With Simon Rhodes, of the Lobster Pot Fishmongers in Wood Street Food Hall

Last week I started telling you about the many types of flat fish and what they can be used for. This week, I will tell you about two of my favourites, turbot and halibut.

Turbot, known as the King of the Sea, is a chef’s delight, with studded boney turbacles on its dark side. These fish can grow up to 10kg in weight and are on the menu at nearly all fish restaurants. Its texture is similar to halibut and has a fishy taste so does not require a strong accompaniment.

Around Christmas last year I bought a couple of large turbots at The Lobster Pot in Hungerford. These fish I was selling for about £100 each.

One of my regular customers came into the shop and we just got chatting about what a wonderful species the turbot was and I showed him these two monsters and explained that these would probably be filleted and sold as portions.

To my astonishment he said he would buy the whole fish as he had about 10 of his family over for dinner and thought it would be great baked in the oven and served as a whole in the middle of the table.

I saw him a few weeks afterwards and he said the meal was a huge success and that the fish was the talking point of the evening - and also cheaper than taking them all out for dinner!

Halibut, as I have said, is the largest of flat fish. The largest halibut to be caught was 37st in weight and was just over 9ft in length. It was more than 150 years old and it sold for more than £2,000.

These fish are usually caught off the Norwegian coast.

If I can I stock halibut because it is an extremely tasty fish and one that is a firm favourite with restaurants and me!

My favourite way to cook it is pan frying the steak, skin side down, in a little oil and butter for for about five minutes then transferring the pan to the oven to cook for another two minutes, giving it a nice all-round roasted flavour.

I serve this on a bed of puy lentils cooked in red wine, with red onion and smoked bacon. Absolutley stunning.

And now my mouth is well and truly watering and its only 10.30am!