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Daniel McCarthy of Star Seafoods in county Kerry tells of the changes he and colleagues had to implement this year because of Covid, and fast. His chef, Zbigniew Blaszchak also shares a couple of tasty seafood recipes for you to try this Christmas:
IT WAS SCARY, there’s no other word for it. When Covid-19 struck, most of the 350 hotels and restaurants we supply closed overnight, leaving our 40 staff and a fleet of delivery vans virtually idle.
Like so many businesses, we had to think and fast. It’s like being caught in a whirlwind when your long-established business base is gone, literally overnight.
We had already set up an online shopping facility but it was slow, so when Covid-19 shocked us to our shoelaces and we knew we were going to have to really get behind this, get the word out and got it organised and working well; online shopping was going to have to be our lifeline.
And so it has proved to be. So much in fact that we now deliver to homes throughout the country and have garnered a very loyal base of some 10,000 customers countrywide, for which we are eternally grateful.
Our fleet delivers salmon, hake, cod as well as crab, scallops and juicy prawns. Obviously, with most of the country in lockdown for a considerable time this year, the interest in home cooking grew, and with that the need to try new things, such as seafood.
Changing our model like this has saved us, to be honest, and in fact, it has given us a whole new business base. We’re delighted with how it’s going and the most important thing is that we are getting constant repeat custom.
From sea to door
Once the fish has landed it is brought straight to our state of the art factory in Kenmare where it is filleted, iced and packed and from there delivered in our special refrigerated vans for delivery.
If there is anything businesses have learned from 2020 it’s this – in order to survive we have had to reimagine, rejig and reinvent; Star Seafoods has done that and it’s working well.
We’re now on a mission to make fish eaters out of the Irish population; fish and seafood are so versatile, easy and fast to cook, full of goodness, it’s practically impossible to mess up – what’s not to love.
Our chef, Zbigniew Blaszchak is a great man for the scallops, he’d eat them for breakfast and has a lovely easy Scallop Gratin which could make a lovely elegant starter for Christmas Day perhaps, and for people on the go, there’s our Honey Roasted Salmon Baguette which you could eat for breakfast… our version of the ubiquitous breakfast roll. Zbigniew has shared his recipes below. Enjoy, and Happy Christmas to you all.
Ingredients
700 grams of scallops
1/2 cup white wine
20 grams of flour
20 grams of butter
1 cup liquid made up with the white wine (reserved from cooking) and 150ml cream
salt and pepper, to taste
2 slices of white bread
10 grams parsley
Method
Ingredients
Salmon Fillet 800g
Feta cheese 200g
Garlic butter 50g
Cheddar cheese 50g
Spinach 200g
Large baguette
Honey
Method
Zbigniew Blaszchak is chef and Daniel McCarthy is MD of Star Seafoods in Kenmare, Co Kerry. For more, see starseafoods.ie.
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An Post is great. My Polish friend had a letter delivered with just his name and the town on it, no street address. He still got it. Really friendly too in the offices. Big respect An Post.
It’s not the norm and I think anything that throws a curveball during your normal working day is a positive, mentally speaking.
The less curveballs the better.Most people just want to do their job and go home.
I like to have fun in work. I spend a third of the day there. I also make a really good bed. I spend another third of the day there. I like to treat myself, all the time.
The arrogance of this guy, thinking that An Post workers have nothing better to be doing than solving his indulgent puzzles just so he can blog about it & get some media attention.
Cheer up you grumpy ballocks! :D
I’d I’ve binned it.
People who do interesting or different things for fun are certainly a blight on our society.
I was able to solve that by looking at the thumbnail picture….
This will be how difficult it will be for everyone else to use Eircodes
When I worked for a call centre a number of years ago, a client decided to paint in oil pictures which had my address on them. I still have a few of them framed here. They are works of beauty. They were sent to me in Dublin, from addresses in Germany. Not puzzles, but little works of art.
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