A Grimsby seafood firm has launched new products as part of a tie-up with a fast-growing niche direct-to-doorstep supplier with a celebrity following.
JCS Fish brought forward a new smokehouse facility as part of a £200,000 investment in the docks base last year, and now two fresh hot-smoked lines are being provided for ethically-sourced recipe boxes.
Mindful Chef, launched in 2015, has racked up more than five million meals for more than 100,000 customers, with a host of celebrity endorsements and investment from Wimbledon champion Sir Andy Murray and Olympian Victoria Pendleton CBE.
Salmon and trout fillet pairs will initially be provided exclusively to the West Country school friends who set up the venture through successful crowdfunding rounds.
They are the first hot-smoked products to make use of the facility, with the family-owned £7 million turnover business bringing the process in-house, using traditional-styled mechanically heated smoking.
Jack Coulbeck, commercial manager at JCS Fish, said: “We are delighted with these products, which have already received some excellent feedback from Mindful Chef consumers.
“The Covid-19 lockdown has generated a massive expansion in the home meal market, and all the Mindful Chef healthy recipes that feature our products have proved extremely popular so far. We expect considerable interest in these BigFish Hot Smoked fillets from our wider customer base and will also make them available in the next few weeks through our own online channel.”
Mindful Chef offers 16 recipes to choose from a week on a flexible subscription model, tapping into a select band of suppliers to provide meals for two at home. Sales also fund meals for children living in poverty.
The fillets are naturally brined, without sugar and lightly hot smoked with oak.
A new signature range launched late last year was slowly smoked at a more ambient temperature, and it brought further awards for the Murray Street team.
