Page 2 of the Sunday Times yesterday ran a sizeable correction relating to its report last week that J Sheekey amongst others had been given black marks (actually “five red fish”) by Charles Clover’s fish sustainability website, fish2fork.
It appeared from the correction that J Sheekey should actually have been rated “one blue fish” (ie one of the good guys).
Other restaurants to have their scores moved into the blue zone included Scotts (another Caprice Group property), and One-O-One. Also Raymond Blanc’s Manoir: initially criticized by the fish2fork website, but now recognised as being on the side of righteousness, having been the first Michelin restaurant to be given the Marine Stewardship Council’s full certification for its fish and seafood dishes.
Knowing ourselves how much most newspapers loath publishing corrections, we imagine this one was issued through gritted teeth and – one speculates – with a little help from a solicitors’ letter. Indeed we learn from the fish2fork blog that for their part, they heard from one of leading law firm Olswang’s top libel lawyers who had been instructed by Caprice Holdings.
From the reports, it seems that nothing actually changed at these restaurants, other than that they provided more information on their existing policies.
Provenance, calorie counts, salt or fat content, sustainability – all are issues where the trade (which by instinct, often thinks such scrutiny is an OTT imposition on them) increasingly needs to get ahead of the ball, and where, in the long term, reputations are most likely to be boosted by making what may seem like tedious disclosures: until they take the call from the film-maker or national newspaper...
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