From salt marsh samphire and sea dulce to the vivid green spears of New Forest asparagus, Hayley Elston takes inspiration from the freshest seasonal ingredients to shape her fabulously funky fishcakes.
A world away from bland and boring, the Fabulous Catch Company’s award-winning fishcakes make the most of classic ingredient pairings – there's mackerel, beetroot and horseradish; flaky white fish, asparagus, white truffle and parmesan; and crab with leeks, lemon juice and a smattering of chilli.
On a mission to boost the declining British fish industry and create a ‘sustainable revolution’, Hayley sources fish as locally as possible, supporting sustainable, and often small fleet fishing. Other ingredients are bought from local growers and producers wherever possible.
And it’s Hayley’s delicious crab cake that has taken her business – and her mission – to the next level.
First created in 2012 to help a group of fishermen on the Isle of Wight sell their unwanted brown crab meat, Hayley's crab cakes are now available across the country thanks to a game-changing TV competition.
The self-styled Codmother of the fishcake business beat hundreds of other hopefuls – including rapper Stormzy’s personal chef – to win Aldi’s Next Big Thing, a Channel 4 competition that gives small food businesses the chance to compete for a coveted contract to stock Aldi stores nationwide.
A new iteration of the original zero-waste Crabbie Crab cake, the Crabulous Crab cake was created especially for Aldi in response to their request for Hayley to scale up her product while retaining flavour and consistency.
She took on board feedback and wowed with her revised crab cakes, which delighted judges with their texture and flavour, winning the Fabulous Catch Company an order to supply Aldi with 60,000 units that would be rolled out across 960 stores.
Hayley admits it wasn’t ever her grand plan to run a fish factory, even though the keen foodie – who won her first cookery competition aged 11 – has spent a lifetime in food.
Following a long career as a Food Projects Consultant, Hayley started her ‘sustainable revolution’ on the Isle of Wight, after helping a group of local fishermen set up the Yarmouth Fishermen’s Association, now the Needles Fishermen’s Co-op.
'I encouraged them to fish as much as there was available,' she said. 'I told them, if we can’t sell it, what can we turn it into? Fishcakes!
'One of the fishermen, who now has a fishcake named after him – the Smokey Bill – said, if you’re so clever why don’t you do it? So I said I would!'
Hayley used the kitchens of the office where she was based to set to work.
'One of the fishermen’s biggest areas of waste was brown crab meat,' she says. 'Everyone wants picked white crab meat, but brown crab has much more flavour, so we developed what was the beginnings of our crab cake.
'We also made a crab pasty and a crab bisque with the shells, and a white fishcake. We took our products across the water to the farmers markets in Fareham where they were an instant hit. We couldn’t make enough.'
Hayley also created the now legendary Fabulous Festival Fishy Finger Sandwich for Camp Bestival, made entirely from the catch of the Needles Fishermen’s Co-op.
The runaway success of her products meant Hayley could no longer sustain two jobs, and so the Fabulous Catch Company was born.
'I had a meeting with the fishermen and told them it was a business that could run, and I said I wanted to set up that business and buy their fish.
'That’s how it started, and it went on from there. We moved off the island at the end of 2016 to the New Forest and have grown steadily since.'
The Fabulous Catch Company now offers a range of award-winning gourmet, hand-mixed fishcakes, with seasonal specials and a vegan, gluten-free Seacake, made with seaweed, samphire, capers, sea dulce, sea spaghetti, kelp, peas and lemon to give a real belt of the sea with no fish.
Other seasonal products include patés and soups, and a range of wild game dishes created by Hayley’s business partner, three-time Michelin star chef, Herbert Berger, who sources venison and game birds from local gamekeepers during the season.
Herbert has been involved in The Fabulous Catch Company since 2016. 'I love big bold colourful food, and Herbert is all about precision, so he brings control to the recipes,' says Hayley.
'He uses amazing flavour combinations to create unique gourmet products that taste sensational.'
Faced with all that fish, you might think Hayley has got bored of fishcakes – but not a bit of it. And she’s delighted that Aldi’s Next Big Thing has given her the opportunity to spread the word further.
'We already sell online from our website, in prestigious farm shops and busy farmers’ markets, and our fishcakes are served across the south in gastro pubs, garden centres and restaurants.
'And now I’m thrilled that even more people will be able to discover what we do, thanks to Aldi.
'Our original crab cake is very rich, so what we have made for the supermarket is much more accessible. This will introduce people to crab who might have never tried it before without it being too overwhelming.
'We’ve brought citrus into it, potatoes, chilli, leeks and parsley with a lovely crispy crumb, and I am delighted with the finished product.
'You need to love the food you produce, and I’ve always liked a fishcake.
'This is just as much of a passion for me today as it was at the beginning: creating the finest handmade sustainable UK produce possible, and making your tastebuds happy!'
