BARCELONA SPAIN —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
About 350 scientists, fishermen, NGO members and restaurateurs attended the Seafood Choices Alliance’s first European Seafood Summit, held Jan. 27-30 in Barcelona. They addressed such issues as the need for the industry to confront challenges associated with the carbon footprint, a measure of the greenhouse gases produced in the production and transportation of seafood. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
Panelists also told attendees that restaurateurs are key to getting the public to become more environmentally aware and accept the notion of sustainable seafood. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“Chefs have direct access to people through a powerful medium: taste,” said Barton Seaver, executive chef and partner of Hook seafood restaurant in Washington, D.C. Seaver, one of many chef-operators concerned about over-fishing and the depletion of fish from the world’s oceans, said chefs “can be the middlemen between the conservation community and consumers.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“I can sell barracuda or amberjack and make it [seem] cool, sexy, chic and desirable,” and at the same time give [the more] over-fished species some time to replenish their stocks, he said. “I can put sea robin, the scourge of fishermen, on the menu and make it hip. And guess what? I’m going to sell a ton of it.… I can talk to fishermen and tell them there is a ready, willing market for their products.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
Moderator Nick Hall of the Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based Blue Ocean Institute, agreed. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“Chefs are a keystone part of the seafood sustainability community,” he said. Through their culinary creations, he continued, “they can influence suppliers and equally have impact on customers, changing the mindset of everyday people.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
While Seaver noted that Hook’s average check of around $65 per person is “a lot of money,” he said it is still important “to make sustainable seafood accessible to everyone.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
He also emphasized that serving a variety of bycatch, or fish caught unintentionally, is not only creative but also profitable. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“Things that aren’t wanted, like blue-fish, often come to me at rock-bottom prices,” he said. “I’m doing great with my fish and making lots of money off of it.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
But one problem about seafood sustainability is that it’s a complicated issue to teach young chefs, said Gerard Viverito, an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“Chefs are in the middle of a political tug of war,” he said. “They want to do the right thing, but they don’t want to sacrifice their company’s business. The difficulty of this subject is [understanding] what it really means, what it encompasses. In the kitchen or in the classroom, there is always a bias. Balanced information on this topic is always difficult to find, and making the information real and realistic is hard to do.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
Seaver, however, put the movement into perspective, saying: “The simplest messages are the ones that get repeated. If you teach people how to change, you enable them to change.… Encourage people to make a choice, to learn what it was that encouraged them to go beyond [ordering] salmon, tuna or grouper. Creating comfort in change is important.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
Furthermore, the chef said, taking care of the environment is not only socially responsible, but also makes good business sense. —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.
“It’s my duty and responsibility to get everyone to do this,” he said. “It serves my own self-interests to do it, because I would like to have some fish to sell in 10 years. If each of us takes sustainability into our own hands, we’ve got a pile of fish. Don’t wait for someone else to create sustainability for you.” —Chefs, with their ability to affect consumer tastes through new culinary trends, are in a unique position to help protect the world’s aquaculture by supporting the use of sustainable seafood, industry experts said at a recent ecological summit.