Company description
Catsmo Artisan Smokehouse, was founded in 1995 by Robert Simon. Robert has always been passionate about fishing, he considers it a “hobby” while his family would say it’s more like an obsession. Every year he would take off for three weeks in the summer to fish New York’s Finger Lakes and three weeks in the winter to sport-fish in the Florida Keys, often times returning with as much as 200 pounds of fresh fish. Being far too much fish to eat, most of it was given to a neighbor for smoking. The neighbor bartered his services in exchange for half of the fish he would smoke. That arrangement served both well until the summer of 1995 when Robert returned home from one of his fishing trips loaded with fish to be smoked but this time his neighbor wasn't able to smoke it for him. As a result, Robert was stuck with roughly a hundred pounds of fresh fish on his hands. Undeterred Robert decided he would try smoking the fish himself. He did his research, built a little smoker in his garage, and locked himself away for four days until finally, he brought the fruits of his labor to his family and friends. One friend, Jean-Jacques, chef and owner of L’Auberge des Quattres Saisons loved it and asked Robert to make some for his NYC restaurant. It was then that the idea of a salmon smoking business was born. After a few more batches, Robert decided to join the big leagues to see if his salmon could cut it. He brought some to his friend, Arnaud Briand, who was then the Executive Chef of New York City’s Rainbow Room. Arnaud said it was a great start but a little rough around the edges. Together they worked to fine-tune the recipe and technique. When the finished product was ready Arnaud said he wanted 30 salmon sides as soon as possible and Robert realized he needed to build a bigger smoker. From the early days of smoking salmon in a garage to today Catsmo Artisan Smokehouse continues to grow its business based on the fundamental principles of high-quality fr
