Long on flavour

Rachel Walker speaks to Corine Rozendaal, co-founder of the Dutch Eel Company, about the resurgence of smoked eel, a fine dish and a terrific environmental success story.

How did you get into fish?
I grew up in Bruinisse, which is a village on one of Holland’s Zeeland Island, close to the Belgium border. My mother’s family is in fishing, and my brother still works as a mussel fisherman. So you could say that I was born into it.
Why eels?
My husband Willem worked for a firm who traded in live eels. But he decided to start up his own company and moved to England. I followed him a year later, and we’ve now been trading eels for 20 years. In 2002, the head of Beales Eels sadly had a stroke, and the opportunity arose for us to take on their smokery, and their London market. We sold our first smoked eel in 2003, and have been selling to both trade and consumer ever since.
Have you noticed more interest in eels?
We noticed a steady increase, until three or four years ago, when there was a lot in the press about eels being endangered, and put on the Red List. Last year though, there was just as much noise about stocks being replenished, and there has definitely been a lot more enthusiasm again since then. We currently sell our smoked eel to lots of the top restaurants in London, like Quo Vadis, Corrigan’s and Le Gavroche. Eel used to be associated with poor communities, but now they appear on high-end menus as a delicacy.
What do you put the increased interest down to?
Tastes change over time. A generation back, people would go an East End pub for a beer, and have some cockles or jellied eel. Now people have McDonald’s or a kebab instead. It’s no surprise that the younger generation don’t like jellied eel – I certainly don’t think that it shows eel at its best. Smoked fishes like salmon and trout are very popular though, and eel is a good vehicle for smoked flavours. It also helps that smoked eel is being put on restaurant menus: people try it, and realise that it’s not all bone and fat and jelly. It helps alter their preconceptions and often means that they will try it again in the future.
Do you and your husband eat smoked eel at home?
Yes, we take inspiration from how the restaurant chefs who buy our eel are cooking it. Wild Honey did a beautiful dish where they put it with fried chicken wings and a carrot jam, and in Quo Vadis they added it to a leek and potato soup. Usually though, we bring the eel up to room temperature – as you would with a cheese – and then we have it with a little cucumber and horseradish sauce.
Are the eels you smoke wild or farmed?
It’s very important for us to create a sustainable product, so all of the eel we smoke are farmed in France, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. There aren’t any eel farms in Britain. People think that it’s the same as farming salmon or trout, and that you just put the eel in a basin and keep the water clean. But taking the elvers from the wild and then introducing them to a farmed environment is a scientific business which requires a lot of specialised knowledge. We used to deal with an eel farm in Scotland, but sadly it closed down. The good news is that with the revival of stocks throughout Europe, there are plenty to go round.
For more information, visit: www.dutcheel.com.