A sixth generation fishing family from Ayrshire will shine a spotlight on Scottish seafood as they share the screen with celebrity chef collective The Hairy Bikers in a new series.
Troon’s Spes Bona Superior Seafood, run by brothers Donald and Robin Gibson, will feature alongside Si King and Dave Myers in their new BBC Two series The Hairy Bikers Go Local, which hits screens across the country tonight.
Much-loved duo Si and Dave are once again cooking up mouth-watering delights in top restaurants in the UK, but not before being introduced to local suppliers, including Troon’s Spes Bona.
The fishing firm have waited patiently for over a year and a half to see what Si and Dave create with their catch as filming took place in May 2021.
Dad-of-three skipper Donald, who has worked in the industry for over 30 years, said: “We got a phone call out of the blue and I thought it was a customer so I was asking them what they wanted.
“They said ‘no it’s for a TV show, we’re looking to get some guys out on your boat’.
“I asked what TV show it was and the producer said ‘you might have heard of them, it’s The Hairy Bikers’. I said ‘oh we love the Hairy Bikers!’
“It was under Covid regulations so we had to do a lot of filming outside.
“They were really, really nice guys. Just totally what you hoped they would be like.
“Si and Dave rolled up and said ‘hello boys, you must be Donald and Robin’, and I said to Si King, ‘Oh you guys are great - you and Dave are my wife and I’s favourite TV celebrity chefs’.
“And Si said: ‘Donald I’m going to stop you there right now - see all that celebrity stuff I’m no interested in it. I’m just a guy who works on the TV.’
“So they were great, absolutely brilliant.”
Spes Bona’s appearance - which sees The Hairy Bikers out trawling with Donald and Robin before taking their catch to a Glasgow restaurant to create a dish - discusses sustainable fishing in the Clyde and Spes Bona’s low carbon footprint model.
Due to Covid, Spes Bona - who supply to Seamill Hydro and various other hotels and restaurants around Ayrshire and Glasgow - now sell a lot of their haul directly to customers either quayside or via their travelling seafood van, which pitches up at spots across Ayrshire.
Donald said: “While we’ve had a family fishing business for generations, we would never have sold our stuff at the quayside if it hadn’t been for Covid, because we lost all our markets.
“We were tied up for 11 weeks and had to do something.
“We still sell a good percentage to the wholesalers but we do sell a lot more ourselves now.
“When we’re selling direct to customers our carbon footprint is the lowest of any protein that’s available.
“There’s no packaging and no road transport; it’s been caught at sea, straight to the harbour and into people’s bags which they’ve brought down, and that’s it.
“Everybody likes the provenance of where their stuff is coming from. All the stuff we sell we can say exactly where we caught it and at the depth of water that we caught it.
“We talk quite a bit about that sustainability in the Clyde in the programme.
“Back in the nineties in the whole Clyde area there’d be about 100 trawlers and now there’s probably 25, so it can’t help but be more sustainable.”
Catch Spes Bona on The Hairy Bikers Go Local tonight at 8pm on BBC Two.
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