Affordable luxury: How to host your own tinned fish date night at home

• 'Tinned fish date night' is TikTok's latest trend – here's how to do it
• Tinned fish dinners: 25 recipes that make the most of tinned tuna, anchovies and sardine

​It's the easy, affordable snack that's gone from "eww" to "ooh" as "tinned fish date night" becomes a social media-inspired food trend.

San Francisco chef Ali Hooke posted a TikTok video in August, stepping viewers through the weekly canned seafood meal she makes for herself and her husband, opening tins of mussels, sprats and mackerel pâté and arranging them on a wooden board with sliced tomato, torn figs, chutney and baguette.

The video swam swiftly up the algorithm to more than 680,000 views and has spawned a slew of #tinnedfishtok copycats in Australia.

The hero ingredients are high quality "conservas", the catch-all name for premium tinned seafood from countries including Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Canada. The tins are often decorative and the seafood is arranged carefully within, packed in high quality oil or brine, sometimes with flavourings such as paprika or tomato.

"I was inspired by TikTok," says Sarah Kiryshin​, a recipe developer and food marketer in bayside Melbourne. "Sardines were my gateway tinned fish and nowadays we are pretty experimental."

She and husband Kirill peruse their stash of tins – there are usually 20 in the pantry – after their children, aged two and five, are in bed.

"We select tins together, maybe smoked oysters, pickled mussels, smoked trout pate, stuffed calamari, whatever we are craving. If we are feeling extra bougie there might be some caviar thrown in the mix."

Depending on the selection, Kiryshin then chooses sides. "Sometimes burrata, always French butter, crackers, Kirill's mum's pickles," she says.

"We put it on the coffee table in front of Netflix and attack it. It's a nice thing to do with your partner."

For those whose most memorable experience of tinned fish is canned tuna wafting from a lunchbox, the idea might not appeal. The trick is to use quality seafood rather than cat-food-adjacent mush.

"Canned food hasn't been well understood in Australia," says Syd Weddell, owner of Essential Ingredient specialty food stores in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

"We import canned seafood from Portugal where it's an institution and just glorious. Australians often have memories of smelly stuff with a fishy aftertaste but these products are clean and beautiful with a delightful fresh fish character."

Weddell sees them as a premium product that's also affordable: 110-120-gram tins retail for between $10 and $15.

"They aren't as expensive as some other specialty foods," he says. "They're an everyday commodity in Europe."

Essential Ingredient's tinned seafood sales have increased 50 per cent over the past five years and Weddell expects further uptick.

Alongside the social media push, UK-based cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi, currently on tour in Australia, has given smoked oysters a boost by sharing an unpublished pasta recipe onstage.

"He uses tinned tomatoes to make a sauce then throws in smoked oysters and coriander and says it's a taste sensation," says Ottolenghi's on-stage host, the food author and radio presenter Alice Zaslavsky. "It's all about layering flavour."

Fans are already cottoning on. "I had messages from people saying they went to buy smoked oysters and there were none left on the shelves," says Zaslavsky.

Sarah Kiryshin purchases her supplies online and at local delis and, even though it's simple to put a tin dinner together, she appreciates the creativity and relative affordability.

"You can do a great board for $50," she says. "It brings you together and it's a way to experiment with flavours. You might layer pâté and sardines, go a bit wild. There are no rules when it comes to this stuff."

How to craft your own tinned fish date night

• If you're not yet a tinned fish fan, go gently by choosing the canned version of seafood that you do like. Love oysters? Try them smoked. Salmon-centric? Try sustainable sock-eye salmon, such as from Patagonia Provisions.
• As well as Essential Ingredient, look at The Stock Merchant and The Canned Company for high-quality conservas.
• Go big on sides: thinly sliced baguette and quality butter, cornichons or other pickles are de rigeur. Consider crudites, perhaps thinly sliced fennel, radishes or cherry tomatoes, too.
• Open tins carefully to avoid date-night-ruining oil spills.
• Select beverages: Spanish sherry, crisp riesling and sparkling wines like lambrusco all work well. Pale ale is another great option.