2011 Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium

IMTA in the News

Thierry Chopin participates in the 2011 Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium

June 26-28, 2011

Dr. Barry Costa-Pierce, Director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, invited me, with Chris Aerni (Chef and owner of the Rossmount Inn in St. Andrews, New Brunswick) and Andrew Lively (Marketing Communications Manager at Cooke Aquaculture Inc.), to participate in the 10th Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium, which was quite a special edition this year and involved more than science, at least in the sense we generally use this term.

Dr. Barry Costa-Pierce, Director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant program and co-host of the Symposium, during his welcoming introduction.

This year the Baird Symposium took place in Providence and was co-hosted by the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the Johnson & Wales University. This year’s theme was “Developing the Rhode Island Seafood Knowledge Economy: Perspectives on Seafood Sustainability” and having the Symposium at the Culinary Arts Museum and the Center for Culinary Excellence of the Johnson & Wales University was not only very asppropriate but also most enjoyable for our taste buds!

Mr. James Griffin, Chef, Associate Provost at Johnson & Wales University and delightful co-host of the Symposium.

James Griffin, Associate Provost at Johnson & Wales University and co-host of the Symposium, gave us a brilliant demonstration of delightful savoir faire and etiquette throughout the three days. The conference rooms, the Cuisinart kitchen laboratories, the dining room, as well as the instructors and students of the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Programs were all first class.

Approximately 90 participants – scientists, chefs, seafood suppliers, local farming practitioners, journalists and bloggers, ENGOs, members of state and federal agencies and regulators – took part in this unconventional conference.

On Sunday afternoon, we were welcomed at the Culinary Arts Museum by James Griffin, Cathy Roheim (Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at URI) and Barry Costa-Pierce. Rhode Island Representative Eileen Naughton shared her views on fisheries and aquaculture. She obviously knows her files and we should maybe invite her to Canada to have her present her common sense points.

Mr. James Griffin and Dr. Cathy Roheim during the welcoming reception at the Culinary Arts Museum of Johnson & Wales University.

On Monday morning, we were at the Save the Bay building. Laurie White, President of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, told us that marine science, culinary arts, health and tourism were in fact a natural convergence.

Barry Costa-Pierce mentioned that it is very important to combine research, education and out-reach. This is indeed a key mission of the Sea Grant Program. Unfortunately, I am not the only one deploring the fact that we do not have an equivalent program in Canada. Outreach and extension are acutely missing in Canada and often make the approximately 10-15 years between Research and Development and Commercialization a mysterious black box that not many are able to go through successfully.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse also demonstrated an in depth knowledge of his files (his wife is a marine biologist at URI) and told us that we should not be only takers, but also caretakers of the oceans.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse during his remarks to Symposium participants.

Cathy Roheim gave a very interesting plenary presentation entitled “Defining sustainable seafood: environmental and economic perspectives”. Eighty percent of the seafood consumed in the USA is imported. Fifty percent of seafood consumed is from aquaculture. Seafood is the third largest USA deficit after oil and cars. The three key seafoods in the USA are shrimp, canned tuna and salmon. What 90.2 percent of the people want is freshness (a common theme during this Symposium). Sustainability has several dimensions (environmental, economic, social and health). I was very pleased to hear Cathy Roheim say that sustainability should be viewed as a path/a trajectory that can always be improved and not an end point/a threshold to be reached once. That has been my issue with some ENGOs and their standards. One of the problems is that some of these standards are passing or failing grades, with no incentives for continuous improvement from a minimal baseline, yet to be decided, followed by a tiered approach. Some argue that it would give accreditation to companies at a very low level. However, putting the bar too high is not a recipe for gradual improvement of everybody involved, to progress and gradually reach the ultimate goal, although admittedly not overnight. If 20 % of the global farmed seafood producers are certified at the highest threshold, what happens to the remaining 80 % and the chance of incentivizing them to improve their practices?

Dr. Cathy Roheim, Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island (URI).

