Mat Prowse, The Seahorse & Rockfish Restaurants
Mat Prowse is the other half of the dynamic duo behind the highly successful Seahorse and expanding Rockfish empire. Partner and great friend of Mitch Tonks, the two have worked together for over 15 years in the kitchen and running and opening restaurants. Like chalk and cheese they have a different approach and style and that just maybe the secret ingredient behind their enduring friendship and business success.
Mat Prowse Seahorse
“Mitch and I cook together and it works because we have two different but complimentary styles, I have classical training, Mitch is more of an instinctive cook and together we have had 15 years of great cooking and restaurant openings - I think 24 restaurants altogether! Mitch’s brain works at a million miles an hour and I’m the guy running behind the whirlwind who has to pick things up and make them happen. It can be a challenge! We totally respect each other’s talents which makes what we have unique. We’re two best friends working together, loving what we do, so what could be better?!”
A move to Dartmouth away from where they both had their family lives was a big decision but the call of the sea was strong.
Mat explained: “We’d always talked about having a restaurant by the sea and then The Seahorse building came up. It was a pizza restaurant before and we compl
etely gutted it, right back to the stonework, to create an Italian influenced seafood restaurant, serving good quality local fish such as turbot, sea bass and sole.
“We both love Italian food and the family-based ethos of relaxed eating. We’re very family orientated ourselves – with nine children between us!
“We visit Italy a lot and savour their seriousness about food. They always serve fish on the coasts but there are marked regional variations. We don’t tend to do that so much in the UK, although there is a big resurgence in interest for regional food, with the evolution of local suppliers and farmers markets. People are becoming a lot more interested nowadays about where food comes from.
“The Seahorse has a relaxed, unpretentious environment but we’re serious about what we do. It’s never about the chef in here but about the food and company. We’re all about giving our customers a really nice time and try to spoil them by keeping it simple but using quality ingredients.
“We first opened to a very busy start. It was in the days of John Burton Race’s New Angel so there was a lot going on the South Embankment. And now, in the seven years we’ve been here, we’ve built a regular customer base and a great following nationally. We’re very lucky that business is still growing. Being by the sea, Dartmouth is a great location for good seafood and with the growth in popularity of the Dartmouth Food Festival, I think people head here for those food experiences too.”
The Seahorse has also attracted national attention, including The Times columnist and restaurant critic Giles Coren who rated it the best in Britain, calling it: “A restaurant I'd happily travel five hours to for supper."
Three years after starting The Seahorse Mat and Mitch opened Rockfish, to bring a similar relaxed quality vibe to a family fish and chips restaurant.
The Rockfish brand has gone from strength to strength and now has branches in Torquay and Plymouth with a further one opening soon in Brixham.
Mat added: “All the branches are on a waterfront – the best place to eat fish and chips – and use local fish, including whiting, gurnard and pollock here in Dartmouth, mussels from Elberry Cove in Torquay, and crab in Plymouth. The new place in Brixham will be on the harbour and using fish from the market next door.”
For such a successful chef, Mat is very modest about his skills.
He said: “The cooking bit is easy – if you’ve got good ingredients you can cook and if you enjoy eating you can cook too. When I started it was those that weren’t so academic at school who went into catering or worked in a restaurant.”
Mat grew up in Bournemouth and started working in restaurants from the age of 13.
He added: “I’ve always cooked. When I was 12 I won a WI cake cooking competition – beating the ladies with my Victoria sandwich!
“I started out washing-up in restaurants and got the bug for working in kitchens. There is a great camaraderie in hotels and restaurants. We all work long hours – six days a week, arriving in the dark and leaving in the dark, so we often live and socialise together like one big family. I wouldn’t say it’s unsociable, in fact it is the most sociable industry in the world in that respect!
Mat went to catering college at 16, straight from school. While there he worked at Chewton Glen in Hampshire, a five star large country house hotel with Michelin stars and AA rosettes, and a team of 25 chefs.
He added: “I was really lucky to start in such a big kitchen and learnt all the different sections – fish, butchery, bread, plucking birds etc.”
He was offered a job there at the end of his course and stayed for five years, making friends he is still in touch with, including celebrity chef James Martin. After progressing to sous chef and knowing the head chef wasn’t going anywhere, he moved to the Queensway Hotel and Olive Tree Restaurant in Bath where he was a head chef for seven years. It was there he met Mitch, when Mitch sold fish to the restaurant in the late 1990s.
He said: “We got on instantly and started doing more things together.”
Mat started working with Mitch in the Green Street Seafood Café in Bath and then the pair ran Fishworks in Bath, Bristol and London, before heading south to open The Seahorse and Rockfish.
Mat had holidayed in Dartmouth before and always loved it down here.
He said, “Mitch had been coming to Dartmouth regularly as a child and introduced me to the town. We always said that one day we’d do something here and it came earlier than expected, but we’re so glad to be here.
“I love the area and the sea. I also love the changing of the seasons – and the contrast of the busyness of the summer and the peace of the winter.”
After initially commuting from Bath, Mat and his wife Olivia now live with their four children in Loddiswell. Olivia trained in hospitality and the couple met while working together in Bournemouth. She is planning to join Mat at The Seahorse in the near future.
There is always something going on in the business and there is always some buzz and excitement around one thing or another; Mitch and Mat have just opened a small sun terrace at Rockfish Dartmouth with just a couple of tables for al fresco dining in the rare and fortunate suntrap there and the new Rockfish in Brixham at the fish market will open in April. They have jointly written a beautiful new Seahorse cookbook which is published in June. This includes the story of how the restaurant evolved and from where they get their inspirations for food. It promises to be a good read.
The Seahorse is open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner; Rockfish is open 7 days a week. For more information visit www.seahorserestaurant.co.uk & www.therockfish.co.uk
First published in By The Dart March 2015
