Mitch Tonks Devon

A resident of Brixham, England’s biggest fishing port, for two decades, Mitch Tonks is the man behind The Seahorse and The Rockfish Group. Here, he shares his passion for Devon and its burgeoning food scene.

Words by Alex Mead

Beneath the terrace of the Rockfish restaurant in Brixham, on Devon’s south coast, roughly £60 million worth of fish are landed at the market every year, brought from waters far and wide, by the fleet of some 20 beam trawlers and scallopers, and 40 smaller boats – crabbers and rod and line boats. Chef-restaurateur Mitch Tonks, owner of the Rockfish group and nearby Dartmouth’s famed The Seahorse, has been part of the fabric of Brixham’s fish community for two decades, moving here on a whim after buying fish from the market.

‘I first came to Brixham when we started buying fish for [the restaurant group] Fish Works,’ explains Mitch, as we chat on a sunny day at Rockfish, watching the boats come and go. ‘I was filming at the market and a guy called Sean Perkes, who’s from an old family of fishermen and fish merchants, introduced himself and took me under his wing.

‘I realised as Fish Works got bigger I was having little influence on them, and the best influence I could have was to buy the fish, so we bought a wholesale business down here. I literally walked past the house over there,’ he says, pointing across the harbour to the marina complex, ‘and decided to buy it, and that was it. We’ve been here about 20 years now. I fell in love with Brixham and its people. I’d always wanted to live by the seaside but couldn’t decide where, and just thought, “Why wouldn’t it be here?”’

Mitch grew up in Weston- Super-Mare with his mum, but as she worked full-time, he spent much of his time with his grandma. ‘Nowadays, growing vegetables, keeping chickens, making your own jams and everything else is a middle- class pastime, but that’s how I grew up,’ he says. ‘I remember these twins [the Bidwells], who’d bring eels around for my grandma; she’d cut their heads off and they’d swim around in the sink, and that was about your entertainment.’ He talks of getting hands on with seafood in general, peeling brown shrimps, cracking crabs and visiting fisheries with his grandma. ‘I was always interested in seafood,’ he says.

Having kids young (from age 19), he says, meant earning an income was his first priority, so he found himself on a building site stacking bricks before his head for numbers came to the fore, and he went on to work the books for a Jewish clothing company in London. It was there he learnt about running a business. Inspired by Henrietta Green’s Food Lovers’ Guide to Britain, he decided he’d waited too long to indulge in his passion for seafood and moved to Bath to set up a fish shop with a restaurant – or rather a ‘seafood café’ – above it. After six months of toil, a review in a broadsheet kickstarted his simply-does-it approach to seafood and led to the growth of the Fish Works empire that, at its peak, spread across ten sites.

But, disillusioned with corporate life, he left Fish Works to set up in Dartmouth. ‘I used to go there with my grandma and my mum for the regatta, and I always remember the planes [Red Arrows]. I have this memory of warmth, going around these little streets, where the lights were glowing, and there were restaurants or pubs seemingly everywhere,’ he says.

‘I hated running the company, so I left to launch Seahorse. I was inspired by travels to Italy and Spain, and how Mediterranean-style seafood is all about simplicity and freshness. I thought I’d retire here, cook in that restaurant and grow old doing it, and I absolutely loved it – I cooked every shift for six seven years,’ he says. ‘But then the entrepreneurial mind keeps going... I wanted to do something with seafood that sits between chippy and high-end. That’s where Rockfish came in. I opened one, but never thought there would be two, three, four...’ In fact, there are eight now, with three more due to open, stretching along England’s south coast from Poole in Dorset to Plymouth in Devon.

The Devon life suits Mitch. ‘I have a walking group in the morning and we just chat – we never knew each other before we came here. A few times a year, we’ll go San Sebastián- style and turn up with some amazing beef and seafood and do a barbecue on the beach, sit on the sand, and maybe have paella, someone will get a guitar out; it’s just a great way of spending time.

‘It’s awe-inspiring, living here,’ he continues. ‘You might walk up to Berry Head [nature reserve] at sunrise and you’ll watch dolphins play.’

