Many years ago, in 1988 to be precise, she spotted an opportunity that no one seemed to be servicing, so she contacted several food companies and started 'The Flying Fish Company'.
She sold Scottish Smoked Salmon, Smoked Cornish Trout, Smoked Eel products from Suffolk, this was supplied by the very last British Eel man, Derek Beale.. yes, she stocked Beale's Eels. Sevruga, Beluga and Oscietra Iranian Caviar. Millers Damsels discuits and made fresh buckwheat Blinis to order.
Three wonderfully generous friends in the city opened up their address books and she was off and running! If you ordered before 10.30am, she would deliver by hand within Central London the same day and clients knew that they could call her up to 6pm and ask her what she had in the fridge, they had until 7.30pm to collect it on their way home.
If clients wanted a large amount of anything, they had to give a couple of days notice and for alcohol, she did a tie-in with Krug, the Champagne house and let's just say, both companies were very happy with the arrangement!
She catered drinks parties and greatly enjoyed making fresh blinis in the charming home belonging to 'Willy' Purves, better known as Sir William Purves, the first group chairman of the HSBC holding company, for his 70th birthday.
Mail Order? Certainly! Michael and Gretchen (Misick) were dear friends and huge fans of her smoked salmon, they had a monthly order which meant that she sent lots of sides of Smoked Salmon to their friends and colleagues in Bermuda for Christmas presents.
No problem, how many sides would you like, or would you like it sliced and vacuum packed? Cape Town? Certainly sir, it will be on tomorrow's evening BA flight. Once you had given her all the details and paid her, she would send products around the world as gifts and the guys in the city were thrilled! As were their secretaries!
Caviar? She still has clients who have a standing order for two 250g tins of Oscietra to be mailed at Christmas. She has never met them, but like a lot of other people, they came to her through word of mouth, the very best way for a company to grow! But times change, the supermarkets started selling Smoked Salmon and she started working full time for the Savoy Group.. and so she brought her Flying Fish down to earth.
Today she was given a quarter side of Smoked Salmon as a gift and it brought back such memories! Of lovely customers, of all those happy parties she catered with Krug and with Pauline Smith, a sweet friend who acted as her waitress, of all those fabulous suppliers and their fantastic foods.
When she got home from the market, she had gone to get fruit and carrots, she dived into a drawer she hasn't opened for months and pulled out a long thing wrapped up in a cloth, I wondered what it was and squeaked at her.
"It's my Salmon knife GeeGee, it takes a very sharp knife to cut salmon properly and this one is as sharp as paper!" She took out her steel and flashed it back and forth on the knife a few times. And cut herself three slices of this glorious fish. She laid the slices onto a plate and crunched some sea salt and fresh pepper over them with a squeeze of lemon.
"Ah, GeeGee, it's good, nicely cured and smoked, what a lovely gift, I must send her a card to say 'Thank You' on Monday".
But you, Dear Readers, are still pondering the title of this post, are you not! Well, you see, you cut Smoked Salmon in two ways, there is the Long Cut which is when the slices are as thin as tissue paper, they are cut down the length of the side, so they are very long.. hence the name Long Cut.
And then there is the D cut, the fish is cut much thicker, shorter (and it is easier to cut).. in the shape of a capital D, she cuts Long Cuts, 'cos after all these years, she can still 'cut' it!
GeeGee Parrot.
December 3rd, 2016.
She sold Scottish Smoked Salmon, Smoked Cornish Trout, Smoked Eel products from Suffolk, this was supplied by the very last British Eel man, Derek Beale.. yes, she stocked Beale's Eels. Sevruga, Beluga and Oscietra Iranian Caviar. Millers Damsels discuits and made fresh buckwheat Blinis to order.
Three wonderfully generous friends in the city opened up their address books and she was off and running! If you ordered before 10.30am, she would deliver by hand within Central London the same day and clients knew that they could call her up to 6pm and ask her what she had in the fridge, they had until 7.30pm to collect it on their way home.
If clients wanted a large amount of anything, they had to give a couple of days notice and for alcohol, she did a tie-in with Krug, the Champagne house and let's just say, both companies were very happy with the arrangement!
She catered drinks parties and greatly enjoyed making fresh blinis in the charming home belonging to 'Willy' Purves, better known as Sir William Purves, the first group chairman of the HSBC holding company, for his 70th birthday.
Mail Order? Certainly! Michael and Gretchen (Misick) were dear friends and huge fans of her smoked salmon, they had a monthly order which meant that she sent lots of sides of Smoked Salmon to their friends and colleagues in Bermuda for Christmas presents.
No problem, how many sides would you like, or would you like it sliced and vacuum packed? Cape Town? Certainly sir, it will be on tomorrow's evening BA flight. Once you had given her all the details and paid her, she would send products around the world as gifts and the guys in the city were thrilled! As were their secretaries!
Caviar? She still has clients who have a standing order for two 250g tins of Oscietra to be mailed at Christmas. She has never met them, but like a lot of other people, they came to her through word of mouth, the very best way for a company to grow! But times change, the supermarkets started selling Smoked Salmon and she started working full time for the Savoy Group.. and so she brought her Flying Fish down to earth.
Today she was given a quarter side of Smoked Salmon as a gift and it brought back such memories! Of lovely customers, of all those happy parties she catered with Krug and with Pauline Smith, a sweet friend who acted as her waitress, of all those fabulous suppliers and their fantastic foods.
When she got home from the market, she had gone to get fruit and carrots, she dived into a drawer she hasn't opened for months and pulled out a long thing wrapped up in a cloth, I wondered what it was and squeaked at her.
"It's my Salmon knife GeeGee, it takes a very sharp knife to cut salmon properly and this one is as sharp as paper!" She took out her steel and flashed it back and forth on the knife a few times. And cut herself three slices of this glorious fish. She laid the slices onto a plate and crunched some sea salt and fresh pepper over them with a squeeze of lemon.
"Ah, GeeGee, it's good, nicely cured and smoked, what a lovely gift, I must send her a card to say 'Thank You' on Monday".
But you, Dear Readers, are still pondering the title of this post, are you not! Well, you see, you cut Smoked Salmon in two ways, there is the Long Cut which is when the slices are as thin as tissue paper, they are cut down the length of the side, so they are very long.. hence the name Long Cut.
And then there is the D cut, the fish is cut much thicker, shorter (and it is easier to cut).. in the shape of a capital D, she cuts Long Cuts, 'cos after all these years, she can still 'cut' it!
GeeGee Parrot.
December 3rd, 2016.
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