Post-Brexit Fish&Chips

Fish in fish-and-chips is cod, white and firm, beer battered. Perhaps to escape being the fish-and-chips fish, cod is leaving the UK coast. But because it is moving up North to colder waters, it might also be due to climate change that they are leaving waters that are warming up quickly. Cod is still being brought back to the UK through the routes of import, giving the fish back to fish-and-chips.

Brexit does not only mean more access to (codless) waters, but also possible restrictions on import. Herring as opposed to cod are not as sensitive to water temperatures and stick to the British coast as a part of their migration routes. Present (and caught) there in abundance, they hardly show their presence in the British cuisine, following the export routes away from the UK.

As a part of my final presentation during my residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the framework for the Food Lab, I suggest a meal that speculates on herring becoming the new fish in fish-and-chips while also touching upon other topics connected to food nativism and access to seasonal migrant work after Brexit. Other elements of the experience play with the herring’s role as bait as well as distancing ourselves from eating fish while still accessing the taste of the sea.