Beyond Brixham, he has plenty of Devon favourites. ‘Dartmoor is an absolute must,’ he says of the vast, craggy, wild moorlands in the centre of the county.
‘And I really love how rustic Teignmouth is. And Salcombe has a reputation for being busy, but if you paddleboard down that estuary on a sunny day, it’s the Caribbean. Then there’s Plymouth – it’s still got all these old pubs where you can sit and have a pint of Bass around the Barbican; it’s got great fish and chips too and some really interesting restaurants because of the Chinese community. Same with Exeter – actually, they’ve got a great Japanese called Goto, so you can get your sushi fix – and it’s good. But it’s just not called Nobu, that’s all.

‘Get out on the water and you’ve got a magnificent, wild coastline,’ he says, talking about his to-do list as much as the stuff he’s already achieved. ‘I haven’t paddleboarded from Totnes to Dartmouth or kite-surfed at Bantham yet.
If I said, “I’m not doing any holidays away for a while,”

‘Our aim is to get people to eat gurnard and Dover sole and realise that when you’re eating a piece of British fish it’s a champagne moment’

I could happily spend a year or two just doing things in Devon.’

The food goes beyond seafood too. ‘Devon has great beef and there are wonderful veg companies,’ he says. ‘Places like Ashburton have become lovely communities with great restaurants and food shops. I went to a friend’s restaurant there – Emilia, a wonderful interpretation of an Italian trattoria – around Easter time and I noticed a queue at a tiny place called Briar Bakery. Everyone was waiting patiently for their hot cross buns and they were phenomenal, but I’d never even heard of that bakery before.

‘You can do that around any town, really, like Buckfastleigh, where the guys at Hylsten Bakery do incredible breads and have pizza nights. Even Brixham has specialist wine shops, like The Wine Loft, where people are buying bottles for £75 – and, guess what, they’ve got queues. All over Devon you’re seeing people doing things really well. Tourism is no longer just kiss-me-quick hats, ice cream and buckets and spades; you’ve got a much more discerning type of visitor.’

For his own part, Mitch has brought a taste of the coast to people who live inland too, with his online seafood market; it’s part of his ongoing aim to make people passionate about fish. ‘People are coming to Brixham to engage with the fish industry,’ he says. ‘They do tours of the market, where you buy tickets and 20 people go around the market and then come up here and have breakfast, so it’s exposing people to the joys of seafood. After all, it is England’s biggest fishing port and it’s world famous. Our mission is to get people to eat gurnard and Dover sole and realise that when you’re eating a piece of British fish it’s a champagne moment. You’re paying £39 for Dover sole, so it’s not cheap, but it’s a treat; it’s special.’

And it comes from a special place. ‘I remember someone said to me years ago that Devon was England’s coast – where you’ve got the coast and the mountains. And I couldn’t agree more.’

MITCH’S HOTSPOTS

THE FARM TABLE, EXETER
My go-to place for a great steak, seasonal produce
and a cracking wine list, with great service. dartsfarm.co.uk

EAST IN THE WEST, PAIGNTON
The best curry in the South West; go for the Mangalore king prawns and any veg dish. eastinthewest.co.uk

THE OUTSIDE AT BANTHAM
A super cool place for brunch. outside-devon.com

THE CARY ARMS & SPA, TORQUAY
On a sunny day you could be in the Mediterranean – with yachts at anchor and a pub and dining room at your disposal. caryarms.co.uk

THE ANGEL, DARTMOUTH Both tasting menu and à
la carte use the freshest ingredients expertly handled. theangeldartmouth.co.uk

DART MARINA HOTEL, DARTMOUTH
I have long been a patron here – the location on the River Dart is superb. Rooms have views over the water; while away the day watching the river traffic. dartmarina.co.uk

CARSWELL HOLIDAYS, NEAR PLYMOUTH
Your chance to stay in a beach shack in your own private cove, miles from anywhere. carswellholidays.com

WILD ARTICHOKES, KINGSBRIDGE
Jane Baxter is one of the best cooks I know. Generous feasting from a weekly menu, a real find. wildartichokes.co.uk

This review was taken from the August/September 2024 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.