Andi Oliver
My fish course: Everybody Everywhere All at Once
My Great Briton: Dame Floella Benjamin
BBC
- Toby Earle
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The Great Briton who has inspired my life is the incredible Floella Benjamin, who was one of the few women I saw on television when I was a little kid who looked like me. Here was a young black woman, fully herself with beads in her hair, who was all those things you look up to when you’re a kid: hilarious, kind, sweet, smart and beautiful. Floella has the same Antiguan heritage as me, so there’s a reflection of my own family as well.
My dish, inspired by Floella and a recent trip to Sri Lanka, would be called Everybody Everywhere All at Once. What I believe is most important for us in this country is to remember that all the things that make us different are the most exciting, beautiful, and brilliant things about us as a nation. Everything I’m trying to do at the moment is to step towards unity because so much right now is about division and I find that incredibly depressing. I’d love to make a dish that explores the beauty of multiculturalism.
So I’d brine mackerel, a beautiful and very sustainable fish, in Caribbean rum, sugar and vinegars, before torching it. On the side, I’d have a little shot using Caribbean and British ingredients that reflect Floella and me. I’d make a fish broth with the bones from the mackerel, and a juice with all the greens and herbs
I could lay my hands on – I’d blitz callaloo, spinach, cucumber, spring onions, kale, chervil, parsley, chives, mint, roasted garlic and thyme. I love green food, and I don’t really understand people who don’t like vegetables – I find that very weird. I’d pour the fish broth through the juice to make iced fish shots. To balance the sweetness and acidity of the shots, I’d add honey and lime, then I’d stick them in the freezer. For a garnish, I’d add a bit of pickled gooseberry and cucumber.
Flavour-wise, this is a very refreshing dish, because the vivid green shot is icy and all the ingredients are invigorating while the mackerel has a robust texture and a nice char from the torch. All the silver from the fish and the green from the shots will excite your eyes, and the dish would be served on a hand-drawn map that expresses the connection between the Caribbean islands and Great Britain.
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I know there’s a dark history behind these links, but I think what’s emerged from those times is our multiculturalism, which is the jewel in the British crown, and we should be much more celebratory of our multicultural society. I think if a chef presented this dish to me, I’d be very moved and very excited.
Authors
Toby Earle
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