“There is no school to learn this”, Stefan Griesbach says. “You learn from others. You should be proud to be a fishmonger”.
Mr Griesbach knows how you learn the fish business. He himself learnt the skills that have created Gannet Fishmongers, and helped to create the incredible web resource Fishhmongers.ie, from “some old-style Parisian fishwives”. The Parisian dames wouldn't have known much about the electronic world wide web, but they knew – and they taught Stefan Griesbach – that there is a world wide web of fish, and a world wide web of knowledge about its irreplaceable value as a resource, and a world wide web of men and women who incarnate and practice its culture: you should be proud to be a fishmonger.
Stefan Griesbach came to Galway 15 years ago. In 2006 he established Gannet Fishmongers. Straight away, he had not just a different approach to fish and selling fish, he had an entirely different conception. In an industry that has convinced itself that it was sold off as the dowry when Ireland was allowed to enter the EU forty years ago, Mr Griesbach had no time for the past. “Irish people love fish so long as it is explained to them what to do with it”, he says.
But it's not just the explanations, the recipes, the knowledge, that makes Gannet different: Gannet Fishmongers has a different philosophy from the rest of the trade, a philosophy that is optimistic, epicurean, enlivening. See the Gannet stall at the many markets they cover down the west coast, or in the Eyre Square shopping centre, and your eyes brighten, your soul gladdens: Pride. Respect. Culture. Craft. “We compete by being more professional, by educating people, by providing quality fish”, he explained to an audience at the Galway Food Festival.
There is something of the weathered sea hand in Mr Griesbach, but it just masks the true boho character who is normally covered in the oil skins and the beany hat. He has a pony tail, and a goatee, and he speaks softly, like a good existentialist. It wasn't just the fishwives who showed him what's what. His Dad, he explains, taught him that “no matter what you do, when you start doing something, you do it honestly and the best you can, and things usually work out by themselves”. Well, yes, that's true. But when you add a radical vision, and a search for pride in your work, as Mr Griesbach has done, then you help things to work out by themselves.
Photo credit Reg Gordon