Switching careers from beauty therapy to working as a fishmonger might sound like an unlikely leap. But for Anne Stephens, her training still comes in handy.
“The pin boning is just like doing eyebrows to be quite honest,” laughs the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Young Fishmonger of the Year – who is also the first female to take the title.
What might be even more surprising is that until she joined her husband George in the business, she didn’t even eat fish. Yet, Anne has been instrumental in developing The Fish Market – which has three stores in Mullingar, Maynooth and Dublin – including developing their added-value line aimed at busy families, which has driven sales by 15%.
Originally from Drogheda, Anne explains how she had worked in hospitality after school before returning to college to train as a beauty therapist.
“I would have met George then,” she says of her now husband, a chef who worked in leading hotels and restaurants, including Sheen Falls, The Red Bank and L’Ecrivain, specialising in fish.
Given the unsociable hours in the restaurant business, however, the couple decided to move to George’s native Mullingar to set up their own business in 2008.
Though their decision to open a fishmonger’s did raise a few brows, Anne admits.
“People thought we were mad first of all, trying to sell fish in the midlands,” she recalls. “There was no water around us – what were we doing opening a fish shop?”
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win the award. \ Claire-Jeanne Nash
What gave The Fish Market a unique selling point, however, was the fact that, as a chef, George was able to advise his customers on how to cook the produce.
“That got around very quick,” says Anne. “Fish is a thing people are afraid of to cook, because you either think it’s like meat and you have to cook it for 20 minutes or half an hour or people think the bones, and they don’t know what to do with it. It daunts a lot of people.”
At this stage, Anne was still pursuing her own career, but as the recession made it difficult to find a job in the beauty industry, she returned to hospitality, first waitressing, then running the catering and cleaning department in a private hospital. Besides, at that stage, she was still averse to the notion of even eating fish.
“I wouldn’t go near it!” she exclaims, explaining that she had been put off by heavily smoked fish as a child.
“So I think I was one of those people I now hate that say: ‘I don’t like fish,’” she laughs, “but they don’t try it properly enough to know.”
With a little encouragement, however, Anne soon discovered a palate – and a passion – for fish, and when the opportunity arose to take redundancy, she decided to come on board full-time five years ago when they opened their second shop in Maynooth.
With the exception of a two-day filleting course, however, Anne trained herself by watching George and the other fishmongers at work – and trial and error.
“Filleting, you just don’t want to only come out with half of what you’re supposed to end up with and lose the business money,” she says of the precision involved.
“When I’m training staff in now, that’s their biggest fear: ‘How much did this cost you before I put my knife in and fillet it?’ Because you do have to get it close enough to the bone or you’re losing.”
With her attention to detail from her beautician days, Anne soon proved a dab hand at preparing even the more challenging fish, like turbot, brill and John Dory.
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win pictured at her shop - THE FISH MARKET in Mullingar. \Claire-Jeanne Nash
“I get pleasure out of filleting flat fish because you can just see how clean you’ve gotten it,” she says, with some satisfaction.
But what proved a game-changer for Anne – and The Fish Market – was the opportunity to travel to Holland with BIM on a fact-finding mission to see what fishmongers were offering there, with her interest particularly piqued by the value-added, ready-to-cook offerings, from stuffed seabass to marinades, stir fries, pies and curries.
“My mind was racing,” recalls Anne. “I couldn’t wait to get home and try the things and see what I could do.”
Not that launching a new product line was without its challenges, with Anne doing everything from cooking up monkfish curries in store to giving away free samples to promote it.
“What actually started that move was I would say: ‘Here you go Mary, bring that home and try it.’ Because after a week I was throwing stuff out and thinking: ‘This isn’t going to work.’ And then I said: ‘Well hang on a minute, I have to educate my customers and let them see that this is not a week-old piece of salmon I’m trying to give them disguised in sauce. It’s fresh, it’s just a different way of doing it,’” she explains.
“I had to give out a lot of free to get it back; and that’s what it takes.”
Today, however, the value-added, convenience range makes up 50% of their sales, and has seen profits increase in store by 15%.
Moreover, George and Anne have also extended their offering in their Dublin and Mullingar shops with a takeaway – though with a difference. The menu includes dishes like red Thai monkfish and tiger prawn curry, seafood linguini, fish tacos, chowder and pan-fried salmon, hake or seabass with seasonal green veg, sauté potatoes and chorizo, alongside the traditional fish and chips.
