I Stand For…Sustainable Seafood

Throughout 2020 we’re sharing stories of the missions, passions and goals of inspirational chefs as part of a series called ‘What do you stand for?’

For this feature, we teamed up with Ocean Wise Seafood Accounts Coordinator (Eastern Canada), Isabella Sulpizio, to invite three sustainability-focused chefs to share their response.

Daisuke Fukasaku, Executive Chef and Owner

Fukasaku of Prince Rupert, British Columbia

“When I first started my business, I committed to serving seafood caught by local fishermen in a sustainable way to keep our oceans healthy. Prince Rupert, BC is the fishing hub of Northwest BC. Commercial fish harvesters catch varieties of salmon, shrimp, crab, black cod, halibut, urchins, geoduck and so on. We even have a sustainably operated scallop farm in town.

I was so shocked when I found that most of the seafood is transported to the South right away, making locally caught seafood unavailable in town.

It is my pride and pleasure to serve customers local Ocean Wise recommended sustainable seafood since 2013. I also support small-scale fisheries, ensuring that locally caught seafood will be enjoyed by locals first.

It is my responsibility to protect the sustainability of ocean and small-scale fisheries on the coast so our precious seafood will be passed onto future generations.”

Joe Thottungal, Executive Chef and Owner

Coconut Lagoon in Ottawa, Ontario

“As a chef who was born and brought up where, The Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean all meeting at the southern most tip of India, it would give me great pleasure to work with sustainable seafood in our kitchens . As a chef I feel a great responsibility to uphold sustainability for the next generation and maintain environmental integrity. It is so easy to ignore the lasting effects of our behaviour to the planet with actions such as wasting food, or eating endangered animals. We shouldn’t leave our future generations with a planet that is worse than we found it, rather we should aspire to create an even better one for them.

Being a chef we should always try to fill peoples hearts when we fill their stomach.

I humbly ask everyone reading to help this cause and do the part with being mindful of what the put into this world not only limited to eating sustainable food, please look beyond that. Happy Cooking ……”

Shonah Chalmers CCC, BSc, WCCE, Culinary Program Coordinator

Humber College, Toronto Ontario

“The Culinary world has led me on a wonderful journey of learning, one that demands to be shared loud and often. I dedicated myself to this lifelong journey of acquiring knowledge by observing how other chefs are impacting our industry, sharing ideas with like-minded industry leaders and coaching our next generation of cooks to understand about their impact on sustainable ideas. Broadening your understanding of the food world requires you to partner with leaders in the industry and transparent food suppliers who fully understand how our choices impact the future of our planet.

As chefs, we are stewards of sustainability to the eating public, and therefore I believe it is our obligation to continue to grow and share best practices in choosing which fish and seafood to consume on a regular basis. In this global community we have access to current information and training to make better choices and we need to commit to implementing these ideas of reducing fish depletion, recognizing seafood fraud and awareness of the traceability of fish.

I teach our students a course on Farm to Fork principles at Humber College which includes ideas like cooking sustainably is not about making a “grand gesture”, it is about all of the small choices of improvement you make every day. Educating chefs and making a long-term commitment to sustainability is something we need to do and will ultimately help our people, planet and performance of our industry. The next step in preserving our fish and seafood has to be at the forefront of our minds, we can’t lose sight of its importance.”

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