Skipper Otto’s and Chef Ned Bell Launch Canada’s First Restaurant Supported Fishery

Sonia - October 5, 2015

The first-of-its-kind program restructures the marketplace and allows commercial fishermen, and the bounty of coastal ecosystems, to decide what species of local fish participating chefs and restaurants will offer their guests.
VANCOUVER, CANADA — Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery (CSF) and Chef Ned Bell announced today the launch of the first Canadian Dock to Dish program, designed to reconnect Canadian chefs and restaurants directly to local community-based fisheries. The partnership builds off the explosive growth of Skipper Otto’s seven-year old membership-based organization and the efforts of Ned Bell, Executive Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver and founder of Chefs for Oceans sustainable seafood foundation, to increase awareness for sustainable seafood choices.

 

The Vancouver partners are honoured to be included in the Dock to Dish network, a growing international food movement hailed as the next-generation model for wild seafood sourcing. The first-of-its-kind program restructures the marketplace and allows commercial fishermen, and the bounty of coastal ecosystems, to decide what species of local fish the participating chefs and restaurants will be able to offer to their guests. Dock to Dish is active in several major US cities and includes some of the world’s most celebrated chefs including Dan Barber in New York and Michael Cimarusti in Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, the innovative supply-driven, direct sourcing program will launch in Vancouver when Shaun Strobel, co-founder and fisherman for Skipper Otto’s CSF, delivers his catch directly to Executive Chef Ned Bell at YEW seafood + bar at the Four Seasons Hotel. Chef Bell says that he embraces both the philosophy and mechanics of the Dock to Dish program and described the initiative as a “tremendous asset and tool in achieving my overall goal which is to engage Canadian fishermen and chefs in communities, regions and provinces Coast to Coast to Coast through education and awareness for the future of sustainable seafood.”

 

Chef Bell says his long-term vision for Dock to Dish is immediately aligned with that of his Chefs for Oceans foundation and includes, “the creation of a movement which, within the next 10 years, allows every Canadian to easily and readily access sustainable seafood for themselves and their families.”

Alongside Chef Bell at the forefront of the growing movement to reconnect Pacific coast chefs and restaurants with their local community-based commercial fishermen, is Michelin starred chef Michael Cimarusti at Providence Restaurant in Los Angeles, who has recently launched the first-ever Dock to Dish program in the state of California. “Dock to Dish has created a model that provides us with full traceability, impeccably handled and responsibly harvested local fish.” Cimarusti said today, “I have spent ten years at Providence looking to Japan, Europe and the Atlantic for most of our fish.  Working in the Dock to Dish program has allowed me to see that there are plentiful varieties of sustainable wild fish right in our backyard, which are exceptional. Chef Bell is a very well-respected leader in the sustainable fisheries space internationally, and what he is about to do with Skipper Otto’s and the Dock to Dish program will permanently alter the seafood marketplace in Vancouver. He is leading the charge to restore his community’s access to the freshest, healthiest and tastiest seafood anywhere; which happens to be swimming right here off our coast.”

American chef and author Dan Barber is a founding member of a sister Dock to Dish program located in Montauk, New York, where he has led the program to expand since 2012 to over fifteen well-known U.S. chefs participating, as well as the East Coast headquarter office of the Google Corporation. “It takes a special type of chef to embrace a concept like Dock to Dish and really make it click, thrive and succeed,” Barber said today. “Sourcing directly from local community-based fishermen in a purely supply driven ‘catch of the day’ model like this, brings a curious set of challenges which require a chef to be very versatile, creative, and adaptable. Having become familiar with, and impressed by, the philosophy and cooking style of Chef Bell over these past years, and knowing of his hard earned reputation and determination in creating a genuinely sustainable sourcing system for wild seafood in Canada, I envision that the Dock to Dish Vancouver program will flourish floridly under his guidance and likely, at some point, surpass the work we have done with the program here.”
Among the stated goals of the new Skipper Otto’s Dock to Dish program, outlined by co-founder Sonia Strobel today, are “to expand the reach of our already extremely popular CSF program, introducing a cooperative, membership model into the Vancouver restaurant marketplace. Concurrently,” Mrs. Strobel said, “we will be actively reviving our working-waterfronts, and directly supporting our community-based fishermen, while advancing a broad spectrum of ecological conservation efforts, and promoting good health. By working with Chef Ned Bell At YEW Seafood, hundreds of thousands of people each year will now hear our message about importance of reliable access to locally harvested, fair-trade, fully traceable, fishermen direct, sustainable seafood. We couldn’t be more excited about the power of this partnership to address global seafood supply challenges.”

 

 

 

Sonia - October 5, 2015


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Skipper Otto’s and Chef Ned Bell Launch Canada’s First Restaurant Supported Fishery

Sonia - October 5, 2015

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