FURNESS Fish & Game's Les Salisbury (right) has become something of a celebrity in recent times, not least because of links with several rather famous names - Oliver and Ramsay, Dickson-Wright and Fearnley-Whittingstall, to name but a few.

By far the Ulverston-based company's best customers, however, are the great British public - those who regularly visit the Furness, Fish and Game stall at London's Borough Market and the thousands of foodies across the UK who buy products via the burgeoning mail order service and food events like the North West Food Lovers Festival and Good Food Show.

Having just notched up its silver jubilee, Furness Fish & Game is now gearing up for the next 25 years. A new line in stuffed game and poultry looks set to lead the way.

LES Salisbury will turn his hand to whatever needs doing. One day he might be fishing off Flookburgh, another he could be boning a pheasant or butchering venison. When I met him at Furness Fish & Game's Stockbridge Lane premises, he was buried beneath paperwork.

With the Christmas season well and truly upon them, Les and the 14-strong FF&G full and part-time team are in for even more hard work than usual.

Director Clare Worrall Les's niece despatched the festive mail order brochures some time ago. A new line in stuffed game and poultry promises to be a winner. Boneless chicken stuffed with a boned pheasant filled with organic celery and leek stuffing (15.95), for example; fully-boned duck with layers of pork steaks and cranberry and orange stuffing (17.95); and a pair of boned quail stuffed with plum and ginger and wrapped in bacon (4.90).

All are prepared on the premises using hand-picked birds. All you have to do is cook and serve. Be wary about taking the credit, however. I suspect that such will be the popularity of this feathered fare that dinner party tables across the region will be graced by similar feasts from Furness Fish & Game.

The starter, of course, goes without saying hot potted shrimps and brown bread and butter.

It's 51 years since seven-years-old Les was introduced to Morecambe Bay's renowned crustacean. His mother was from Flookburgh so at holiday time the family would decamp from Ulverston to those relatives and friends living by the bay.

Grandfather selling smallholding-grown fruit and vegetables from a horse and cart was Les's introduction to the retail industry; peeling shrimps for six old pennies a pound was his first taste of hard work for small reward.

Les began his working life as an agricultural sales rep. Fishing for mussels and shrimps was a hobby but potting the fruits of your labours and selling them on was a good way to save up for a new future. Les had running his own business in mind.

The proceeds of a stall on Ulverston market helped. So much so that Les was eventually able to buy his own tractor and a pile of fish and game processing equipment and then his own premises at Stockbridge Lane in 1983.

He built up his business the hard way, setting off at two and three in the morning with a mate heading first for Dewsbury; Halifax, Leeds, Manchester and Bolton the duo's next ports of call.

"We used to do that a couple of times a week," said Les who notched up quite a circle of customers.

These days FF&G concentrates less on hotels and restaurants and more on mail order; with the odd family-owned supermarket chain in between (Booths) and, in more recent years, London's renowned Borough Market at weekends.

Les was introduced to this famous Southwark food emporium by chum and local food champion, Peter Gott from Endmoor.

"It's five years since we started going down to London with Peter on a regular basis," explained Les. He and his fellow Cumbrian stallholders used to kip down on the fridges now they rent a flat.

FF&G has even got a fantastic new stall to display its fish featuring sun and sea' made from Burlington slate.

"We're still putting the finishing touches to it but it looks really impressive," said Les who these days leaves Les Junior to look after the London end of the business. In fact, it's via the stall and Peter Gott that Furness Fish & Game has found fame with the famous; Clarissa Dickson-Wright, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have all been out shrimping with Les for their television programmes.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall he of River Cottage - is also a Borough Market regular.

"People come from all over the place," said Les who believes that the market has grown in popularity because customers can actually talk to food producers.

"What's normal to us (markets) isn't to them. Supermarkets don't talk to anyone. But we can. There is a story behind everything we sell and people are interested to hear it".

Les and Andrew Mr Herdwick' Sharp from Barrow have just bought a smoker to start imparting that distinctive taste to a variety of fish and meat. The new stuffed game and poultry range should further boost the FF&G repertoire.

Les gets his sea bass, grey mullet, and plaice from Morecambe Bay. The company has a trawler out working the Solway too. Monkfish, halibut and cod come from Scotland or the east coast; prawns and more exotic fish from France.

Venison, pheasant, and partridge on the meat side, for example, are all locally-sourced; as is the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding (a sweet treat for mail order customers). The pie range is hand-made by a former Cumbrian Lass' now living in Durham.

"We send her the ingredients, and she sends us the pie," said Les.

Check out quack and oink pie' (fresh duck meat and pork shoulder cooked in red wine and brandy in a plum-flavoured fresh cream sauce - 14); and grunt, gobble, zoom and coo pie' (wild boar, turkey, hare and pigeon, cooked in red wine, brandy, herbs and spices - 14).

If you are planning on one of these pies for your Christmas dinner table then be warned time has nearly run out to guarantee delivery before December 25 (the last day for sending out orders is December 22).

-> Call the order hotline on 01229-585037 or e-mail furnessfish@yahoo.com