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Can UK's beloved fish and chips survive rising costs and closures?
Summary
Fish and chips is to UK what vada pav is to Mumbai. But, a number of factors, including the Russia-Ukraine war, are eroding the growth of age-old shops selling this tasty meal
Freshly cooked, piping hot fish and chips, sprinkled with salt and soused with vinegar, wrapped in paper and eaten out-of-doors on a cold and wintry day. Could there be anything more quintessentially British than fish and chips?
The British love what Winston Churchill called “the good companions". I have eaten the UK’s “national dish" in multiple places, including in the Scottish highlands, in a Welsh seaside village, a fancy restaurant in London, a costal pub in Clovelly, and a tiny chippy in Devon. Fish and chips is to the British what vada-pav is to Mumbai–a quick-fix, no-nonsense meal, tasty on the tongue and easy on the pocket.
The origins date to Jewish immigrants (for the fried fish), and Belgian and French influences (for the deep-fried potatoes). Both were enjoyed separately well before they came together.
Food historian Annie Gray says the potato slowly went from knobbly curiosity to staple food - especially for the poor – and chips made an appearance, given how well it lent itself to deep frying. By the Victorian era, chipped potatoes were everywhere. Dickens famously described them in his 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities as “husky chips of potatoes fried with some reluctant drops of oil". The proximity to the coast meant fried fish was on the table of the rich and the poor.
Gray says the first fish and chip shop appeared in the UK in about 1860. “Sephardic Jews sold cold fried fish, intended for eating on the Sabbath. It was cheap, filling and tasty, and fried fish stalls sprung up in cities. It was inevitable that these two street foods, so popular with the masses, would end up together," she shares.
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Chippies (the British slang for fish and chip shops) proliferated across the UK through the 20th century, from the northernmost point in Shetland all the way down to Land’s End in Cornwall. In the book Development of Fish and Chips: The Powerhouse of the Victorian Working Class, author Nick Schuima writes, “By the 1860s, fish and chips as street food had transformed London’s working class…[it] sustained London’s growing industrial population, providing an economical, convenient, and delicious meal."
The expanding rail network ensured that fish was transported to inland cities as well. By 1910, there were close to 25,000 chippies, peaking in 1929 at 35,000 chippies. In fact, during World War II, ministers ensured that fish and chips were one of the few foods never rationed.
Batter recipes may differ across the UK, but the chips are made from white potatoes, peeled and cut to the thickness of thumbs, and fried in hot oil. Accompaniments differ. John Lennon supposedly like his smothered in tomato ketchup, but the standard condiment is salt and vinegar.
“A portion of mushy peas is a popular side dish and there may even be pickles, be it onions, gherkins, or eggs," says Justin Hall, the server at the aptly named chippy Seaview in Tenby, on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. On an earlier trip to Edinburgh, I saw fish and chips served with a brown tangy “chippy sauce", made of tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, dates, salt, spices and tamarind. “Chippies in Ireland, Wales and England douse warm sauces such as curry sauce or gravy over the chips; without the fish, they’re eaten as ‘wet chips’," Hall says.
At Wetherspoons, a mass market chain of pubs across the UK, the dish is one of the menu’s most popular orders. It has served more than 10 million fish-and-chip meals in the last 10 years. Some fish-and-chips lovers also enjoy the “scraps" or “crinkling" - bits left from frying the fish, and known as “scrumps" in Wales and “bits" in Southern England.
However, the UK’s national dish seems to be floundering in the face of rising prices for key ingredients and doubling energy costs. The National Federation of Fish Friers, which represents “chippies," has predicted that over the next few years a third of the UK’s roughly 10,500 chippies may close for good. Sarson’s, the company that makes the malt vinegar that’s the pairing of choice for the fried fish, has predicted as many as half could shutter.
Reason enough for chippies and their supporters to start a campaign to “Save the chippies" and keep buying even if the fish and chips cost a bit more than earlier. Andrew Crook, President, National Federation of Fish Friers, says the combination of the effects of the Ukraine war and the pressures of increased labour and regulatory burdens have squeezed profit margins. He also points to the huge reduction in the total allowable catch for cod in the Barents Sea.
“It is becoming more and more difficult to survive…[we] are seeing many operators are starting to try to get out but there are not many there to buy the shops. My fear is irreversible damage is going to be done before things improve," Cook says.
Chippy owners across the UK are feeling the pinch. “Out prices increase with rising expenses; we can’t not pass them on. We want to attract customers, but no one wants to eat out due to rising costs," says Aled Lewis, at the popular O My Cod in Bridgend. “Right now, we don’t want to grow; we are happy to maintain the status quo."
Hot and flaky fish, encased in a golden glassy batter, served with a generous heap of chips, has been part of the UK’s mealtime memories for generations. It helped fuel Britain’s industrial revolution, sustained morale during two World Wars, and is ubiquitous during seaside holidays, as a late supper on the way home. or as a weekday family treat.
Sian Roberts, who runs food tour company Loving Welsh Food, recalls the presence of chippies in every village and town when she was growing up. “The chippies were open quite late, so we would pick up some fish and chips on the way home from the pub or in the summer on the way back from the beach," she says.
But, she acknowledging that the British dish – and tradition - is disappearing. “We don't have a chippy near us so I haven't been one to many years. I hope that they will manage to survive," Roberts says.
On a chippies trail
• Ship Deck, Caerphilly
• Yarm Road Fish and Chips, Darlington
• Fish Works, Largs
• Knights Fish Restaurant, Glastonbury
• The Magpie Cafe, Whitby
• The Anstruther Fish Bar, Anstruther
• Frankie’s Fish & Chips, Brae
• Bertie’s Fish & Chips, Edinburgh
• John Long’s, Belfast
• D. Fecci & Sons, Tenby
• Jolly Fryer, Filton, Bristol
• The Mayfair Chippy, London
Teja Lele writes on travel and lifestyle.