On one hand, one can understand the desire by suppliers and retailers to see a hard to meet certification scheme so as to differentiate themselves from the others (most probably amounting to the privilege of displaying a sticker or logo on the packaging); on the other hand, too high a certification carrot, or moving goalposts, may not be the best strategy if progress toward overall better and more responsible aquaculture practices is the goal. The market will ultimately decide which certifying logo(s) and seafood pocket guides will be trusted by the general public, but we still have several years of confusion ahead of us. Cathy Roheim concluded that identifying sustainable seafood is a complicated business in which one has to balance value against costs.

We then had a panel discussion between chefs and scientists who shared their thoughts about seafood sustainability and the social, economic and environmental issues impacting sustainable seafood sourcing. I have the impression that we had a good discussion regarding sustainability at the niche market level in an opulent western society. If sustainability can be relatively well-circumscribed with supporters of the sustainable/local/seasonal movements and among affluent restaurant goers in weather clement regions and western world well offs, what does sustainability mean when we contemplate the global human population, which continues to grow and want to eat more seafood than ever per capita per year? Unfortunately, the players needed to have that discussion were not around the table. I am sure, however, that the discussion would have then turned towards which food production systems are the most efficient. A recent report by the WorldFish Center and Conservation International (“Blue frontiers – Managing the environmental costs of aquaculture”) indicates that aquaculture is more efficient and less damaging to the environment, compared to other animal protein production systems such as beef and pork, and will likely be among the most important sources of protein for human health and nutrition in growing urban populations in many parts of the developing world. It will, consequently, be key to future global food security.

Panel on sourcing sustainable seafood: Chef Derek Wagner (Nick’s on Broadway), Chef Ken Watt (Johnson & Wales University), Chef Jeff Wirtz (Blount Fine Foods), Chef Katherine See (Slade Gorton Co.), Dr. Jeremy Collie (Professor of Oceanography, URI) and Dr. Barry Coata-Pierce (Professor of Fisheries & Aquaculture, URI).

We also heard about the Alaskan “wild” salmon… and I decided to comment on that myth. There are at least 30 salmon hatcheries operating in Alaska. Each year, they release over 1.4 billion salmon, which have been genetically selected and fed on artificial diets for months: this is the largest anthropogenically organized salmon escape, year after year, and these fish are far from being wild! This year we are hearing that, after a strong start, the Bristol Bay salmon fishery has slowed down and the big question is where the 4.5 million 2-2s sockeye, which were supposed to return this summer, are. Neither fishers nor management biologists have any clues! Is that not what we would call a perfect escape? They have vanished, for whatever reasons, and nobody can find them! Are we ready to face reality and define “ocean-ranching” for what it is: selective aquaculture-organized escape-partial recapture? Interestingly, I was surprised to see some nodding heads in the room. If I had made such comments two years earlier, I would have been ostracized, especially in the USA! Are we seeing the beginning of the post Senator Ted Stevens era, with his all-mighty grip on all things Alaskan? We are now reading that the 600 million juvenile pink salmon released annually in Prince William Sound could be one of the likely causes of the failure of the herring population to recover from its drastic decline because of competition for food.

A nice display of the fish to be prepared in the afternoon.

For Monday afternoon, we moved to the building of the College of Culinary Arts, with its beautiful view on the Narragansett Bay. After a short introduction to the hands-on-break-out sessions, the approximately 90 participants split into three groups and went to three Cuisinart kitchen laboratories (or laboratory kitchens?!) to learn more about the selected fish species (haddock, summer flounder and scup, and Atlantic salmon). Each group started by listening to two or three presentations regarding their fish of the afternoon; then, it was hands-on, under the direction of an experienced chef, to prepare several recipes for the evening dinner, shared by all of the Symposium participants.

Not surprisingly, my name tag indicated “salmon” on its back and I went to the corresponding lab (quite different from the biology labs I know!). Cathy Roheim started by giving us some information on salmon, sustainability, and the results of a consumer survey (with amazing similarities to those we obtained in Canada and in New York State).

Dr. Thierry Chopin during his presentation.

