Tag: Louisiana Seafood
Should chefs play a stronger advocacy role in keeping oceans healthy? Yes, say some, who point to the powerful ways chefs bring sustainability to the dinner table.
In Pointe a la Hache, the last spit of land before immersion into the delta, fishing and oil are the last games in town. Byron Encalade fights for the survival of this tight-knit community, where no one’s a stranger.
Timed with the one year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, more than 400 chefs from across the nation asked a panel of experts the hard questions about seafood testing and safety.
“Louisiana seafood isn’t just what we eat,” says New Orleans Chef Frank Brigsten. “It’s a way of life. It’s our cultural heritage. It’s part of who we are. For the Gulf to be hurt the way it was—I took it very personally.”
As P&J Oyster Company marks the 135th year, Al Sunseri is thankful that the doors of his family’s business remain open. And he remains hopeful that the the next generation of oysters is growing somewhere along the Louisiana coast.
New Orleans locals are documenting the deep love they feel for their city — and their seafood — by scrawling heartfelt missives on their bodies. Then letting the camera capture their love notes for posterity.
“Response has greatly exceeded our expectations,” says Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, referring to interest demonstrated by advertising and PR firms in helping to rebuild trust in Louisiana seafood.
It struck Chef Tenney Flynn after preparing a dinner for the prestigious James Beard House in New York City, using Louisiana seafood: “People would kill to have what we chefs have in terms of seafood from the Gulf.”
When the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board unveiled its new booth at this year’s Boston International Seafood Show, executive director Ewell Smith says it was “like going from the outhouse to the penthouse.”
Strong faith, close family ties and common industry are the backbone of the community in the watery milieu of Grand Bayou, where fishing has sustained life for families like Roland Phillips’ for three hundred years — and millennia for indigenous families.
Gulf seafood fuels the crowd at the New Orleans Arena, thanks to a commitment from the New Orleans Hornets to support local fishermen and the region’s unique culture. Says one fan of hoops and fishing, “We know how important the Gulf is to our way of life, to the way we eat.”
Louisiana Congressman Charles Boustany believes Gulf shrimp, caught by Louisiana fishermen, should be featured and promoted in fast food restaurants as a healthy alternative. To begin, he is reaching out to Taco Bell.
The Louisiana Seafood Fitness and Health Challenge is seeking folks to get fit with fresh Gulf seafood — and win big prizes.
Despite a battalion of voices from the scientific and culinary world confirming the current safety of Gulf of Mexico seafood, skeptics persist. That’s led EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to ask scientists whether they’ve witnessed this level of rigor in seafood testing ever before.
Across Gulf coast states, Congressmen are coming together to ask the White House Administration to “reinvigorate communication with the American public” about the safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.
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