Have you ever wondered why the fish you find in supermarkets always come from Norway, or Iceland, or China when we live on an island with fish swimming all around us? Well founder of Conscious Food Co Jonny Burnett thought the same before he set about changing things.
Jonny started the Conscious Food Co in his own van during the COVID pandemic, delivering fish to locals of North Somerset once a week.
What started off as a simple weekend business though, has become a seafood sensation that delivers the highest quality of locally caught fish to more than 80 fine dining restaurants every single day.
Founder Jonny is a trained chef who’s worked in two Michelin star restaurants and cooked across Europe, his expertise on food and taste mean the Conscious Food Co is trusted to supply fish to the best restaurants across Bristol, Bath and North Somerset.
They deliver seafood produce every day to some of the highest rated eating experiences in the area, including the likes of Lido, Salt and Malt, Sonny Stores, Bianchi and more.
The key to being trusted by a plethora of fine dining establishments, says Jonny, is the freshness of the fish, something that makes a world of difference when it comes to the final taste of a dish.
He said: “I’m really proud that all our fish comes from Brixham fish market, and our shellfish supplier is a family business on the river Teign.
“Everyday at 3:00am someone goes down to Brixham market in our big van and we buy online in the auction there for the restaurants and also for our shop.
“Then we get back to the shop and we load up of fridge in the shop, so every single day we have a completely different selection of fish, it’s a massive variety, I’d say up to 20 different species each day.
“From oysters, mussels, scallops to wild sea bass, red mullet, or lemon sole the customers get to enjoy a huge variety of fish and it just shows the freshness of it, because we buy every single day straight off the boats the catch always changes.
“It means everything is cheaper, it’s fresher and it’s better.”
The Conscious Food Co opened up its new storefront located in Nailsea last June.
Stocking as many types of fish as possible every day, this shop has allowed locals constant access to the freshest seafood caught just down the road without having to pay extortionate restaurant prices.
Conscious food has also started producing their own recipes and ready meals that can be bought at the shop, so anyone can teach themselves to cook restaurant quality fish in their own home.
The proximity of the shopfront to the town’s high street also brings to light another benefit of Jonny’s business model, the environmental sustainability of it.
In 2022 the UK imported £3.6 billion worth of seafood, the equivalent of 1.2 million tonnes of food, on shipments from countries all over the globe, producing significant carbon emission.
Because Jonny and his team buy fresh from local fisher men, they keep their carbon footprint vastly smaller than the supermarkets due to the distance travelled and the mode of transport, but it also means that they waste less food and contribute far less to overfishing.
The lack of big boats and planes used as transport for the Conscious Food Co also means that both delivery and produce costs are kept to a minimum.
Jonny explained: “The UK’s an island and we’ve got supermarkets a few steps from us away selling fish from Greece, or Türkiye or Cyprus.
“And it just makes you think why? When it’s going to have been out for days and wrapped in plastic? There’s so much wonderful fish in the UK that we don’t need to do that.
“Most of that stuff is way more expensive, it’s pretty rubbish and it’s got a high food mileage after being flown over 2000 miles.
“The good thing about our fish is everything’s local, it’s from 90 miles down the M5 which I think is quite incredible and something I’m really proud of.”
The Conscious Fish Shop is open in Nailsea from Tuesday to Saturday for anyone keen to try some local seaside delicacies, whilst the Conscious Food Co website allows restaurants to get in touch and organise deliveries of fish to their door every single day.
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