WHITEBAIT are a fishy business all right. Businessmen have always been among the gleaming tiddlers' biggest fans.

Many a deal had been clinched down the centuries over a clutch of the little silver fish. Whitebait still figures highly on menus around the City of London.

Whitebait and business have their biggest coming together at the annual Thames Whitebait Festival, now firmly rooted in Southend. The Southend Chamber of Commerce has acted as sponsor and organiser, ever since the festival was revived and moved to the town in 1934.

The festival has its origins in a convivial dinner held on the Essex shore of the Thames in 1707, so this year marks its 300th anniversary. The chamber is pushing out the boat to ensure the 2007 festival is the best in 73 years.

Whitebait are the babies of a range of fish, particularly sprats and herring. They teem in huge numbers in the tidal Thames, which offers one of the richest sources of this foodstuff anywhere in the world.

As a result, the art of cooking whitebait has been perfected on the shores of the Thames. If roast beef and Yorkshire pudding is the British national dish, then whitebait deserves to be the regional culinary symbol of London and the Thames Valley. Since medieval times, it has been a central feature of City of London banquets.

Foreigners, however snotty they pretend to be about the rest of English cooking, always fall in love with this particular item. It isn't just a matter of the taste, either.

Traditionally, whitebait has induced wellbeing and conviviality, just the mood required for clinching a good business deal.

Cooking and serving whitebait is a simple process.

The fish are dipped in seasoned flour, deep fried at high heat very swiftly, then eaten with brown bread and butter, garnished with lemon and cayenne pepper.

According to a 19th century recipe: "The rapidity of the cooking process is of the utmost importance, and if it be not attended to, the fish will lose their crispness, and be worthless."

The secret is in the freshness. Ideally, whitebait should be eaten within one hour of being caught. The most famous whitebait venue, the Trafalgar Tavern, in Greenwich, used to boast it only used fish caught from the tavern window.

The festival began in Essex in 1707 with a meeting of landowners who had helped to restore the river-wall following a major breach.

The delights of whitebait and punch proved so strong the affair became a regular event for several decades.

It was revived, with a political complexion, one afternoon in 1799, in what was then the country village of Dagenham.

Sir Robert Preston, MP for Dover, kept what he called "a fishing cottage" by the river. He used to escape there to relieve the pressures of Parliament and business.

Noticing the prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, was looking a bit jaded - something to do with the exploits of a chap named Napoleon Bonaparte - Sir Robert decided to ask the PM and a few other politicians around to the fishing lodge.

Gradually, fishing cottage was eventually abandoned in favour of the Trafalgar Tavern, larger and closer to the centre of London.

Eventually, the entire Tory cabinet participated in the festivity. For years it figured as the celebration at the end of the Parliamentary year. Ministers would journey down the river aboard a gorgeously decorated state barge.

The tradition died out during the 1840s, along with the local supply of whitebait.

No living thing could survive in the poisoned river, and a trip down-river had rather lost its appeal. Then, in an inspired decision, the Southend Chamber of Commerce decided to revive the old festival and return it to Essex.

John Clayton, chief executive of Essex Chambers of Commerce, explains: "Back in 1934 it was seen as a way of giving the fishing industry a boost. It also gave Southend, a relatively new town, a link with the past and its roots in the fishing industry, a bit of traditional pageantry if you like."

John believes the festival is even more relevant in the current environment.

"It's still a good thing for the fishing industry, which has been particularly hard hit recently," he says. "And, of course, a good time is had by all and plenty of business networking gets done.

"But it's also about colour and tradition and celebrating a marvellous local culinary heritage, all of which locks into what is happening now with the Thames Gateway development.

"The chamber is so much about planning for the future. It's no bad thing to stop and look back at where we've come at times."

l The 300th anniversary of the Thames Whitebait Festival, sponsored by c2c and the Essex Chambers of Commerce, takes place on September 27 on Southend seafront. The blessing of the catch will be followed by the release of 300 balloons.