Ray Holland

A veteran fishmonger on buying, choosing and cooking supermarket seafood

Home cooks, mostly in the US, who buy fish at the supermarket or a fish counter and want better value and fewer cooking mistakes (inferred from titles, the dollar prices and the store names in descriptions; the guide on the linked site says it is for home cooks who buy fish at the supermarket).

• Realistic avatar
• A photorealistic older man with swept-back grey hair and a short grey beard in a navy henley and a dark canvas apron, shown at a fish counter, in a steel kitchen or in front of supermarket store fronts, usually pointing at or holding the fish.

One seafood problem or buying question per video (10–22 minutes, recent ones 19–22), told in the first person from '34 years behind a fish counter': why the usual way fails, then the fishmonger's method or a ranked list (5–7 fish, mistakes or products).

• Cheaper fish to buy instead of salmon
• Fish cooking mistakes and fixes
• Buying fish at the counter and the supermarket
• Canned and tinned fish
• Seafood prices, labels and fraud

• STOP [Buying Salmon]! This [$6 Fish] Tastes BETTER and Costs Half as Much
• [N] [Cheaper Fish I'd Buy Instead of Salmon] (34-Year Fishmonger)
• NEVER [Boil Shrimp] Again — Try This Old Fish Counter Trick
• Most People [Cook Salmon] Wrong - The [Japanese Method] for [Crisp Skin] Every Time
• [N] Fish Buying MISTAKES You Don't Know You're Making (Retired Fishmonger)

The persona at one side pointing at or holding the fish (a fillet, a pan of salmon, shrimp, a cart of packs), a 2–3 word caption in yellow and white or a yellow box, sometimes a dry/juicy split with a red X and green tick, store fronts behind, or 'BY A 34-YEAR FISHMONGER' along the bottom.

• One breakout: the first upload, a cheaper-than-salmon title, has 246,732 views, about 67% of the channel's 365,955
• Salmon as the anchor: 3 of the 4 most-viewed titles are about salmon or what to buy instead
• A credential in the title: 13 of 23 titles name a fishmonger, 7 of them as a '34-Year Fishmonger'
• A money angle: 6 of 23 titles turn on price ($6 fish, $32 fish, budget, cheaper, expensive), as do the '$6/POUND' and 'UNDER $5' thumbnails
• Still growing after the breakout: 1,160 subscribers and 164,591 views gained in the last 30 days