Are these the best scallops on earth?
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Jersey is home to the third-largest tidal range in the world: the island’s land mass almost doubles at low tide. Its low water habitats provide an unbeatable breeding ground for scallops and other seafood. In a push towards sustainable fishing, 25 per cent of Jersey scallops are now also caught from hand-diving, compared to 2 per cent or less in the UK.
I’ve come to the island to meet local chef Joe Baker. He not only believes Jersey scallops are among the best in the world but has just opened Pêtchi, a new restaurant in St Helier, where scallops and other seafood play a central role. Today we’re heading out on a boat with his suppliers second- and third-generation fishermen Bob Titterington, 61, and his nephew Toby Woolley, 25. Our haul gets under way a mile out from St Brelade’s Bay. Bob and Toby drop to depths of 70ft. Forty-five minutes later, they resurface with their catch, a staggering 250 scallops each.
“It’s incredible to witness,” says Baker. “Bob has dived in these waters since the age of 13. It makes GPS almost unnecessary, as he can navigate his way by sight.” It’s a kind of virtuosity, based on skills passed down generations, that makes being a chef on Jersey so inspiring. “This island is full of skilled fishermen, growers and producers,” he says.
Baker’s father was raised on Jersey. He trained as an actor and starred in the cult Jersey-based TV show, Bergerac. After stints in Los Angeles and the Cotswolds, he moved back with his family in 2000, when Baker was 10. Now his father and German-born mother run Le Braye, a café on St Ouen’s, the popular surfer’s beach on the west coast of the island. Baker enrolled in after-school cookery lessons as a teen, something he kept secret from his friends in case they thought it uncool. After reading English at Durham, he worked in kitchens in Australia, San Sebastián and London, before returning to Jersey in 2015, aged 25, and opening his own restaurant, Number 10. He represented the South West on BBC’s Great British Menu in 2019 and 2020, when he reached the finals, and became a bit of a local celebrity.
But earlier this year he shut Number 10 – partly because he’d outgrown the space and its facilities – in order to launch a new restaurant on a more ambitious scale. Pêtchi – whose name derives from Jersey’s dialect and means “to try to catch a fish” – is located in a Grade II-listed building overlooking St Helier’s Liberation Square. Flooded with light with white walls and high ceilings, it’s a stunning 65-cover space. “There are such long hours in this game,” says Baker. “You have to be in a space you love.”
The open-plan kitchen is dominated by a bespoke charcoal grill and wood-fired oven. While the menu celebrates the island’s best produce including ex-dairy beef and Jersey Royal potatoes, it’s this ability to cook over fire (inspired by dishes from the Basque region) that excites Baker the most. “Cooking over wood is hard to do but delicious,” he says. “It’s a style with nowhere to hide.”
When I visit in early June, the restaurant kitchen isn’t operational, so we head to Baker’s house so he can rustle up a few signatures. To start, Jersey oysters wrapped in nori, coated in breadcrumbs, fried and served with citrus and hot sauce – appetisers to dazzle the tastebuds. Then scallops from this afternoon’s trip – pearlescent pucks of meat pressed into knobs of Jersey butter, set on a barbecue to bubble and brown, spritzed with scallop dashi and elderflower vinegar, and garnished with diced preserved white asparagus. The best scallops I have ever had.
To finish, wood-roasted lobster rice, which brings together rice cooked over fire in lobster stock with carne de ñora (red pepper) paste, grilled lobster meat, zabaglione and parsley. “You only get the real flavour of lobster if you grill it,” insists Baker. “And look at the socarrat,” he says of the crispy, savoury rice at the bottom, the achievement of which is a point of pride when making paella. “This is the kind of [fire-cooked] dish we would never have been able to make in Number 10,” he says. “This is real cooking. This is food that makes me happy.” He’s not the only one.
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