Thanks to French founders network, we had the pleasure of meeting Stéphanie Fels, a bootstrapping self-employed entrepreneur Blue Bay Reservean artisan brand of premium canned fish that recently won the coveted Good Food Award.

Raised in a multicultural family between her parents’ native countries of France and Ecuador, Stephanie Fels created Blue Bay Reserve bringing the quality and culture of canned fish she grew up with in Europe to the United States, producing these canned delights domestically and adhering to responsible aquaculture and sustainable production practices.

“In Europe, in countries like France, Spain or Portugal, there is a real culture of consuming canned fish in a convivial way, which I strongly wanted to develop in the United States. The idea for Blue Cove came to me during one of my regular family visits to France. We opened high-quality fish preserves and served them with fine cured meats and cheeses. I realized that this culinary tradition didn’t really exist in the United States, and there weren’t any high-quality options here either.”

From FinTech to canned fish

After a 15-year FinTech career in New York, the French-Ecuadorian decided to pursue her passion by launching one of the first artisanal premium canned fish brands in the United States. The growing popularity of “gourmet” canned fish and the lack of supply in this product category on the American market created an ideal opportunity for Stéphanie.

“Until now, canned fish has been marketed primarily to the low- and mid-range of the U.S. market, so I wanted to create a brand made with premium fish like cod, sea bass, sea bass or halibut.”

During the pandemic lockdown, while many Americans experimented with sourdough bread recipes at home, Stephanie tested her seafood recipes in her New York kitchen using a pressure cooker and underwent a fruit safety certification program of sea.

In September 2023, he took the plunge and launched Blue Cove Preserves right in the middle of the growing canned fish craze. At the time, The New York Times dedicated a cookbook to this emerging trend titled “The Magic of Canned Fish.” The beginning of a beautiful success story for Stephanie.

A commitment to sustainability

Instead of outsourcing production overseas, as many American canned fish companies do, Stephanie partnered with an American cannery to produce the country’s only canned sea bass.

To overcome the stigma of farmed versus wild-caught fish, Stephanie partners with a farm in Connecticut that uses eco-friendly processes, such as closed-loop aquaculture technology, ensuring fish are free of hormones, GMOs and chemicals .

“We source primarily locally in the United States and use artisanal techniques to cook the fish. Our chef cooks the fish sauces manually. The only automated process we use with a machine is to seal the cans and heat them in a pressurized environment,” explains Stéphanie.

Following strict sustainability requirements, Blue Cove Preserves products have received a green rating from Monterey Seafood Watch, the authority in the United States for the environmental certification of marine products.

The products are packaged in zero waste packaging. The cans are made of aluminium, a highly recyclable material, and the cardboard boxes are FSC certified and recyclable.

Their closed-loop production system also ensures optimal waste management from all forms of seafood production.

Winner of the Good Food Award

Blue Bay Reservewas just awarded the Good Food Award, a recognition that celebrates brands that produce food responsibly in the United States, focusing on the organic origin of the products: a delicious victory for Stephanie.

“I am very grateful to be among the winners of the Good Food Award in the first year of marketing the brand – it is an incredible honor,” says Stephanie Fels.

To win this award, products must be GMO-free, developed under rigorous animal husbandry standards (no artificial ingredients, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers), and manufactured locally in the United States.

In the canned fish category, particular attention is paid to nutritional quality, ensuring that the fish are fed with marine and plant sources. This award truly crowns the success and excellence of Blue Cove Preserves products.

Selective distribution

If the story of Blue Bay Reserve, whet your appetite, you can find cans of Blue Cove Preserve at one of forty retail locations in the region, including Good Eggs, gourmet food stores like Aurora Grocery Stores or Little Vine in San Francisco, or even at Four Barrel or The Mill . These delicate fish tins are also available in hotel minibars and winery bar tasting rooms.

After the success experienced during the first year of marketing (and e-commerce sales in over 25 US states), Stephanie now plans to expand the distribution of her products to other regions and even beyond the borders of the United States. She remains hopeful as new premium canned fish brands hit the market, saying “it’s a rising tide that lifts all boats.”

New horizons

To broaden her offering, Stephanie is working on launching new cod products and plans to collaborate with a Michelin-starred chef in the near future.

Separately, he invests as an angel investor in various projects, including Rise, a company that offers a blockchain-based payment solution to make it easier for independent workers to pay.

Recently settled in San Francisco, Stephanie envisions a long-term career transition into the heart of Silicon Valley’s disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence or quantum computing.

Nothing stops Stephanie in her pursuit of innovation and new challenges.

Find Blue Cove Preserves products at https://bluecovefish.com/ AND https://www.instagram.com/bluecovefish/

This meeting was possible thanks to French foundersthe French-speaking international commercial network. Are you an entrepreneur, investor or business leader interested in joining a business club? Get in touch with Frenchfounders through San Francisco-based Clara Bousquet (c.bousquet@frenchfounders.com).

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