Loaded with Ideas! How Isle of Ely Produce open day inspired us

Loaded with Ideas!

How Isle of Ely Produce open day inspired us

By Deryn Regan So for as long as i can remember i’ve always known fish and chips, spending most my weekends with my Grandad wherever we went Chippy fare was the food we ate. The two life lessons he always taught me was to know where the best chippy was and to leave enough room for pudding! So that being said; fish & chips, steak puddings, peas, gravy and curry sauce have been a staple diet for me and my family. So in 2018 when we sadly lost him, it was only right that we uprooted everything we knew and bought the local corner chippy!

The journey we have been through to come to the shop we are now is nothing but a miracle. Just me (deryn) and mum (lesley) to begin a two man band. I had experience in chippy working from 17 and mum non whats so ever and even refusing to come to serve customers - that soon changed. We knew nothing of the trade and learnt as we went. From a tiny potato preparation area to which more than once we forgot to shut the hatch and got battered by flying muddy potatoes; to a full room dedicated room. A cramped little two pan range counter that made things very difficult to serve crashing and bumping into each other to our lovely full length sized wall range and a full shop refurb!

It’s been 4 years of laughter, crying, hell and heaven all wrapped up in one big fish and chip box and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Our team continues to adapt and change over the years now being a team of 9 helping us develop and grow our business daily. We are all passionate and always keen to learn and improve and along the way have a lot of fun! We recently visited the Isle of Ely Produce open day, myself (deryn) and our long serving team member Kirsty. Kirsty came to our team during the pandemic and she is now like our right arm. She listens to us moan, cry, laugh, tantrum. How she deals with us I don’t know. Kirsty took over our potato preparation to relieve some of the stress from us trying to manage everything so it was only right she came along. What a day we had - from the free samples and Kirsty showing how she can carry a bag of spuds, to taste testing, learning all about how potatoes grow and what

the weather has done to impact this year’s yield. We also learnt so much from all our guest speakers. We came out and our heads were spinning - 3 and half hours drive home that evening allowed us to plan and brainstorm ideas alot!

One idea was how loaded fries has become a new craze of the uk. We loved this idea, pulled pork & brisket, salt/ chilli chicken and bacon/bbq loaded were the ideas we came up with. Then the fun bit is sampling and finding that product that tastes delicious. So here’s us launching these delicious loaded chips on a Thursday. Only ordered a small amount of all the toppings thinking ‘may be a slow starter’.... yep , i was wrong. They went crazy for them in our local town. After one evening shift we had sold out! Im think uh oh - Friday tomorrow is even busier and I’ve not got enough for this. Poor dads sent off to every local warehouse to try to get stock and shipped to the other side of Manchester to get more ( a good 45 min drive each way). What a success these are and continue to be.

The community and support around the fish and chips world is amazing and without these open days, training and advice from other shops I wouldn’t be in this position today. I’m proud to be part of Fish & chips and hope it continues for a long time.

Did you implement any ideas from the IOE Open Day? Email austen@chippychat.co.uk