Sustainable Restaurant Association President Raymond Blanc and Fish Fight chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose restaurant River Cottage is a former SRA award winner, emerge best in a new list that shines a light on celebrity chefs’ sometimes questionable choice of fish in their recipes.
The University of York environment department’s report Celebrity chefs and the sustainable seafood movement: Smokescreen or a dish to savour? highlights the responsibility famous chefs have to showcase sustainable fish in their best selling cookbooks.
The report states: “Continued promotion of sustainable seafood by celebrity chefs could help improve the management of marine resources, but uptake of the concept is still highly variable between individuals.”
This study examined the books of ten celebrity chefs, including Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver to establish the sustainability of the seafood featured within them, using The Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Fishonline website. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s books achieved the highest ranking with an average score of 87%. Raymond Blanc showed the greatest improvement between 2005 and 2012, rising from 22% to 85%, reflecting a general improvement among most chefs over time.
Mark Linehan, Managing Director of the SRA, said: “Consumers consistently tell us that they want chefs to tell them about the sustainable things they are doing. Celebrity chefs in particular have a huge influence on the buying, cooking and eating habits of the public and so we welcome this report that we hope will encourage all chefs to opt for sustainable species, whether on their menus or in their books or TV programmes.”
The SRA works closely with the MCS and other seafood bodies when advising chefs on which fish to source for their restaurants, and issues them with factsheets about all elements of sustainable practice when it comes to seafood.
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The report concludes that while some of the chefs on the list still have a long way to go, there has been an overall improvement since 2005. The report’s authors Polly Bowman and Bryce Stewart finish by urging chefs to engage even more positively in this issue to ensure a healthy future for fish: “Increased promotion of seafood sustainability in popular culture should be seen as an important way of reducing pressure on the marine environment into the future.”