delicious. 2016 PRODUCE AWARDS WINNER
WORDS SUSAN LOW PHOTOGRAPHS JOAN RANSLEY
Guy Grieve, founder of The Ethical Shellfish Company, isn’t your average fisherman. He’s lived on three continents (his accent betrays his childhood in South Africa), penned a book about wilderness survival skills, co-starred with Thomasina Miers in the Channel 4 TV show The Wild Gourmets, escaped a marketing job in Edinburgh to sail around the Caribbean with his wife and young sons in tow, and survived – by the skin of his teeth – a winter living solo in the frozen wilds of Alaska. For good measure, he’s written books about some of those experiences, too.
So forgive me for feeling a bit daunted when, with me running late to meet him on his small boat at the pier, this high achieving 43-year-old adventurer barked down the phone: “When I say you need to be here at 9am, I mean 9am, not 9.15. I’m holding up a huge salmon boat and a helicopter that needs to land.” It wasn’t the most auspicious start to an interview.
When photographer Joan and I finally arrived at Salen Pier, it was more like a scene from an action movie than the sleepy fishing village I’d envisaged. Helicopters were flying in low to winch massive boxes of fish from vast boats – a spectacle that was a cross between Apocalypse Now and a Bond movie, but set against a disarmingly beautiful island backdrop. The experience drove home how important the fishing industry is to the Isle of Mull’s economy – and how small-scale The Ethical Shellfish Company is in comparison.
SHELL-SUITED
We boarded Helanda, a former lobster fishing boat, and the pier shrank from view as we motored out into the Sound of Mull. The weather gods were smiling on us; the sea was as smooth as green glass, the sun dazzling.
Drawing deeply on the third of two permitted roll-ups a day – “I can’t quite give them up” – Guy told me about how the company got its start. He fell in love with what he describes as “pure wilderness” when he was living in Alaska. “You’re ignored with a completeness that some people find terrifying. Everything about our world is about you, you, you – but in the wilderness you don’t matter, and it’s liberating.” Guy wrote a column about his Alaska experience for The Scotsman newspaper and, later, a book, Call of the Wild, whose title pays homage to his childhood hero Jack London.
WHAT OUR FINAL JUDGING PANEL SAID
“Super-sweet, tender, and absolutely beautiful raw”