FISHING World, On The Sauce Podcast, and MOTackle recently collaborated to bring a live Catch & Cook Masterclass to audiences in Coffs Harbour. The sold-out event at MOTackle was the ideal location. The establishment’s rich history created a fantastic atmosphere, and countless taxidermied fish surrounded the audience.
Nautilus Marine Insurance jumped on board as the major sponsor to help get our guests up from Sydney and Port Macquarie.
I (Zac Panaretos) am the host of the On The Sauce Podcast and MCd the day. The idea was to go fishing the day beforehand and use the fish we caught to process on the day. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not in our favour. Bar Crusher boats lent us an impressive Reef Raider 670XT that was on its way to North Coast Boating Centre and we put it through its paces. Isuzu was also kind enough to lend Scott a new D-MAX for the trip from Sydney. The conditions were almost unfishable. We managed a decent-sized mac tuna on a stick bait whilst chasing diving birds around in the torrential rain. Plus, one of the four livies we caught got eaten by a large kingfish that bricked us on the reef.
I needed to source more fish if this event was going to be a success. Luke from Nautical Seafood came through with the goods. A better forecast on the morning of the event was a window too tight for us to fish, Luke became the hero of the day, landing some small mahi mahi, a bonito and a 6kg kingfish to bring home the bacon. Luke is a line caught commercial operator who services some of Australia’s best restaurants. I would choose fish he had caught over anything else we could have got our hands on. So we were so privileged to be able to use premium quality catch on the day of the event to show our audiences the difference it makes when looking after your catch, to the overall culinary experience.
The guests arrived and were directed to their seats, where they found their gift packs waiting for them. Boatloads of value for everyone who invested their time in this event, which might go against the grain of your average fishing talk or convention. Our diverse audience had people from all sorts of fishing backgrounds and age groups eager to learn more about post-catch care and cooking techniques, an area of fishing that is starting to see more daylight than previously.
The gift packs and lucky door prizes to be drawn later on were filled with gear from our sponsors, including Total Knife Care, Samurai, Gamakatsu, Atomic, Iki Pik, Shimano, Wilson, Diawa, Icey Tek, Samaki, Nautilus Marine Insurance, Fishing World, Victory Knives and COBB Grill.
I was first up, presenting on fish care post catch. I have done extensive research on this topic. Interviewing some of Australia’s best commercial fisherfolk and seafood chefs who had the highest expectations placed upon their final product. I used the mac tuna to go through the steps, which I carried out on the boat.
I went through all the necessary steps on how to look after your catch so that it reaches its optimal state for the plate. We discussed in detail landing the fish, dispatch methods including Iki Jime and Shinkei Kime, bleeding based on anatomy and the perfect ice slurry.
The whole idea is that we need to move quickly and be prepared for this process so that we can respect the fish we plan to take home. Shifting the cultural focus from catching more fish during a hot bite to looking after the fish we intend to eat to produce restaurant-quality flesh that tastes better and has an extended shelf life.
Bosley McGee from Southeast Cutting Room came on next armed and ready with his Victory Knives to show how to break down a single fish to produce a variety of cuts. Each cut has its own ideal cooking methods and flavour profile that enhance the texture and natural genetics of that aspect of the fish. Moving away from knowing the prime fillets off the fish and discarding some of the hard-to-reach sections. Making the most out of one fish as possible so that others can be released. Minimising our impact on our oceans and also naturally progressing your cooking skills as new techniques are introduced into the kitchen.
Bosley demonstrated the ancient Japanese cut scaling technique “Subiki”, he also showed how to liberate the shoulders, wings, tail cutlets, offal, and split the head so that no edible part of the fish was wasted. It was truly a master class.
Todd Richardson from Chef 2 Farmer, a regenerative farm at Telegraph Point just north of Port Mac took over to give us some expert recipes that anyone can apply in their household kitchen.
The recipes for two sauces can be found in the Seafood section of the Fishing World website. He explained how certain sauces can be used to enhance specific species of fish, but also the cuts of a single fish.
He did a live demonstration on how to cut bonito sashimi, a commonly overlooked species with a delicious flavour profile.
Everyone tasted the bonito and gave him the thumbs up. They also got to try the two different sauces with some fresh mahi mahi that he had cooked up on the COBB. It was great to see the eyes of the audience light up when the spoons were being passed around. Having the dishes explained to them in the flesh was a light bulb moment that I wish you could bottle.
The day finished up with a live podcast. The three of us had done our main sections and were now interacting with questions from our fantastic crowd. We hope that we were able to shed light on some of the things people wanted more info on in a fun and digestible manner. You can check out the podcast yourself, live on Spotify… Just search On The Sauce and get listening.
My favourite part of the day came when we were drawing the raffle. One of our youngest members of the audience won himself a Diawa Saltist… He jumped up and came to the front, smiling ear to ear. I know that it meant a lot to him, and it brought home that all the effort that went into making this day possible was worth it.
I left feeling inspired that the work we are doing is being met by our audiences and people are eager to challenge themselves by implementing this content. We had another person loading their note pad with tuips from throughout the day to reflect upon down the track.
I will be getting more and more of these events up and running down the track, hopefully at a venue near you so you can tag along.
A huge thanks to Mac from Mo Tackle for his tireless efforts sorting the venue, tickets and promotion and Scott from Fishing World for his promotion, content creation and audio prowess. The images captured for this article were the handy work of Vaughn Hagelstein.
Until next time…
