Antony Shirley is executive chef of the Seafood Pub Company’s four gastro pubs – the Oyster & Otter at Blackburn, the Assheton Arms at Downham, The Fenwick at Claughton near Lancaster and the soon-to-open Farmers Arms at Great Eccleston . . .

AT 2.30am catches are coming into Fleetwood Docks from the day boats, fish is being filleted on planks of wood around an ice cold water bath and fork lift trucks are whizzing everywhere.

The first time this city boy experienced the organised chaos I was dressed in skinny jeans, flimsy city centre shoes and a not very good coat.

Chris Neve (boss of the Seafood Pub Company) met me at a fish board with icicles hanging off it. A shock to the system? You could say so.

You have to be made of strong stuff to do that job.

But this is what I now expect all my senior chefs to see first-hand at least once. Our pub managers too. Even some of the waiting staff.

It’s the way to learn respect for the process that gets fresh fish from the sea to our plates within hours.

I believe chefs need to understand the process of catching it, landing it, scaling, filleting, buying and transporting.

Chris Neve comes from generations of trawlermen and has been doing this all his life.

When my phone goes off at 2.30am it’s Chris asking if I want a particularly exciting catch of, say, large wild turbot, giant squid, red mullet, some particularly good tiger prawns or the first of anything that’s coming into season.

His day starts at ‘daft-o-clock’ and that’s when I want my chefs with him to see what happens before market starts at 7.30am – not just to receive the results at 9.30am and get them on the specials board for lunchtime.

Respecting the fish – even just a £1.50 piece of flounder – is where it all starts.