This morning, as part of their new effort to encourage sustainable seafood dining that won’t deplete already scarce numbers of many species of fish, the Aquarium of the Pacific hosted a cook-off between four local chefs preparing Alaskan Halibut. Conservationists are hailing the fish as an alternative to popular fishes like Chilean Sea Bass, which have seen rapidly shrinking numbers and are in danger of being overfished. The program is called Seafood For The Future. And it’s delicious.
“The key is to select the right kinds of seafood,” said Aquarium of the Pacific CEO Jerry Schubel. “We ought to be eating seafood that comes from the local area.”
The Alaskan Halibut provided comes from Long Beach Seafood Company, which is a partner in the Aquarium’s effort and has a reputation as being environmentally friendly.
The goal of Seafood For The Future is to educate and reward the public for choosing sustainable seafood dishes over meals that may contribute to overfishing. It accomplishes this by adding a logo to menus of participating restaurants, denoting environmentally-safe fish dishes. Patrons who order food with the accompanying logo will receive a free ticket to the Aquarium of the Pacific as a thank-you.
Long Beach based restaurants such as Parker’s Lighthouse, Renaissance Long Beach and McKenna’s By The Bay are participating in the program, and participated in this morning’s cooking event.
The four chefs prepared environmentally-friendly meals to three expert judges, while chefs from other nearby restaurants prepared appetizers – some using the same types of fish and shrimp that are used to feed the Aquarium’s animals. And that is a good thing. A very, very good thing. The green prairie saltwater shrimp from Long Beach catering company Primal Alchemy was wonderful.
Parker’s Lighthouse was not in the competition, but did offer a great appetizer of kona kampachi, seared to perfection with a crispy outline and tender meat inside. The dish is occasionally available on Parker’s sushi menu, if you’d like to try it (you should).
In the competition, Michael Poompan from Renaissance Long Beach braised the halibut and served with peewee potatoes. The judges praised Chef Poompan’s taste and simplicity, but the overall victory went to McKenna’s By The Bay and Chef Arthur Gonzalez. Their method of sealing the Alaskan Halibut filet in a vaccuum-sealed bag and then poaching it was a huge success.
“We’re glad to be a part of this, helping to save some of the species that we love to cook with,” said Chef Gonzalez.
All delicious photos courtesy of Nikol Anderson.
