WHEN THE FISH MET THE CHIPS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 5

WHEN THE FISH MET THE CHIPS

[From KEN BRASS in London ]

One hundred years ago fish got married to chips. It was a curious match. One legend has it the ceremony went something like this:

John Lees, the moustached Lancashireman who ran “John Lees’ Chip Potato Restaurant. Oldest Estb. in the World,” turned to his wife one day and said. “Annie, ah’m fed up wi’ saveloys and black pudings. How do you think chips and fish would go?”

And Annie, hair all lank from the steam of the chip pan, replied, “Fish and chips? Nay, John lad, who iwer heard of FISH and chips?” John, however, decided to give it a go, and that wintry day in 1866 Fish and Chips first came together in a magical union where the succulent sum is greater than the parts. Victorian England gave many notable things to the world horse-hair sofas, Alfred Lord Tennyson—but nothing, it seems, can outlive the salivery seduction of fish combined with chips.

It is an extraordinary emotional dish: Americans send to England for the right newspapers to wrap it in, bishops, generals and captains of industry have been known to talk of fish and six penny worth with a catch in the voice.

John Lee’s fish and chip shop is still doing business in the Lancashire village of Mossley, still unnoticed by tourists, unheard of by the National Trust. The founder’s grandson, Joe Lees, aged 72, followed his own father into the business—but Lancashire’s reputation, for fish and chips, like London’s, has suffered lately. Connoisseurs say the switch to vegetable oil has spoilt things. They maintain that only the best beef dripping is good enough. And the only place in England where you can find good fish and chips aplenty is Yorkshire. WEST RIDING

If you are thinking of making a pilgrimage of Britain for the centenary stay clear of London —head straight for

the West Riding district of Yorkshire.

Only there can you be sure to find fish and chips as they should be fried in the steaming greasy shops where tradition says they should be bought. But be quick, for the tradition seems to be dying. Already in many “posh” restaurants the potent and popular name fish and chips has been changed to poisson Anglais et French fried. Certainly the French gave us the chips, but who would ever credit them with the combination.

One man who knows what’s new in the industry is Pierre Picton, a professional clown, who has just written a fish and chip guide to Britain. SMELL GOING According to Pierre “the sweetest smell in the world” —fish and chips, of course—may soon be non-existent. “The hdustry is trying to get rid of the smell,” he said. “After all who wants to smell as if they’ve been in a fish and chip shop, delightful as some of them are.

“No smell, you see. That’s what the public wants.” So powerful extractor fans are being installed. “I love chips just as they are, if they are properly cooked,” said Pierre. “But soon they will be flavoured just like crisps, I fear.” Big changes in store for the fish and chip industry ... an industry that, in Britain alone, sells more than 1000 tons of fish a day and “chips” more than 600,000 tons of potatoes a year. I wonder if the old couple now celebrating a hundred years of marriage will survive.