In this Service Please! episode, we talk to the owner of a freshly established family business that’s here to disrupt the canned fish market. Angus Cowan co-founded Sea Sisters, the only fish cannery in England. Sea Sisters is a family company that delivers quality British seafood, located in the hills of West Dorset, a few miles from the sea.
Sea Sisters’ mission is to support and promote a sustainable British fishing industry. But they will also wow you with Angus’s creative, out-of-this-world recipes that turn canned fish and seafood into must-haves for your pantry.
Bonus for our listeners - an exclusive recipe from Sea Sisters. Check at the end.
It all started at Jamie’s Italian ‘flagship’ restaurant
His mother is a chef, so Angus grew up surrounded by great food. But his introduction to the restaurant world happened ten years ago at the first Jamie’s Italian restaurant in Oxford. Learning all about producing delicious dishes, but also learning about the provenance of the ingredients, their heritage and cultural reference.
This experience was the cornerstone of Angus’s career. From Jamie’s Italian, Angus worked for Sam Clark at Moro as a commis before starting at Trullo, where he flourished as a chef.
Starting the first English fish cannery from home
Angus started his family business with his partner Charlotte, bang in the middle of the first lockdown. He talks about the challenges of perfecting his recipes in his home kitchen and testing new canning equipment that came with a Russian manual. Add two small kids running around the place to the mix, and it’ll paint the picture of how this fantastic family business started.
His story gives us a great insight into the journey of an entrepreneur in the food space. And the hard work required behind the scenes before you can even show a product to sell.
Is sustainable fishing possible?
Building a premium brand that’s sustainable and authentic