And this ambition and innovation was recognised when Anne was named the BIM Young Fishmonger of the Year for 2018, after a rigorous assessment over nine months.
“It was like having a baby,” jokes Anne, who explains that the process included a series of in-store visits from “secret shoppers” and judges before a final interview and practical skills test in Clonakilty.
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win pictured at her shop - THE FISH MARKET in Mullingar. \Claire-Jeanne Nash
“They give you so many species to fillet in a time frame; skin them, portion them, we had to shook oysters, we had to peel prawns – we had to do them all within 30 minutes,” says Anne, who describes the win as one of the proudest moments of her life.
“Apart from my children, it’s the best thing I’ve ever achieved in my life,” she says simply.
“I went on a course and I did the basics, but a lot of it is self-taught and having to learn to do things yourself and pushing and pushing and pushing and I suppose because it’s your own business, you have that extra drive. It just feels so good then to have someone turn around and say: ‘Well done, you’re the best in Ireland and, by the way, you’re the first woman to ever do it.’ Wow.”
And the latter is significant for Anne, who says that she has encountered sexism as a woman in the industry, especially in the early days of her career.
“I mean, I’ve blatantly had people tell me: ‘I’ll wait for the man, thank you,’” she cites as one example. “And the man that they were waiting for was trained in by me!”
And with 13 staff now employed between the three shops, The Fish Market is growing – as is their family, with daughter Louise (eight) and son George (five) due to be joined by a baby brother or sister next February.
“I’m very lucky because with all three of them, I didn’t have morning sickness,” says Anne, who despite her managerial role, is happiest working at the fish counter, sharing her passion for her produce with her customers.
And so, what’s the Young Fishmonger of the Year’s top tip?
“If I had to tell them anything,” she smiles, “it’s that doesn’t take a half an hour to cook a piece of fish!”
For further information, find The Fish Market on Facebook.
Read more
Neven Maguire's meals for lazy summer days
Neven Maguire's fast and fabulous fishy feast
Switching careers from beauty therapy to working as a fishmonger might sound like an unlikely leap. But for Anne Stephens, her training still comes in handy.
“The pin boning is just like doing eyebrows to be quite honest,” laughs the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Young Fishmonger of the Year – who is also the first female to take the title.
What might be even more surprising is that until she joined her husband George in the business, she didn’t even eat fish. Yet, Anne has been instrumental in developing The Fish Market – which has three stores in Mullingar, Maynooth and Dublin – including developing their added-value line aimed at busy families, which has driven sales by 15%.
Originally from Drogheda, Anne explains how she had worked in hospitality after school before returning to college to train as a beauty therapist.
“I would have met George then,” she says of her now husband, a chef who worked in leading hotels and restaurants, including Sheen Falls, The Red Bank and L’Ecrivain, specialising in fish.
Given the unsociable hours in the restaurant business, however, the couple decided to move to George’s native Mullingar to set up their own business in 2008.
Though their decision to open a fishmonger’s did raise a few brows, Anne admits.
“People thought we were mad first of all, trying to sell fish in the midlands,” she recalls. “There was no water around us – what were we doing opening a fish shop?”
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win the award. \ Claire-Jeanne Nash
What gave The Fish Market a unique selling point, however, was the fact that, as a chef, George was able to advise his customers on how to cook the produce.
“That got around very quick,” says Anne. “Fish is a thing people are afraid of to cook, because you either think it’s like meat and you have to cook it for 20 minutes or half an hour or people think the bones, and they don’t know what to do with it. It daunts a lot of people.”
At this stage, Anne was still pursuing her own career, but as the recession made it difficult to find a job in the beauty industry, she returned to hospitality, first waitressing, then running the catering and cleaning department in a private hospital. Besides, at that stage, she was still averse to the notion of even eating fish.
“I wouldn’t go near it!” she exclaims, explaining that she had been put off by heavily smoked fish as a child.
“So I think I was one of those people I now hate that say: ‘I don’t like fish,’” she laughs, “but they don’t try it properly enough to know.”
With a little encouragement, however, Anne soon discovered a palate – and a passion – for fish, and when the opportunity arose to take redundancy, she decided to come on board full-time five years ago when they opened their second shop in Maynooth.
