Abrian Clay, owner of Clay's Smoked Tuna, never thought he'd end up in the fish business. Or be selling his tuna salad in restaurants and stores, and from a food truck.
"It started when I was in Orange Beach, Alabama, on a vacation and I went to this restaurant on the beach," says Clay, 36. "I wanted to try something different, and I tried the smoked tuna salad. And it was so good. I asked the waiter, 'What's going on with the tuna salad, man? What's up?' He said, 'This guy out here has a tuna farm and he wholesales it to us.'"
Clay thought about it. "No one in Memphis is doing this. No one is wholesaling it. I can do the same thing."
He went home and made his first batch. "It was delicious. I gave out free samples and never looked back.
"I marinated it in white wine and I smoked it," Clay says. "I chopped up my ingredients to make the salad [with] the mayo and everything. It was an instant hit."
- Abrian Clay
That was five years ago. He used his Facebook business page to get the word out, and he began delivering the eight-ounce packaged tuna salad to the Mid-South.
His first vendor was the Curb Market in Crosstown Concourse. "I think in four hours we sold $600 worth of tuna." Then, "Stores started reaching out to me," he says.
Clay uses yellowfin, also known as "ahi" tuna. "We use fresh tuna made from tuna steaks. Not your canned stuff at all."
He originally was "going to the Gulf in Louisiana to get the fresh tuna." Now, he says, "It comes from the Gulf, but I have someone who drops it off."
Clay, who initially thought about strictly doing wholesale, moved to a commercial kitchen with a drive-through pick-up window. People could pick up individual orders of tuna salad as well as his smoked chicken dip. "We expanded our menu to hot foods as well," Clay says.
He began selling smoked wing plates, catfish plates, salmon plates, lamb chops, and T-bones. "Everything is smoked on a rotisserie smoker with pecan wood."
The tuna salad takes nine hours to prepare. "We marinate our tuna steaks in white wine, and we put it on a rotisserie smoker at a certain temperature and let it smoke five hours. It's a strenuous process."
After two and a half years at the commercial kitchen, Clay transitioned to his food truck, where he continued selling his salad, dip, and hot plates.
His truck is at East Parkway and Summer. "That's a busy intersection," he says. "A lot of people are getting off Sam Cooper and going to and from the zoo."
Growing up in North Memphis, Clay helped his dad cook before he took on the job of cooking breakfast for his parents on weekends. "I would always experiment. Like I would give them eggs, toast, and orange juice, but I would add nutmeg and parsley to the eggs."
His parents suffered through those experimental breakfasts, but Clay says, "They boosted my confidence and acted like they enjoyed it."
He got his bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in business administration, but he was interested in making and selling a product.
Clay still is surprised at his career path. "I had an epiphany with myself when I started," he says. "I noticed all day I was going to people's houses, delivering them containers of tuna salad. I was like, 'This is going to be my history? This is what I'm going to tell my children I was doing at that age? Driving to people's houses and bringing them tuna salad?'"
Clay's food truck is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. He also delivers. His smoked tuna salad is in stores, including Cordelia's Market and DeeO's Seafood.
For more information or to order, call (901) 848-5640 or go to clayssmokedtuna.com.
To see a video of a Clay’s Smoked Tuna, click here: youtu.be/HJF-ikiJuP8.
February 24, 2021 at 07:00PM
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Clay's Smoked Tuna Salad is Smokin' | Food & Wine | Memphis News and Events - Memphis Flyer
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