What fish not to grill

Appears in
Alastair Little's Italian Kitchen

By Alastair Little

Published 1996

  • About
I do not like char-grilled white fish. Turbot, brill, halibut and sole are too delicate in taste and texture for the inevitable scorching they receive. (The present ‘grill everything’ trend in cooking is simple ignorance and lack of culinary intelligence.) However, these fish can be cooked under an overhead grill very successfully. The reason being that there is no contact with hot metal or coals: the fish is cooked by convection, the action of heat and air. I have even seen the lunacy of char-grilled cod on a menu, though I suspect it was just striped on the grill then baked. Imagine trying to chisel a wet, flaking, disintegrating piece of cod off the barbecue!