish and chips, the federation says.
In an interview, Andrew Crook, the federation's president, said that while energy prices have started to level off, ingredients are still hammering restaurant budgets. He said chippies are now buying cod for prices two-thirds more expensive than what they were before the Ukraine war, while a sack of potatoes costs double what it did.
It's a daily struggle for cafes like Maggie's, tucked in between old fishing huts just steps from the fish market. The restaurant has been a fixture of the Hastings fish and chips scene for decades, and when the doors open at noon, the smell of crisp, golden-brown fish wafts out of the door and greets the line of locals and tourists waiting on the staircase for a table.
Lionel Cobley, the restaurant's co-owner, says costs for his ingredients have gone up 30% to 40%, forcing the restaurant to up its prices. A plate of cod and chips eaten in store now goes for 14.90 British pounds (about $18), putting it out of reach for many looking for a cheap weekday meal.
"Some of the competitors are reducing their hours. Some are reducing the quality, staffing levels," Cobley says. "Everybody's trying to make some sort of cuts, so not to pass it on to a customer."
In recent months, chippies and their supporters have begun a campaign to "Save the chippies," urging customers to keep supporting their local fish and chips joint even if the fried meal costs a bit more than it used to. Sarson's, the vinegar maker, launched a "Fryday" promotion to reimburse 50 customers each Friday for a fish and chips purchase that they promote on social media.
As he doled out tables to a line of waiting diners during the lunchtime rush, Cobley said he was hard-pressed to define what British culinary culture would look like if the chippies disappeared.
"It's like Sunday lunches, fish and chips, and going down to the pub," Cobley said. "It's what we do."
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Oh no!!! It was the best meal of all when I was in London a little more than half a century ago, and I think the price was about 10% of what it is now.
Ate chips and fish for the first time when I was involved with making the movie The Commitments. Ate a lot of it over many months.
Price of the good old fish 'n chips has skyrocketed here in Aus as well. When our kids were at school, Friday nights we enjoyed our favourite of a slab of flake (shark), potato cakes, a huge mountain of chips - all for less than $10 for a family of five, Now with only two adults remaining at home it costs us $35 for a piece of fish each plus a couple of potato cakes. Someone is making a profit somewhere !!!
Hmmm yep you are getting ripped off way..
Here in Western Victoria flake $8 a piece, potato cake $1.50 each and I get scallops $2 each...
Don't forget get you live in a tourist Mecca and you pay for it..😬😬
LOL. You talk about Way getting ripped off when you pay $2 each for scallops. At the seafood kiosk downstairs from where we live...
...we pay 15 yuan (the equivalent of 3.11 Australian dollars or US$2.10) for 5 dressed scallops on the half shell ready to eat....
...and 10 yuan (the equivalent of 2.07 Australian dollars or US$1.40) for 4 dressed oysters on the half shell ready to eat.
Used to live above a pizza shop in the Colorado mountains and couldn't eat pizza for years as a result.
Just a slight difference in the rates of pay though Buzz..
The minimum wage here is $23.23 per hour...what is it over there?
I have no idea. Anyway nobody is homeless or starving - it took 10 years to do it but abject poverty has been eradicated here. I guess enough people here have enough money to enjoy scallops and oysters in order to keep that kiosk thriving for years now.
The minimum wage in China is $3.70 US an hour..
Well, as I've pointed out before, things cost a lot less here. There is a burgeoning middle class who can afford the best.
I miss getting really good fish for frying. Halibut is the best. Cod is second best.
In England, most chippies use haddock or cod. I love a good fish and chips. So hard to find here in the US,
we had a place in my hood run by uk expats for over 50 years. authentic and legendary in the metro area. the owner pulled the plug and retired when covid hit.
We got good fish and chips in Alaska. It was either halibut or cod
There was a place Mr G and his family would go down on Federal? Pecos? He said it was the best. He took me there once. It was good. I think it was York's Fish and Chips?
that was it, on pecos...
Shame it closed
My late wife and I wanted to take a vacation to Christchurch and to visit the Christchurch Cathedral Square and take her to that fish and chips place and the Irish pub a few doors down, but then that massive earthquake hit Christchurch right before she passed away and most structures in the downtown area were totally flattened and the places I knew just do not exist anymore except in my memory.
it's been so long now I can't remember the whole story. I know the guy fended off the corporate fast food clowns that surrounded him for decades, but he had lots of local friends with influence.
I'm so sorry. I bet she would have enjoyed it
I know she would have. She enjoyed the photos I took.
While I have never been to England and had fish and chips there, I have had what I consider the next best thing. In the late 80's when I was in the Navy I was temporarily assigned to the US Naval Antarctic Support Unit in Christchurch, New Zealand for 6 months. I had a blast. One of my favorite times was going downtown to the city square in front of the Christchurch Cathedral for lunch. In one corner of the Square was small fish and chips place that sold, among others things, deep fried breaded crab meat on a stick which was my favorite. Two orders of that and a order of chips cost me about 6 or 7 dollars in New Zealand currency. Due to the exchange rate at the time, US military personnel, who were paid cash in US dollars lived pretty well. Sorry to digress, but the bottom line is that I have never had fish and chips that good since. A belated Happy New Year to all.
A few years ago on one of our trips to England we stayed in Bath for 10 days, plus another week in London. There was a fish and chips shop near our hotel in Bath where the fish and chips was so excellent we stopped by to take out a couple of orders (one for me and one for my wife) to bring back to our hotel several times after a day of touring. The best fish and chips ever.
did you go native and drown them in vinegar?
Heck no. I didn't use any vinegar.
LOL. Salt and vinegar is an absolute necessity if you want to really appreciate what a genuine serving of fish and chips should taste like. I guess it's just a Commonwealth thing.
I’m with you, gots to have that malt vinegar on both the fish and chips.
I'm on a low sodium diet and too much vinegar makes me choke.
Okay, you're excused, but you can't count yourself among us fish and chips afficionados.
Most vinegars doesn’t have much sodium in it.
Aficionado or not, the fish and chips we had in Bath was outstanding!
Well, you don't have to be a Commonwealther to enjoy it. There was a chippie a couple of blocks away from my office in Toronto and I ate a lot of lunches there because not only was their fish and chips really good, but they also provided a dessert of lemon meringue pie.
Hat pissed me off was no Ketchup
No wonder, hat can do that.
How could one possibly forget lemon on fish?
How could one possibly forget ketchup on chips?
In parts of Europe, mayonnaise or remoulade is preferred with chips. In Scotland the tradition is brown sauce.
And in French Canada there is poutine , French fries topped with cheese curds and hot gravy.
Lack of fish and chips, the Sun is setting on the Empire.
Elton John said it best.
No fish and chips, the food sucks and the weather is at best atrocious, I'm heading for Jamaica mon.
Thanks, I had thought this song was about two lovers, not an empire.
The sun set on the empire decades ago they haven't realized it yet.