Potato Works unveiled

The Fish Works has unveiled a new £25,000 dedicated potato prep room, taking a messy task out of the main shop while at the same time enhancing the customer experience, improving team wellbeing and strengthening ties with the local community

When Tiffany and Ross Irvin opened The Fish Works on the promenade in Largs, North Ayrshire in 2017, they did so with a promise to serve some of the very best fish and chips in Scotland. Eight years on, they have more than fulfilled that pledge.

Serving fresh, local Scottish ingredients and adding modern twists, such as bao buns and fish tacos, they have earned national recognition by climbing the UK rankings from third place in the Fish & Chip Takeaway of the Year Award in 2023 and 2024 to second in the UK in 2025.

Beyond the accolades, Tiffany and Ross have helped shape the wider industry, advising Public Health Scotland on how to make takeaways healthier, serving as spokespeople for sustainable seafood at Seafood from Norway events, and even seeing their business advertised at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium after winning a small business award.

Through it all, they’ve led a dedicated team united by one goal: producing exceptional fish and chips.

Potato preparation room

Their latest project to remain on this path is the installation of a new potato preparation room in the unit next door to The Fish Works. By moving this dirty, noisy task out of the shop, it can now be easily carried out at any time of the day, improving workflow and supporting the business as demand continues to grow.

“Where we’ve come for the last three years in the National Fish and Chip Awards – third, third and then second – the shop’s got busier each year,” Tiffany says. “Last year, it became evident that we were a lot, lot busier again, and we were having to rumble potatoes throughout the day.”

The seasonality of the business also heavily influences the shop. “We’re very weather dependent,” explains Tiffany, “so it’s difficult to gauge exactly how many potatoes will need chipping a day. And obviously it can start off dull, and then all of a sudden go really sunny, and then that obviously affects what we need.”

During peak season, The Fish Works can chip and peel up to 30 bags of potatoes a day, often rumbling and peeling two or three times beyond the morning shift. It’s a routine that was, at times, interrupting service. Tiffany explains: “If we were right in the middle of a busy service and we said, ‘Oh, we’re going to need more chips rumbled,’ we were able to do it, but it was tight and it did make it harder. Whereas now, a team member can go rumble the chips, and that’s us ready to go, and it doesn’t affect the actual day-to-day running of the shop.” 

When faced with these operational challenges, the Irvins considered outsourcing their chip prep, but quickly dismissed the idea. “We looked at buying in pre-prepared or pre-cut chips,” says Tiffany. “But for us, it takes away our control over what we’re selling. We didn’t want to compromise on quality to make things slightly easier in the shop.”

Temperature-controlled

Called The Potato Works, the new unit combines two former neighbouring spaces and cost around £25,000, providing a purpose-built, temperature-controlled environment designed to optimise storage and processing. “We had to fully strip it back,” Tiffany explains. “We put floor drainage in, reinforced the floor because our potatoes are stored in there. And the full unit is temperature-controlled, so our potatoes are kept at the optimum temperature throughout the year.”

This investment has paid off in multiple ways. “It’s made a big difference to the efficiency of The Fish Works,” Tiffany says. “It’s less stressful for the team when it’s a busy day and we need to rumble chips. They can go in that new unit, put music on, it’s temperature-controlled, immaculately clean, and a pleasure to be in.”

The improvements extend beyond staff morale. With prep now separate, the team can chip as needed, reducing waste and ensuring freshness. “We’re not over-rumbling, so we’re not carrying over chips to the next day,” Tiffany explains. “Everything’s coming as fresh as it can be.”

For Tiffany, the decision to move potato preparation into its own dedicated space wasn’t just about making operations smoother, it was about preserving the theatre that makes The Fish Works. The inclusion of large glass windows along the length of the business ensures customers can still see every stage of the process.

“Before, if you stood looking into The Fish Works at the far end, you’d see all the prep being done, including the potatoes. We liked that our customers could see the chips being done. You’d get people standing watching and showing their kids the potatoes being rumbled and turned into chips. We really liked that part and wanted to retain the whole theatre visual aspect of it.

“We could have just had windows in our customer area, but we wanted it to be that way. It gives customers confidence in knowing that everything’s clean and tidy and everybody knows what they’re doing, and you can see your food being prepared.”

All about chips

Chips are the heart of The Fish Works’ menu — every dish, from classic fish suppers to crab-loaded fries, katsu chicken chips, and chipotle-topped creations, is built around them. And Tiffany is clear about their importance: “A lot of people focus on the fish, which is equally as important, but I think sometimes folk don’t realise how important the chips are. 

“I say to our team all the time if they get a batch and they’re not frying great, you need to let us know if we are not in the shop because it’s too important a product for people to go away and have chips with eyes or chips with blemishes or chips that are too dark. It just deteriorates the whole product.”

The new potato room has also opened up fresh opportunities for education and community engagement, especially with younger visitors. Outside, a fun, illustrated step-by-step guide walks families through the journey from field to fryer.

“We’ve advertised step by step the process and how we source our potatoes, how we ensure the sugar content, how they’re checked before they’re rumbled, how they’re chipped, how they’re prepared at every stage,” says Tiffany. “It’s done in a fun way, and we’ve had some Fish Works characters created. It’s encouraging children to know where their food comes from.”

One of the most memorable examples of this was a recent visit by nursery children who brought in potatoes they had grown themselves. “They grew their own potatoes at nursery, so we had touched in through the whole year,” Tiffany says. “When the potatoes were harvested, the children came to The Fish Works with them, and we showed them how we check the sugar content. We rumbled them while they were there, and we cooked them for them to eat. It was really good, because they saw the whole process from seeds to potatoes to chips.”

That kind of experience, Tiffany says, would have been almost impossible before. “It was something we couldn’t have done as easily because the shop was in operation, so it would have been really difficult to have the kids in.”

For The Fish Works, the new potato prep unit is far more than a back-of-house upgrade. It’s a statement of their commitment to quality, transparency, education and community — the same values that have propelled the shop to national acclaim.

“The new potato unit has been a game changer,” Tiffany says. “It’s transformed the efficiency of the shop across the board. It means that we can still serve the quality that we want to serve. It would have been really easy just to take the rumbling and chipping out, put a big fridge in and go to pre-prepared chips. But that’s not us.”