Smoked Eel, Meadowland Smokery (prev. Devon Eel Company)

Meadowland Company, previously known as Deven Eel Company, was set up in 2017, just a couple of miles from the Devon coastline, in the countryside town of Colyton. The company was set up by Neil Fuzzard, who had previously worked closely with The Dutch Eel company for 15 years, and is now run by him and his son, Ben. They sell eels across the country and supply some of the UK’s most prestigious restaurants.

When Neil first started his first business venture ‘Frontfish UK’ in 1996, he had five ponds for growing specimen carp for the angling industry and went on to find a demand for them in Chinese restaurants in London. This was also the inspiration for moving into eels, as there was a huge demand for this unique flavour and nowhere to source the product, so The Devon Eel Co was born.

In early 2021, Ben, Neil’s son, a trained chef, joined the company full time and now uses his expertise in the food industry and knowledge of chefs requirements and standards to create exceptional eel products. He began experimenting with smoking new products when he joined, and his method that is used to smoke their eel remains top secret, but has now been sold to over 50 Michelin star restaurants in the UK.