A WHOLE COMMUNITY DISAPPEARED When the war finally ended the Anisfelds were able to return to Nowy Sacz only to learn that the Jewish population— almost half the city at around 30,000—had been wiped out. None of their relatives had survived the Warsaw ghetto or the camps. Being taken by the Russians had saved the Anisfelds’ lives.


Marcel and Jacqueline arrived in England in 1946, travelling alone and posing as orphans so as to take ‘kindertransport’ to Britain, arranged by British rabbi, Solomon Schonfeld. Their parents finally obtained permits to follow two years later and the family made a new life in London. Marcel was educated at Aryeh House school in Brighton before working in the family’s button-holing business in the London’s East End.


“MARCEL STARTED WORK AT 4AM EVERY DAY, HAGGLING FOR SEASONAL WILD SALMON AT BILLINGSGATE AND RUNNING THE TIGHTEST OF SHIPS"


He fell in love and married Irene Forman, joining her family’s smoked salmon business and taking the reins from Irene’s father, Louis, in 1960. He became better known as Marcel Forman and the business prospered under his leadership as he established the reputation for unrivalled quality and impeccable service we maintain to this day.


THE FORMAN SMOKERY was founded in Stepney in 1905 by Aaron ‘Harry’ Forman, whose family had fled pogroms in Odessa in the late 19th century. Harry passed the business to his son Louis, and Louis’s only child Irene married Marcel Anisfeld in 1959.


Modernisation followed as metal kilns replaced brick smokehouses, but the original East European recipe behind Forman’s ‘London Cure’ remained sacrosanct: first salting and air-drying, then smoking to add an anti-bacterial seal, but without creating obtrusive smoky flavours.


RUNNING A TIGHT SHIP Marcel started work at 4am every day, haggling for seasonal wild salmon at Billingsgate and running the tightest of ships


32


HAMPERS


CELEBRATIONS


CHRISTMAS


DELI


BEST SELLERS


FORMAN STORY


SALMON


WHAT’S NEW


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