Meet Jade Taylor -- former Boeing engineer and the US seafood entrepreneur behind the new Charleston, South Carolina-based smoked salmon company, Angel Oak Smokehouse.

Jade joins Catch the Current, the new podcast from Undercurrent News, to talk about Angel Oak Smokehouse's upcoming launch at Seafood Expo North America in Boston next month; the knowledge she's gained from Boeing that she's channeled into her current business; and the importance of educating consumers about smoked salmon.

Listen below!

Subscribe now! Catch the Current is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and other major podcast streaming platforms. Don't see Catch the Current on your favorite app? Reach out to [email protected].

Don't have time to listen? Find a transcript of season 1, episode 2.5 of Catch the Current below:

Amanda Buckle (AB): You're listening to Catch the Current, the new podcast from Undercurrent News, your source for seafood news data and prices. I'm Amanda Buckle.

Lorin Castiglione (LC): And I'm Lorin Castiglione.

We are recording live from beautiful Palm Desert, California, where the National Fisheries Institute is hosting its 2025 Global Seafood Market Conference. Joining us on the podcast is Jade Taylor, the owner of Angel Oak Seafood, which is launching in Boston in less than two months. Jade, thanks for joining us on Catch the Current.

Jade Taylor (JT): Thank you for having me.

AB: Number one, I can't believe we're talking about Boston at GSMC, but it is coming up quick.

Jade, we talked just briefly for the first time a few days ago at the start of the conference, and I was shocked to learn that you previously worked at Boeing as a structural and payload design engineer. Now you're following your family legacy in the seafood industry. Can you share a little bit about your background and how it led to the creation of Angel Oak Smokehouse?

JT: Absolutely. I studied mechanical engineering at Duke University and from there went straight to work at Boeing. I was there for almost a decade and worked first as a repair engineer on the 787 Dreamline and then went to work as a design engineer.

And I never in a million years thought that I would be joining the family business of smoking fish. I'm one of three girls. There was no way any of us were joining,

AB: Fast forward

LC: Spoiler alert.

JT: Fast forward -- I had many late-night conversations with my dad and I started to reflect on his legacy and the idea that it wasn't going to continue. Was there a space for me to come in? And what would that be? So after trial and error with smoking salmon myself, I realized it is something that I love, and my husband and I love to do. So we started small in our house and we were FedEx-ing back and forth samples to my dad, saying, "What about this taste?"

And he was like, "Yes, but try again." Or, "what about this?"

AB: So I'm going to stop you there. You're sending samples back and forth. You have to tell people where you are and where your father is.

JT: I'm in Charleston, South Carolina, and my dad is in Miami. So it was quite a lot of expensive FedEx-ing, but absolutely worth it. The product we have right now is outstanding.

Photo courtesy of Angel Oak Smokehouse

We make hot- and cold-smoked. The hot-smoked is our flagship that we can't wait for everyone to try in Boston. 

LC: Jade, tell us a little bit more about Angel Oak. Where are you sourcing the salmon from? Will your products be at retail or foodservice? Is private-label something you're also considering? Tell. Us. Everything.

JT: I grew up in a family where the art of smoked salmon was always there.

AB: Now, you said your father's in Miami, but did you grow up in Miami? Because you have a very unique accent.

JT: I was born in England. We moved to Miami when I was eight and we moved to set up his facility in Miami. From there, I moved up to Charleston and I'm extremely proud of continuing this family legacy.

We're using this time-old recipe and we're giving a modernized twist with the machines we use and the smokers we use. So Angel Oak Smokehouse is based in Charleston and we're really about elevating, celebrating and sharing the art of smoked salmon to this new generation that we hope to bring it to, especially through social media.

We're going to do a huge push with simple recipes to show people how versatile hot- and cold-smoked salmon is.

AB: What is the difference between hot- and cold-smoked salmon? 

JD: I am so glad you asked because the average consumer at the grocery store does not know. I've gone around to my friends. They have no idea what hot-smoked salmon is. They're thinking spicy. They're thinking warm. It's not warm. It's all about the temperature that you cure the salmon at.

Cold-smoked is cured at a lower temperature. It's what you know that's silky, buttery, put on a bagel. And then hot smoked salmon is cooked at a higher temperature and you see it --

LC: More of a jerky style?

JT: No, it's more like a portion that you put on a salad.

You get different sizes, but a four-ounce portion. you'll see it in the grocery store. And it's so versatile. It's ready-to-eat, which is something that's so important nowadays and growing more than ever.

Photo courtesy of Angel Oak Smokehouse

AB: Yeah, that's been a big topic at GSMC, ready-to-eat. And it seems like everybody just wants convenience. So that's a great entry point for you now, right?

JT: Absolutely. When we saw that, we were ecstatic because hot smoked salmon is ready to eat. You can put it on a bagel.

You can put it into a pasta. And we have a great recipe for a hot-smoked pesto grilled cheese.

LC: Sign us up, right?