I, then, gave a presentation entitled “Entering a new ERA (Ecosystem Responsible Aquaculture): the Turquoise Revolution of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture”. I described the IMTA concept and illustrated it with what we are doing in the Bay of Fundy in collaboration with Cooke Aquaculture Inc. I explained how IMTA salmon went commercial a few months ago as WiseSource™ Salmon sold by Loblaw Companies Ltd., the largest food distributor in Canada. Loblaw Company Ltd. has understood very well what sustainability is about: a journey of continuous improvement. When WiseSource™ Salmon was launched, Paul Uys, vice-president sustainable seafood, said “As we work towards our 100 per cent sustainable seafood goal we understand that success requires collaboration with our vendors and partners to ensure we make the most sustainable seafood available to our customers based on current methods, existing standards, and innovative practices such as IMTA”. I continued by showing pictures of the “nouvelle IMTA cuisine”, promoting the richness of regional culinary delights, we are developing with Chef Chris Aerni (The Rossmount Inn, St. Andrews), Chef Jean-François Fortin (The Fairmont Algonquin, St. Andrews) and Chef Jesse Vergen (The Saint John Ale House, Saint John). I concluded by saying that not everybody should be painted with the same brush (or roller). Some people/companies are trying to do the right thing and those who are helping better aquaculture practices should be rewarded and differentiated, which, at the same time, should create incentives for others to improve.

Chef Chris Aerni (Rossmount Inn) during his presentation in one of the Cuisinart kitchen laboratories.

I believe the over-simplification of seafood pocket guides reducing seafood choices to a traffic light system, in which species are painted with one stroke of green (best choice), yellow (good alternative) or red (avoid), is not a representation of reality, which is much more complex. I do not believe we need to oversimplify ranking systems for the general public (which would imply that we do not have much consideration for its intelligence). The general public is smart and wants to learn more. It is not the species that should be colored red, yellow or green… they did not do anything, it is not their fault! It is the fishing and farming practices designed by humans that need to be evaluated. The reality is a complex mosaic, a nuanced and granular approach based on practices, not species.

Chris Aerni, then, gave a presentation on how they approach sustainability at the Rossmount Inn, a well-known culinary destination in Eastern Canada. Chris told us that his food concept is local, fresh, seasonal, organic, wild, regional, honest and sustainable. He showed us what his draft menu, rewritten every day, looks like at 2:00 pm for the evening dinner: quite a draft manuscript which shows adaptation to the availability of the day, imagination, creativity, superb mastery of the subtle tastes and flavours developed by each ingredient and beautiful dish composition for the pleasure of the eyes and taste buds. A feast for our senses!

Chef Chris Aerni giving us a demonstration in fish filleting.

Chris has no problem serving locally farmed and fresh salmon, especially from a company such as Cooke Aquaculture Inc., which is developing better farming practices with the help of scientists. For him, locally grown salmon raised using ecologically sound practices is more sustainable than importing so-called “wild-caught” or “organic” species from far-away with a considerable carbon footprint. That is why you will not see Pacific shrimp or salmon on his menu. He, in fact, likes to write IMTA in his menus: this triggers the curiosity of his guests and is a wonderful way to engage the conversation on how he is sourcing his kitchen and sustainability, an overused term.

Chris’ presentation was followed by the unique part of this Symposium: after enough presentations, we got into the real thing! We prepared our collaborative dinner using all these fish we had been talking about! Cooke Aquaculture Inc. donated wonderful, very large salmon.

Ms. Erin Daily-Donahue (Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Consulate General in Boston) takes her salmon to her kitchen laboratory position

Chris showed us how to properly fillet a salmon and we all thought it would be a “piece of fishcake” until we reached our respective lab working spaces, put our aprons and hats on and started to work with our knives! Well, I have a new appreciation for the people in the Cooke Aquaculture Inc. fish plant in St. George: they are very skilled and we “butchered” our fish! As Chris mentioned, apprentice chefs generally start practicing their skills by cutting vegetables… we went right to filleting fish, and, moreover, big fish! With a smile, Chris said he was getting a lot of material for his salmon tartare (the not filletable pieces)! Under Chris’ enabling direction and patience, we prepared three succulent dishes:

A salmon carpaccio with olive and truffle oils, fleur de sel, pepper and chives;
A salmon tartare with avocado, cilantro and raddish;
A lightly cooked salmon au beurre blanc with lentils, cucumber and microgreens.

