Couple started fried chicken business in back garden with deep fat fryer
A COUPLE started a successful fried chicken business – after experimenting with recipes in a small fryer in their garden during lockdown.
And they’re so passionate about Nashville hot chicken that they’re going on an epic honeymoon to Tennessee to continue their search for the perfect recipe.
Jamie Rees, 32, and Natalia Galka, 27, from Poland, have been trading in Sticky Fingers in Cardiff after a whirlwind few months in the food industry.
The couple met nine years ago and discovered their love for hot chicken when Jamie, who was working as a chef at the time, brought home a cookbook with a spicy chicken recipe.
It was not until they went travelling to Canada that they really fell in love with Nashville hot chicken and their passion began.
Going all out and trying the extra hot chicken, Jamie says he experienced his first-ever “spice high”.
He said: “It fills you full of endorphins. We absolutely fell in love with hot chicken there and then.”
It was here the passion started and they next travelled to LA on the hunt for more hot chicken, which they found and loved.
But it was all a hobby and a business pipe-dream – until lockdown hit.
“When I was sitting at home for three months I thought if I don’t work on my recipe, if I don’t write my own menu now then I never will,” Jamie said.
They bought a two-litre fryer and began frying in their apartment until the apartment started to smell from all the chicken and Jamie had to become creative and started frying in their garden.
Attracting some strange looks from passersby, Jamie added: “People are walking past and I’m there with an apron and a tiny little fryer, just frying!”
The couple started posting their creations to Instagram, after coming up with the name Fowl and Fury. And their endeavours attracted the attention of Matt Connolly, the owner of Sticky Fingers, who gave them a spot at the street food venue on Cardiff’s Richmond Road.
This was in January 2021 and Jamie and Natalia had to painstakingly wait five months for lockdown to end before they could finally start serving.
Describing their big break, Jamie said: “It felt amazing because for years me and Natalia had been speaking about something like this, about eventually running our own place – for someone to give us the opportunity like that was huge for us.”
He added that the response was phenomenal. “To see bloggers and Instagram just going ‘I went to Fowl and Fury their stuff was amazing’ was amazing.
“After years of lazy thoughts about a company, but then a few months of solid preparation followed by four months of sitting around hoping to be able to trade, it felt awesome.”
Since then the couple has been successfully trading at Sticky Fingers but at the end of this month are about to embark on another big adventure.
Jamie and Natalia are getting married and then going on an epic honeymoon across South America and then Texas to sample the home of Nashville hot chicken.
He said: “We need to go to the place where Nashville hot chicken was invented, we need to go to the original spot that invented it and we need to see what they are doing differently.”
Jamie did admit they are nervous about giving up their spot in Sticky Fingers, as another trader will replace them.
He said: “It is really scary, in terms of trading we have only been around five and half months now and that soon to walk away and close for a little bit is scary.
“We are a little nervous about leaving this soon after but we are going on a research mission.”
While they are gone the couple will be keeping their Fowl and Fury followers updated every step of the way on their Instagram, hoping to keep people engaged for their return, as followers will watch them try the extra extra hot chicken.
Jamie joked: “People will be able to watch me suffer rather than us make them suffer, they get to watch me suffer and cry like a baby.
“Regulars have come to us every week since we opened and we still want to keep people engaged and I think the best way to keep people engaged while Fowl and Fury isn’t running is to bring them into our journey with us.”
Regulars have come to us every week since we opened and we still want to keep people engaged
Jamie Rees of Fowl and Fury