One of the most exciting aspects of developing a sustainable seafood program at the Aquarium is the opportunity to work directly with the largest facility management company in the world: SAVOR… Long Beach. Instead of just speculating on how certain aspects of our program can and should work, we are able to execute and analyze right in our own building how chefs and managers source their seafood, how it is labeled, how it is sold, and how sustainable products fare in a market drenched with questionable practices.
Café Scuba for example, an outlet that serves hundreds of people daily, exemplifies what it means to source and serve sustainable seafood. Chef Jennifer Minichiello and Juan Contreras (Food and Beverage Director) personally hand pick seafood and meet with fisherman and fish distributors in order to get the best products. Every single seafood item they bring into the aquarium is researched and analyzed, taking into consideration all the principles of sustainability as established through our partnership.
As a result of this partnership, an exciting dinner series is now on our calendars. Here at the aquarium, Seafood for the Future and Savor… are co-hosting a bi-monthly dinner for seafood lovers. The series is all about celebrating seafood from the source to the plate. The aquarium chefs will provide cooking demonstrations for all guests prior to presenting a 3-course dinner featuring select species of seafood. The dinner is all about enjoying fresh seafood while engaging in an ongoing dialogue about the future of our seafood. The cooking demonstrations will represent the notion that seafood is easy to prepare, and by adopting a few simple culinary principles, anyone can expand their palette to include even the most underutilized species of fish.
The first dinner is being held Thursday March 25 and will feature Wild Pacific Albacore Tuna from American Tuna. American Tuna is comprised of six fishing families from San Diego, CA. These families represent generations of fishing for albacore with the “pole & line” method. This method of fishing targets the desired species and produces absolutely no bycatch. Fresh albacore is often thought of as being served strictly in the can. In actuality wild pacific albacore is one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world, and exists in the waters directly off the coast of California.