Interestingly, while all this food was being prepared, the relaxed ambiance was conducive to some excellent discussions and exchanges of opinions among the participants, along with mutual understanding and appreciation. This formula is something to remember for future seafood conference/festivals.

Apprentice Chef Barry Costa-Pierce filleting (“butchering”?!) his salmon.

The evening meal was most interesting and eating the “lab work” of all three groups was both delicious and entertaining. We learned many tricks and it is amazing how, when you work beside a Chef, things look so simple. Why, then, are we paralyzed, in our own kitchens, into thinking that things take so long to prepare when they do not, and a simple, but clever, addition of one ingredient can change everything?! The problem is, of course, the inspiration!

On Tuesday morning, we had a plenary presentation “Seafood and health” from Charles Santerre of Purdue University. Charles mentioned that seafood choices are often targeted at protecting the fetus and infant. In fact, it should be about extending the “diaper spread”: the time we spend between our early age and the time when we may need diapers again as we age! Combining scientific data and common sense, Charles covered omega-3 fatty acids, mercury, selenium, PCBs, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the validity of arbitrary thresholds with the brilliance that characterizes his presentations.

Apprentice Chef Thierry Chopin inspecting his salmon.

Taking everything into consideration, the risk of cancer in the USA population (312 million) would increase by 4 people over 70 years if they were eating 8 oz of fish, twice a week and during 70 years, which is 13 times more than the recommended dose. Then, this should be weighed against the health benefits of eating fish. It is interesting to note that discussions about omega-3 fatty acids generally center on fish as the source of these compounds. I commented that shellfish can also be an interesting source of omega-3 fatty acids, and referred, in particular, to our IMTA mussels.

We moved on to the scup session. David Beutel, from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, told us that scup is now plentiful, but an underappreciated and underutilized fish found throughout New England. There were plenty of scup floating traps (what we call weirs in the Bay of Fundy) in the early 1900’s (approximately 400); there may now be 20 active floating traps (I wonder why scup is now plentiful!). We then had a comparative taste test of scup and tilapia. They were cooked exactly the same way and we were asked which dish we preferred. I must admit that I preferred tilapia, but I wonder if, in fact, we did not compare apples and oranges. The fresh scup was not able to make nice fillets, while the tilapia, certainly caught earlier, did, resulting in fillets that were nicely buttered and crispy.

Apprentice Chef Thierry Chopin starting with the head before filleting his salmon.

That is when Maureen Pothier, Chair of the Culinary Arts Program, explained to us rigor mortis. After death, respiration ceases, depleting the corpse of oxygen used in making adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is no longer provided to operate membrane pumps and calcium ions start to diffuse, binding with troponin and allowing crossbridging between myosin and actin proteins, hence the development of the “stiffness of death” of the muscles which remain contracted. Fish fillets (or meat) are difficult to cook while they experience rigor mortis (Chris Aerni told me that he always cooks salmon the day after) and each species has a different period of time before rigor mortis dissipates. So, the fresh scup was still experiencing rigor mortis, while the tilapia bought at the store had gone beyond this stage, when digestive enzymes break down the myosin heads allowing the muscles to relax. I knew there was science (biochemistry) behind culinary art!

After the break, we switched to shellfish and, while Bill Silkes was explaining his journey through the development of his two companies, Salt Water Farms and American Mussel Harvesters, we participated in a “vertical tasting” of oysters. We had the pleasure of tasting four types of oysters:

Quonset Point oysters: grown in trays off long lines in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay off Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island, USA;
Cotuit oysters: grown in bags on water tables in Cotuit Salt Pond on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA;
Matunuck oysters: grown in bags on water tables in Potters Pond, Southern Rhode Island, USA;
Raspberry Point oysters: grown on the bottom of New London Bay, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Chef Chris Aerni spreading some fleur de sel on his salmon carpaccio.

