SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD CHAMPION
Ned Bell inspires cooks to ‘dive deeper’ with creative recipes. Laura Brehaut explains.
From dulse, dark chocolate cookies to geoduck nachos, chef Ned Bell is on a quest to entice Canadians to eat more sustainable seafood.
The time to push our palates past the “big four” — cod, salmon, shrimp and tuna — is overdue, he says.
The health of the world’s oceans is suffering due to overfishing and climate change. Factory ships are designed to scrape the ocean floor, indiscriminately scooping up tons of fish at a time.
“My mission is to champion the small-scale fisheries that dot North America,” the Chefs for Oceans founder says. “And get people to dive deeper into the conversation of what does a healthy ocean look like?”
Making seafood choices that support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture isn’t about restrictions, Bell emphasizes. But it does require opening your mind to species further down the food chain from apex predators such as the bluefin tuna.
“Bluefin tuna (has been depleted) to three per cent (of historic levels). And we’re still celebrating it. It’s just beyond me how a chef could actually celebrate it proudly,” Bell says.
“I’m only one voice, but I feel like chefs have a unique opportunity. It’s our responsibility to know where our ingredients come from.”
In his debut cookbook, Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coast with Valerie Howes, the Ocean Wise executive chef inspires home cooks to choose more ocean-friendly species.
A good place to start, he writes, is to explore shellfish, seaweed, sea greens and sustainable species of wild Pacific salmon (chum, coho, pink, sockeye and spring).
Consider buying smaller species like mackerel and sardines, and substituting “challenged big red tunas” for Pacific albacore tuna.
As species sustainability is changeable, Bell recommends staying up to date by using an app from one of “the ocean guardians” — Seafood Watch, SeaChoice, Ocean Wise or Marine Stewardship Council.
With 80 plant-forward recipes at its heart, Lure includes species profiles and tips for selecting, storing and preparing fish.
Bell gives vegetables equal footing with seafood and says he’d like to see more people view sustainable seafood as a garnish.
“One of the things I really like about Ned’s approach is that he encourages people not just to eat sustainable species but to eat in moderation,” Howes says.
“He’ll have two or three scallops on top of a dish or a very small burger-sized piece of halibut in a bun instead of going for massive steaks.”