A fish to feed the five hundred

Sep 28 2007 By Ben Guy, The Journal

THE menu at a Northumberland hotel will have a distinctly fishy theme this weekend after the head chef took delivery of a giant halibut.

Head chef at Matfen Hall, Phil Hall, said he expected the fish, which weighs in at a colossal 21 stone, to feed about 500 guests in a variety of dishes.

He said items on the menu over the next few days would include posh fish fingers, carpaccio and “some of the best” fish and chips in the county.

He said: “There is going to be a lot of halibut on the menu. The size of the fish is absolutely phenomenal – it is by far the biggest I have ever seen. It is absolutely massive and it took six of us just to get it out of the van.”

Halibut, the largest of all flat fish, normally weigh in at around two stone.

The fish, which measures about 6ft by 4ft, is likely to be about 50 years old and was caught in the North Sea earlier this week.

Mr Hall said he had already checked that the fish tasted good enough to serve at the hotel.

He said: “We have already cut a bit off and it is very sweet and moist – if it hadn’t been it would have gone back.” Gavin Stephen is sales supervisor for M&J Seafoods in Newcastle, which supplied the fish to the hall.

He said: “I was a trawler-man for many years, fishing out of Peterhead near Aberdeen, and the largest I have ever come across was 19 stone.

“To have one this big is very rare – I have seen pictures of bigger ones but this is the biggest I have ever seen in the flesh.

“It makes the average halibut look like a baby.”

The fish was caught by a trawler using lines rather than a net, and special equipment had been used to lift it on to the boat.