JT: So we're going to use social media to really educate people on what you just asked.

What's hot smoked? What's cold smoked? How do we use it? Quick, easy recipes. And the benefits of it, more than anything. We can't wait to share with our customers, you know, that hot- and cold-smoked salmon have such high omega-3s, which is so important as a female and a new mom.

Extremely important for when you're pregnant, for the baby's brain development and cognitive skills. We're excited to share that with people.

AB: Now, your dad's business is Highland Farms. He's serving customers worldwide. How does Angel Oak plan to stand out in the American market? Especially given the competition with smoked salmon.

JT: Yeah, there's definitely a lot of competition out there. Absolutely. And because we are based in the South, we really want to get boots on the ground and really, you know, get rooted in the Southeast.

That's our plan, to focus on the Southeast. Because that's not a big area for smoked salmon. I don't include Miami in this -- because Miami, you know, is a different world.

But no, there are very few people smoking salmon -- or fish in general -- in the Southeast. So we are extremely proud of that. We really want to emphasize that, and unique flavors from the South as we grow, which I think we can do some really interesting things there. Everyone in the South knows smoking meats, but smoking fish is something that's, you know, just a little bit unheard of. So, we really want to introduce them to that.

LC: So, Angel Oak is based in Charleston, South Carolina, we hear that you're planning to increase headcount to about 50 workers over the next five years.

Photo courtesy of Angel Oak Smokehouse

What types of jobs and skill sets are needed in this modern smokehouse? And how are you recruiting or training the local talent?

AB: So we have built a state-of-the-art new facility. It's about 15 miles north of downtown Charleston. And we're exceptionally proud of it. It's brand new smokers and products and processing. And we're ready to hire very soon. So we're absolutely looking for line workers, but we will be posting for a sales job soon.

Quality control is something that we really, really care about. Being an engineer at Boeing, that was something that I saw, that the care and the quality -- it was not just something that's a value, but it was a necessity when you're building airplanes. So that's something that I really care about and have done such an emphasis on with Angel Oak, making sure that our processes and our facility is up to the highest standards. And that our salmon is all four-star BAP-certified salmon. We multi-source from Norway and Chile. It really is the best of the best.

We use the best sea salt, and we use local fallen oak for our smoke chips. And that's it. We use just three ingredients, which I think is something that will really resonate with customers more and more.

A lot of other people use many ingredients. And there's tamari and there's sugar. We're just kind of stripping it back to the basics and saying, "Hey, this is a really delicious product."

We know that customers don't want a lot of ingredients, especially when you're looking for something healthy that's high-protein. So we're bringing all of that to our customer.

AB: Lorin and I come from different backgrounds, so we love chatting with you and hearing about Boeing. It's really interesting to see how you thought about your previous career and how you could take that knowledge that you learned at Boeing and put it towards making something that you're proud of and that you care about. 

LC: I like that you could take something from Boeing and put it towards your new company. It really resonates with the industry. And like you said, all three of us, we're all coming from such opposite industries. I came from a fashion background, and now we've fallen in love with seafood.

AB: And we're using our skill-sets to help. But we didn't have a dad in seafood to help us out along the way. That would have been helpful.

JT: If you ask him, he will say he did not help at all, which is very kind. He has tasted many, many of our samples. But we've been building this facility, my husband and I, for two years. And he came for the first time about three months ago. So he truly had not seen it. And honestly, it helped us so much. We're extremely proud of that.

And going back to using skill sets that we didn't think would be helpful, my husband used to be in the waste management business, so dumpsters. Everyone was like, how did you go from dumpsters to fish? And again, his skill-set, which has been so helpful, is logistics. So when you're trying to maneuver...

LC: And if there's any industry that needs logistics, it's seafood. So we should be recruiting from waste management.

JT: He had 500 dumpsters around Charleston that he was trying to get to and from with traffic. And that's just incredible knowledge that he's been able to translate into what we're doing.

AB: That's what's so exciting about the industry today. We have all these new people coming in and bringing all these really great ideas and backgrounds.

So the Angel Oak website says, coming soon, with a tease that the industry is going to be able to get a taste at Seafood Expo North America. And I also saw, though, that Highland Farms won the Best New Retail Product Award for the salmon salami last year. Is there going to be some friendly competition with your dad this year? We gotta know.

LC: There's gotta be some bet in place. If I win...

JT: We have not submitted for a Best New Retail Product this year. We will next year, but they really like extra-unique products, which the salmon salami absolutely is. It's delicious. No family-friendly competition this year.

Angel Oak is a bit more premium. We like to say we're elevated but approachable. And that's seen in our packaging, which you want when buying seafood.

AB: You're going to have a booth at Boston, booth number 3352.

LC: I'm just excited for this journey that you're on. And I feel bad for your siblings, because obviously you're the favorite daughter now. We'll have to get your dad to confirm later on. 

JT: Dad, are you listening?

AB: Alright, thanks again. This has been an Undercurrent News production, and you are listening to Catch the Current.