Millers’ Abigail Barker commended at Fish and Chip Awards

Millers Fish and Chips in Haxby is celebrating being recognised as amongst the best in the industry at the National Fish and Chip Awards – a ceremony held on Wednesday, February 25, which aims to celebrate fish friers across the nation.

At the event, owner David Miller was presented with the Outstanding Contribution prize and fish fryer Abigail Barker was highly commended – a category created just for her – as Young Fish Fryer of the Year.

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David said: “We went to London for the awards and it was just really just to support Abby, because she’s got through to the finals again for the second year – which is really good going, especially because she’d only been with us six months when she went for it last time.

“The award for Young Fish Fryer is really in depth – there’s written programmes, then they go through online interviews with all technical questions. After that, they’re in the shop with the judges for about six hours – they show them around, then they’ve got to cook five lots of fish and chips and each one has to be exactly the same.

“There’s a lot of pressure there for somebody who’s under 25, so we wanted to be there to support her. It’s the award before the takeaway of the year, which is the big one, so there’s a lot of tension building in the room.  It’s just as important in my opinion as it celebrates the new talent coming through.”

David explained that, as well as going for the award, the family had decided to make Abby back of house manager at 21 – a role which she had thrived in so far.

He said: “She’s an absolute grafter. She’s taken this role by the scruff of the neck and really made it her own – she’s taken her own course, made training plans for the staff, as well as going for this award.

“Her review came back for the fish fryer of the year and you could see she’s only just missed out – most of the stuff she got 100% on – and that’s why they decided to do a runner up. She’s going to go for it again next year too and she’ll be hot favourite.”