Michelin star restaurants and MasterChef winners: Inside Luca Bish’s family fish business

The man sells fish!!

2 years ago | UPDATED 2 years ago

Love Island 2022

When you think of Luca Bish, you know the man sells fish. Whether it was Ian Stirling constantly telling us every night for two months or the questionable fish shoes he walked about the villa in, the 23-year-old Love Island runner-up was our resident fishmonger.

You just can’t question the man’s loyalty to fish. Despite leaving his fishmonger days behind him he’s since started his own YouTube channel, Bish n Chips.

We’ve heard so much about him being a fishmonger but not a lot about the Bish’s family fish business. Here’s a look inside the boujie life of being one of Brighton’s fanciest fish businesses:

Luca worked as one of 18 employees at his family’s business

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MCB Seafoods | Fish Supplier (@mcbseafoods)

Luca’s family business, MCB Seafoods is over 25 years old and employs 18 people. And when we say family business, we mean it. The names of people involved from directors to administration are all Bish’s. From the looks of it, the uncles, brothers, sisters, nans and the nan’s cat are all involved.

The business is pretty straightforward. It acts as the middleman between local fishermen and high-end restaurants and customers, but it seems to be working well for the Bish’s. Not only can you buy the standard salmon fillet or bit of cod, the company also extends its products into the far more luxury range. You can get your hands on a Canadian lobster for £55, or even caviar and local Sussex truffles, indicating this is definitely not your average fishmongers.

They own lifetime seats at a football club

One of the company’s intangible assets are debenture football tickets worth £4,000. Now we presume this is strictly for business meetings only, but any local fishmonger that can take business associates to football games for free is doing well in any small company’s books.

MCB Seafoods has £1.6 million in assets

According to its most recently published balance sheet from the 31st of December last year, the company has £1.6 million in assets. At the time, the company was owed over £1 million by its customers. However alongside this ,the business also owed £1.3 million to its creditors.

They supply MasterChef champion Steven Edwards

Steven Edwards won the sixth series of MasterChef: The Professionals in 2013 at the age of 26. He has since founded the restaurant etch., which opened in 2017 in Hove. The restaurant currently holds a Michelin Plate, five Good Food Guide awards and three AA Rosettes, and the Bish’s supply this incredible restaurant.

In an article for SussexWorld, Edwards personally mentioned the Bish family business, saying: “[They] always supply us with not only the freshest fish from the South Coast but plenty of lesser-known varieties to.” Not a bad mention from a chef who’s had compliments from the famous Michel Roux Jr.

The business has also supplied a Michelin star restaurant

Tristan was a modern British restaurant with a French twist, which held not only three Rosettes but also a Michelin star since 2013, holding it for an impressive 11 years. Chef, Tristan Mason, revealed: “Only top-quality fresh fish will do for me, and MCB consistently deliver it”. While the restaurant announced its closing this year, we can only hope this wasn’t due to Bish’s fishes.

They’re committed to sustainability

MCB Seafood’s website says “sustainability is at the core” of its approach and it’s “committed to sourcing all food responsibly”.

It’s also helped support Sussex Uni grad, Lucy Hughes, who created a plastic alternative from fish off-cuts. The product which is called MarinaTex won the James Dyson Award in 2019. MCB Seafoods gave Lucy a tour of its plant as part of her research. Probably why Luca waited until Love Island changed to eBay over PLT before he went on it x.