Fish & Chips Goes Global : China
In April 2017 , The Fish Bar owner Craig Buckley embarked on another global trip to educate on the fine art of fish and chips. This time it was the bright lights of Shanghai. Shanghai is the worlds most populated city, with 24 million occupants. Shanghai lies on China’s east coast roughly equidistant from Beijing and Guangzhou.
Taking all his experience from; his role as Trainer at The National Federation Of Fish Friers, various previous roles as a consultant in the uk and abroad, experiences running The Fish Bar On Wheels, the northwests finest mobile fish and chip van and the day to day of running The Fish Bar. It was a challenge not to be turned down.
The business was called The Isles. It is owned and run by successful Chinese business team headed up by Jun-Tao. The company own another chain of restaurants called Spicy Wok. The vision by the team was to recreate the genuine authentic taste of Fish & Chips for the Chinese population to enjoy. They had a fabulous head chef in place, Lester Wang who just needed the correct guidance and the tricks of the trade to produce Fish & Chips on an industrial scale to consistent standards.
The trip involved months of planning, sourcing of quality produce, work in the head offices. A major element to completing the objective was for Craig to set in place the infrastructure, processes, training and vision for the team to implement moving forward. He spent lots of time in the restaurants, 3 at the time, the head offices as well as the central kitchen. A lot of time was spent on the raw ingredients. Craig created the perfect batter blend, check potato options and of course managed to source MSC fully sustainable cod.
The two week visit ended in a huge event for The Isles & Bon App. Bon App is a combination of Tripadvisor and Facebook and on the night The Isles was the number one trending event. The video is attached which was created by bon app on the evening.
Craig will continue to support The Isles and is in regular contacts with all the senior team. This is just the beginning of the Journey for The Isles so watch this space…..
