Sustainable seafood news, a Sea Change and reels of footage on real food
CHEERS TO THE SHEDD and THE ZOO…for their ongoing educational efforts to share news about the sea—and the fish that swim there for those of us who like to eat them—with updates on sustainable seafood issues so important to our earth. In August they added an educational workshop to their menu with co-hosts from Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. The Minnesota Zoo traditionally hosts an annual “Fish First” Seafood & Wine Tasting Event (coming this year on October 1) at their beautiful Discovery Bay Zoo setting each October, but this was a “first” for a learning moment for us locals. Very timely too, since October is now designated as National Seafood Awareness Month.
The Zoo team was headed up by Marketing Director Bill Von Bank, Assistant Director of Education Grant Spickelmier and Events Manager Judy Thompson. Titled “Sustainable Seafood Workshop” and co-hosted with experts from Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, this free morning workshop was specifically designed for locals chefs, suppliers and buyers of seafood, as well as culinary professionals and instructors. Heading up the discussion and covering the worldwide facts was the Shedd’s Sustainable Seafood Coordinator Michele Jost. She explained pros and cons of ocean fishing and fisheries around the globe, overfishing, aquaculture and the ups and downs in awareness on healthy fish versus the mercury, PCBs and dioxins. She also highlighted how we can make differences one meal at a time, as we select fish and seafood for our own tables. I loved their slogan “Eating fish is good for you. Eating the right fish is good for our planet.”
And when Jost and her team took a closer look at the shrimp diet of their own spoiled little sea otters at the aquarium, they were ashamed to see the Shedd was purchasing 12,000 pounds of headless shrimp per year for these babies—from an unsustainable operation in Indonesia to boot—because it was cheaper! They delved into a search for suppliers and aquacultures around the world and discovered a shrimp fishery in Arizona that solved their problem and offered chemical, preservative, antibiotic and mercury free shrimp. Yes Arizona! It’s named Desert Sweet Shrimp. The Web site (www.desertsweetshrimp.com) says, “Desert Sweet Shrimp are pond grown in mineral-rich well water, drawn directly from Arizona’s deep, ancient seabeds. Carefully monitored and kept meticulously free of pathogens and contaminants, the qualities of this deep well water, combined with the benign effect of the hot desert sun, result in healthier, faster growing, and sweet tasting shrimp.”
Shedd also partners with Chicago restaurants (like the Zoo here does) for special fish and seafood dining events. Plus, they listed many on-line resources for us, from such groups as Blue Ocean, Green Chefs Web site (www.oceanfriendlychefs.com) and the helpful Chefs Collaborative Web site (www.chefscollaborative.org) for more newsy updates like the well-known Seafood Watch Guide. Created by the team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (www.montereybayaquarium.org), you can download your own copy. They now partner with Google Earth, which offers a Discover the Ocean segment for resource information.
I also spotted Target meat and fish buyers across the room, along with the familiar face of supplier Larry Braufman from our own local American Fish and Seafood. Glad to see everybody’s in the loop helping make it easy for us “at-home” cooks as well as our professional chefs. I asked Larry if he had ever heard of the Desert Sweet Shrimp operation, but it was a new name to him. “The Names can be pretty memorable nowadays,” he said, “like the ones we order from Belize with the colorful name of ‘Laughing Bird Shrimp.’” But with aquaculture on the rise, he also has found great farm-raised resources for our American market from the east coast, where we get loads of mussels, oysters and clams coming in fresh daily. A nice contrast and change for us all from the burger craze at least a few nights a week, eh?
MORE SEAFOOD CHANGES OVER AT THE GUTHRIE…speaking of seafood and change, who knew that would become the name (Sea Change) of the old Cue space at the Guthrie Theater. And yes, you do see the change immediately as you approach the revolving front door, where the wall-sized face of Sir Tyrone now oversees a small outdoor sidewalk seating space and a sea of vibrant green umbrella tops and fresh garden greenery. Inside, a small new lounge space has been added adjacent to the bar (thanks to the Shea designs touches) while the tall pillars have a new green glow too, carried over with green fabric backing on the open booths. Low cabinet dividers with vertical frosted waves of glass now divide the large dining room into three cozier spaces.
Our James Beard Award-winning chef Tim McKee and his team officially opened in July for this much awaited change and hosted a grand party where all wanted to see what actually could change in this formal, large dining room space walled with large windows. The site had always been perfect as a walk-around party space and great, long tables of wines and champagne were spread out along the glass under Arthur Miller’s eye. They passed tempting small bites inside and out as well as set up a grill station on the patio, which kept all the partygoers happy as a clam. Oops! Can I say that at an oyster bar?
McKee’s menu will focus on sustainable seafood too, highlighting fisheries that use environmentally responsible methods of gathering and farming seafood. Watch for his three-course, pre-theater menu as well as late night offerings with promises of small plates and raw bar items. That should be a winner. A seafood counter display is the perfect use of the Cue open counter space I always loved, and the stunning green glass Calder-like Mobile, hanging above the dining room, just in front of the seafood counter was the real show stopper. Wow! And, as they say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so I’m happy to tell you I can now share some of my many food and party pics from recent events up on our new FSN Blog online. So are you curious green? See the greening of the Guthrie with the fun Sea Change Opening Party photos at http://www.foodservicenews.net/Blog/. Cheers!
REEL TO REAL FOOD with JULIA and MORE…the city was all a buzz the last few months with reels and reels of food movie footage from “Julie & Julia” with a Benefit Preview Party to the movie “Food Inc.”, a docu-agri movie produced by our own Bill Pohlad to the 2008 “Food Fight” with Alice Waters in a documentary shown at the Campus Club’s recent annual Locavore Buffet.
The club features food from local growers and this year had trout from one of my favorites: Star Prairie Trout Farm in Wisconsin and healthy beef from Todd Churchill’s Thousand Hills Cattle Company. Boy, did he make it simple and clear to understand why we should be eating grass fed beef rather than corn fed. “Food Fight” was a fascinating look at how American agriculture policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness. It received an Audience Award from the 2008 International Documentary Association, Best Documentary in the 2008 HD FEST in L.A. and a Best-in-Show Documentary at Indie Fest 2008.
“Julie & Julia” hasn’t won any awards yet, but foodies love it. I had the chance to dine with Julia a few times and it brought back great memories. I especially love the scenes of life in Paris back in the ’50s and ’60s. We were lucky to be the first in the Twin Cities to see the movie with Meryl Streep as our lovable Julia back in July, brought to us as a benefit for the “Women Who Really Cook group’s Women’s Chefs scholarship program. The WWRC Benefit Event earned over $2,000 for scholarships and was hosted by WCCO Radio celeb Tim Russell with WWRC founder and WCCO colleague Sue Zelickson. Maggiano’s party room set the stage upstairs and it was just a hop and skip downstairs to see the flick at the Southdale Theaters. Bravo! (see the party pics on the FSN blog).
Last but not least, “Food Inc.” is next on my list and fun to learn of the local connection. I might grab that one for DVD on the home screen cuz I was afraid I would not be able to stomach big agri-business’ mass butchery scenes. But, “No, it’s OK,” said Michelle Pohlad, Bills wife. “I hear your pain,” she smiled. She and I both recall real food with farm chickens and grandmothers who knew how to wring a neck now and again on the old family farms. We do like to eat and, as Julia Child said, “We’re good at it!” Peace!