With the exception of a two-day filleting course, however, Anne trained herself by watching George and the other fishmongers at work – and trial and error.
“Filleting, you just don’t want to only come out with half of what you’re supposed to end up with and lose the business money,” she says of the precision involved.
“When I’m training staff in now, that’s their biggest fear: ‘How much did this cost you before I put my knife in and fillet it?’ Because you do have to get it close enough to the bone or you’re losing.”
With her attention to detail from her beautician days, Anne soon proved a dab hand at preparing even the more challenging fish, like turbot, brill and John Dory.
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win pictured at her shop - THE FISH MARKET in Mullingar. \Claire-Jeanne Nash
“I get pleasure out of filleting flat fish because you can just see how clean you’ve gotten it,” she says, with some satisfaction.
But what proved a game-changer for Anne – and The Fish Market – was the opportunity to travel to Holland with BIM on a fact-finding mission to see what fishmongers were offering there, with her interest particularly piqued by the value-added, ready-to-cook offerings, from stuffed seabass to marinades, stir fries, pies and curries.
“My mind was racing,” recalls Anne. “I couldn’t wait to get home and try the things and see what I could do.”
Not that launching a new product line was without its challenges, with Anne doing everything from cooking up monkfish curries in store to giving away free samples to promote it.
“What actually started that move was I would say: ‘Here you go Mary, bring that home and try it.’ Because after a week I was throwing stuff out and thinking: ‘This isn’t going to work.’ And then I said: ‘Well hang on a minute, I have to educate my customers and let them see that this is not a week-old piece of salmon I’m trying to give them disguised in sauce. It’s fresh, it’s just a different way of doing it,’” she explains.
“I had to give out a lot of free to get it back; and that’s what it takes.”
Today, however, the value-added, convenience range makes up 50% of their sales, and has seen profits increase in store by 15%.
Moreover, George and Anne have also extended their offering in their Dublin and Mullingar shops with a takeaway – though with a difference. The menu includes dishes like red Thai monkfish and tiger prawn curry, seafood linguini, fish tacos, chowder and pan-fried salmon, hake or seabass with seasonal green veg, sauté potatoes and chorizo, alongside the traditional fish and chips.
And this ambition and innovation was recognised when Anne was named the BIM Young Fishmonger of the Year for 2018, after a rigorous assessment over nine months.
“It was like having a baby,” jokes Anne, who explains that the process included a series of in-store visits from “secret shoppers” and judges before a final interview and practical skills test in Clonakilty.
Anne Stephens is the young fishmonger of the year and the first female to win pictured at her shop - THE FISH MARKET in Mullingar. \Claire-Jeanne Nash
“They give you so many species to fillet in a time frame; skin them, portion them, we had to shook oysters, we had to peel prawns – we had to do them all within 30 minutes,” says Anne, who describes the win as one of the proudest moments of her life.
“Apart from my children, it’s the best thing I’ve ever achieved in my life,” she says simply.
“I went on a course and I did the basics, but a lot of it is self-taught and having to learn to do things yourself and pushing and pushing and pushing and I suppose because it’s your own business, you have that extra drive. It just feels so good then to have someone turn around and say: ‘Well done, you’re the best in Ireland and, by the way, you’re the first woman to ever do it.’ Wow.”
And the latter is significant for Anne, who says that she has encountered sexism as a woman in the industry, especially in the early days of her career.
“I mean, I’ve blatantly had people tell me: ‘I’ll wait for the man, thank you,’” she cites as one example. “And the man that they were waiting for was trained in by me!”
And with 13 staff now employed between the three shops, The Fish Market is growing – as is their family, with daughter Louise (eight) and son George (five) due to be joined by a baby brother or sister next February.
“I’m very lucky because with all three of them, I didn’t have morning sickness,” says Anne, who despite her managerial role, is happiest working at the fish counter, sharing her passion for her produce with her customers.
And so, what’s the Young Fishmonger of the Year’s top tip?
“If I had to tell them anything,” she smiles, “it’s that doesn’t take a half an hour to cook a piece of fish!”
For further information, find The Fish Market on Facebook.
Read more
Neven Maguire's meals for lazy summer days
Neven Maguire's fast and fabulous fishy feast
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