Even if they were all Crassostrea virginica, tasting them one after the other really revealed not only the subtle difference in immediate taste, but also the after-taste, which for me is also important, as it is the taste that remains in your mouth for quite a while. The wine grand crus are characterized by their terroir (born in Beaujolais, I do not need an app to differentiate a Juliénas, grown on gentle slopes, from a Côte de Brouilly, grown on Mont Brouilly). It is about time we realize the virtues and attributes of the “meroir” when it comes to seafood, as the French Maître Ecailler Christophe Happillon, established in Los Angeles, would say.

After lunch, which included more oysters and delicious blue mussels from Bill Silkes, we had a very interesting session called “Gastronomies of scale: can the sustainable seafood movement go local?”. Ann Cook, founder and owner of The Local Catch, gave a very interesting presentation in which she highlighted the similarities and differences of the sustainable and local movements. One aspect the sustainable movement is not addressing is how to reduce the “carbon finprint” of non-local seafood.

Salmon carpaccio ready to be taken to the dining room.

As Ann’s presentation continued on, I realized that there was also a major, almost philosophical, question to be addressed. The local movement is all about known farms, soils, precise locations of origin, agricultural practices and freshness. Transposed to the marine environment, the only seafood that could be described as local should logically be restrained to benthic organisms such as seaweeds, shellfish and some other invertebrates. But when it comes to pelagic organisms, such as fish, the only ones that could be called “local” should be the ones which are cultivated at a precise site, i.e. the ones farmed through aquaculture practices! Some pelagic fish can have very long migratory routes during their life cycle and are only temporarily “local” at any particular location. From attitudinal surveys conducted by Sam Grimley and Cathy Roheim, it becomes clear that what the public calls “local fish” is, in fact, fish caught not too far from their selling point (around 50 kilometres) and by local fishers (even if there can be many tricks in what is called local landings and local boat registrations). So, what is really “local” is the fishing activity, not the fish, and that is not necessarily the same… maybe the common denominator is a quest for freshness.

Chef Chris Aerni preparing the salmon and avocado for the tartare with the help of Apprentice Chef Cathy Roheim.

So, as you can see from everything I have written, this was a very unique conference that triggered a lot of thinking in a remarkably cordial and bon vivant atmosphere, conducive to a lot of genuine exchanges. An experience to renew!

If you are in Providence and are not too sure what to do, go to the Johnson & Wales University Culinary Arts Museum. It is a little out of downtown, but definitely worth the detour. It is a most unusual museum on food preparation and presentation, culinary equipment and technology, and the evolution of culinary and hospitality heritage in the USA. It will delight foodies and amateurs alike and will take you from the hot dog wagon to the First Class Deck of the Queen Mary cruise liner, an Art Deco bar and the kitchen of the White House.

Salmon tartare with avocado, cilantro and radish ready to be taken to the dining room.

Apprentice Chefs Kifle Hagos and Barry Costa-Pierce preparing salmon slices.

Apprentice Chefs Thierry Chopin, Kifle Hagos and Barry Costa-Pierce cooking salmon lightly in olive oil.

Chef Chris Aerni, Chef Katherine See, Chef James Griffin, Dr. Catherine Roheim and Dr. Barry Costa-Pierce just before the start of the collaborative dinner.

Salmon carpaccio, salmon tartare and scup along the beautiful fresh, seasonal, regional and sustainable, wild and farmed, buffet table.

Salmon au beurre blanc with lentils, cucumber and microgreens.

Thierry Chopin’s fresh, seasonal, regional and sustainable, wild and farmed, plate.

Comparative taste test of tilapia and scup. However, tilapia (front) made better fillets than scup (background), which was still experiencing rigor mortis.

Mr. Bill Silkes during his presentation on shellfish.

Quonset Point oysters produced by Mr. Bill Silkes.

The Culinary Arts Museum of Johnson & Wales University: worth the detour from downtown Providence!

The Seaweed and Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Research Laboratory of

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Thierry Chopin participates in the 2011 Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium