Master diver to MasterChef

Written by staff reporter Wednesday, 27 May 2009 00:00

Mat Follas Catch of the day: Mat prepares his foraged ingredients

MasterChef became obligatory viewing this year, as the hyperbole-laden banter of judges John Torrode and Greg Wallace attracted a cult following. By the time the final was aired, their excitable commentary (typical example: ‘As soon as you put that in your mouth, that big sweet scallop comes up and gives you a kiss!’) had become such a standing joke that The Guardian ran a bingo game based on their unending stream of culinary codswallop.

But amid all the hype, diving found an unlikely new star in the self-effacing winner, Mat Follas. Mat, 42, is one of our tribe – a seasoned UK diver, whose underwater experience is reflected in his signature dishes, including the innovative spider crab thermidor that sent the judges into paroxysms of joy and secured his victory. Mat is a forager: every week, he goes on night diving forays out of West Bay in Dorset to look for ingredients to inspire his cookery, and now that he has fame to back up his talent, he is on the verge of opening his own restaurant.

I meet him in a café near his agent’s offices in west London, where he is enjoying a cappuccino with his wife, Mandy. On the show, his emotion was almost palpable, but in person and with nothing left to prove, he exudes a quiet confidence. ‘People say I’m quite chilled out, and I can’t see myself shouting at chefs in a kitchen,’ he says. ‘When we worked in those Michelin-starred places for MasterChef there was no shouting – just a lot of very professional people calmly doing their jobs. Of the top chefs, I think Gordon Ramsay’s style is the exception rather than the rule.’

He attributes much of this inner calm to his regular Thursday night dives, which tire him out in what he describes as ‘a positive way’. Of course, it is also an opportunity to collect scallops and hunt for flatfish. ‘I have a regular group of friends and we go out on a hardboat on Thursday nights,’ he says. ‘I look for crabs, brill, turbot, maybe gurnard, but it’s 90 per cent scallops.’ However when he surfaces, he’s likely to be tucking into a pie. ‘You lose a lot of calories diving in cold water, so when you come up your body is screaming out for calories – you just want a bit of stodge.’

Mat’s foraging dives normally take him to a depth of 30m – he uses independent twin seven-litre cylinders filled with nitrox. ‘I made the move to nitrox after getting a bend in my shoulder and spending a night in the chamber in Poole,’ he says. ‘Now I feel a lot better when I get out of the water – it’s made a big difference.’ He dives with little torches strapped to either side of his mask, but his favourite item of kit is a simple pea-whistle, which he uses to attract the boat’s attention.

Mat’s family roots are in New Zealand. He was born in the UK to Kiwi parents, but grew up in Auckland and considers himself a New Zealander, although he has dual nationality. His father was a navy diver, but had lost all interest in underwater exploration by the time Mat took up the sport. After diving all the classic New Zealand sites, he went off to Thailand and briefly worked as a dive guide at Koh Tao in Thailand.

Many people believe that divers should not be allowed to forage for food, but Mat has little sympathy for this sort of criticism. ‘I eat seafood, so I will kill what I can eat,’ he says. ‘Why buy something in a package when I can go out and get it myself? That said, I have a real problem with people killing things that don’t get used. I don’t believe in killing for the sake of killing.In terms of environmental damage, all the divers in Dorset are never going to cause as much damage as a commercial dredger trawling over the reefs and killing everything in its path.’

He is incensed by the recent trawling of the coastal reefs of Lyme Bay, and says that the UK should follow the New Zealand model and ban inshore dredging. ‘You have coral reef out of Lyme Bay with incredible fish life, and until recently there was a gentlemen’s agreement that they wouldn’t be dredged. Then these guys came in from somewhere – I don’t think they were local boats – and what they did to the reefs was just horrendous.’ He is not convinced the Marine Bill will greatly help the situation, saying it is simply ‘too little, too late’.

Mat has a tendency to compare the UK with New Zealand, but he is fiercely proud of his corner of Dorset, which has all the fresh ingredients he needs for his style of cooking. Twice a month, he cooks at his local pub, the Fox and Hounds in Cattistock, but this may be a thing of the past. He had been planning to move back to New Zealand with his family, but his newfound fame is there to be exploited, and he now has the financial backing to quit his day job as an engineer and open his own restaurant (‘somewhere in West Dorset’) specialising in seasonal dishes.

For now, he is more than happy to continue in Dorset. ‘I love where I live: it has all the benefits of New Zealand – the outdoors life, good diving, no traffic. I love diving in the winter when you get below the shit on the surface and find the visibility is actually really good. I’ve had 30m visibility on the wreck of the M2 and it was one of the best dives of my life.’ Wherever fame takes Mat, it’s a safe bet he’s never going to be far from the sea.



A dish for divers
Here’s a recipe that’s fun and easy to make and makes a great starter for steak and chips. It incorporates one of my favourite ingredients, scallops, with fresh seaweed... well worth a try if you have some rocks to take seaweed from or, failing that, keep a packet of dried Japanese wakame seaweed. It’s a lovely fusion of Asian and British flavours.

Scallops with seaweed (serves two)
Ingredients
• Seaweed (use fresh kelp or sea lettuce, or dried wakame)
• Scallops (three per portion)
• Miso paste (buy miso soup if you can’t get paste)
• Beef stock (use the good stuff that is sold in bottles... never use dried stock cubes)
• Chillies

Method
• If using fresh seaweed, blanch in boiling fresh water for two minutes first to remove excess saltiness.
• Make a strong miso and beef stock, using approximately one tablespoon beef stock to one teaspoon of miso paste to 300ml water – the taste should be strong, salty and meaty. If using dried seaweed, add an extra 150ml water.
• Add chopped chillies to taste, I use half a bird’s eye chilli for two portions.
• Add seaweed to the stock and warm it at a low simmer, reducing it until most of the liquid is absorbed and a little moisture is left.
• When the stock is nearly reduced cook scallops in sizzling butter, making sure you spoon butter over them while cooking. The scallops should be lightly caramelised. Cook them for no more than a minute per side, less for smaller scallops.
• Serve the scallops on the seaweed base and dress with chillies. Enjoy!
Mat Follas, MasterChef 2009

For news of restaurant plans and more recipes, see Mat’s blog at www.thewildgarlicblog.co.uk