Following a titanic response from seafood chefs across the country, the finalists for the MSC recipe of the year competition have been announced. Chosen from an extremely high quality field, the four finalists take in a diverse range of cultures and cooking styles from banana steamed pollock to a haddock pie cooked and served in its own frying pan. 

Chefs from MSC certified restaurants across the country were challenged to create an innovative and inspirational dish that could be cooked up in less than an hour by any fish-friendly home chef. The finalists will compete in a ‘cook off’ at the MSC headquarters on January 19th with the winner announced on the day. Prizes include a trip for two to the Shetland Islands shellfish fishery – currently going through MSC assessment.

On August 15th, the Marnie Stewardship Council launched a competition to find the best certified sustainable seafood recipe in the UK. Thousands of chefs in certified restaurants across the UK serve sustainable seafood on a daily basis. Now, the gauntlet has been thrown down to show the world just how good they are.

Hannah Arcaro, UK Foodservice Manager for the MSC says: “With over 120 fisheries across the world now certified, we know that there’s a wealth of delicious MSC recipes being cooked up in kitchens across the country and we want to know about them! We’re looking for an exciting and inspirational dish that tastes delicious. The winning recipe will be one that can be re-created by an experienced home cook in under an hour and use ingredients that are readily available to UK shoppers. That will mean the recipe can help to promote sustainably sourced seafood when dining out and at home."

The judges – to be announced nearer the final – will choose a shortlist of three entries to compete in a ‘cook-off’ and tasting at the MSC’s UK Commercial meeting in November 2011 with the winner announced on the day. Prizes include a trip for two to the Shetland Islands shellfish fishery - currently going through MSC assessment.

To enter you must work at an MSC certified restaurant in the UK. Once you have come up with your recipe, fill out the application form and submit, with a photo of your entry, to recipecompetition@msc.org by 14th October 2011.

In a landmark move for sustainability, McDonald’s has today announced that over 13 million customers every day across Europe will be able to buy Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified sustainable fish in McDonald’s restaurants from October this year.

The news comes as 7,000 McDonald’s restaurants across 39 European countries achieve certification to the MSC Chain of Custody traceability standard, as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to enhance its sustainable sourcing practices.

Over 50% of the world’s marine fish stocks are fully exploited*. The MSC is an independent global organisation set up to tackle the problem of overfishing by recognising and rewarding sustainable fisheries through its certification and eco-labelling programme. McDonald’s will be the first company in its sector to introduce MSC certified white fish throughout Europe. Last year, the company sold approximately 100 million Filet-o-Fish portions across Europe.

The Marine Conservation Society has just launched a new and simplified seafood sustainability guide with advice and recipe ideas to make buying sustainable and varied seafood much simpler, and some top buying tips and questions to ask your fish supplier. The guide also includes the Find a Fish tool which helps you work out how sustainable the fish you’re serving is, and which alternatives you could try.

Sustainable seafood was the flavour of the day at the Billingsgate Seafood Training school on when over 40 chefs, caterers and restaurateurs attended a sell-out event in March organised by Good Catch and Ethical Eats. The event, hosted by Billingsgate Seafood Training School, comprised of presentations about the sustainability problems in our seas, a guide to the practical steps to take to improve seafood sustainability in businesses like restaurants, pubs and cost-sector catering, plus a big focus on alternative species.  The event was perfectly timed to build on the huge interest in fish, following Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Fish Fight on Channel 4. With more and more chefs wanting to know how they can do their bit, there was a real hunger for information, as Richard Bell from the Three Stags in South London commented:

“I found the event extremely helpful. It was particularly well timed straight after Hugh’s Fish Fight TV campaign; it’s taken a celebrity chef from our catering industry to expose the devastation of the seabed and the shameful waste of fish stocks that’s been going on for years. I, for one, am most proud to be a part of the solution.
It’s essential that we, the catering trade, are all as well informed as possible about sustainability issues. These events are a great reminder to us all of where our food comes from, which we must never forget – they can help drive our individual passions for the issues, and pass them on to our customers.”

The training day started with an early morning tour of Billingsgate where chefs got the chance to meet seafood traders and see the incredible range of fish and shellfish on offer at the market.  Attendees were also put the test with a blind tasting, and challenged to ‘name that species’ – not as easy as it sounds! Beautifully prepared by the staff at the Seafood Training School, some lesser-loved fish species such as dab and gurnard proved popular with the chefs, who said they’d be interested in trying them out on their menus as tasty and often cost-effective alternatives to the usual suspects, such as cod, haddock and salmon.

A new campaign that’s championing good fish choices also excited attendees. Inspired by the seafood sustainability commitment of the 2012 Olympics, London is striving to become the first ever ‘Sustainable Fish City’. The public are lending their voices of support to the initiative and businesses are getting involved by pledging to specify sustainable fish in their catering contracts and menus and to promote sustainable fish to their customers. The Sustainable Fish City aim is for London's boroughs and large food businesses, including fish suppliers, to serve sustainable fish by 2012. Sustainable Fish City supporters are being encouraged to improve their seafood sourcing through the principle ‘avoid the worst, promote the best and improve the rest’. During the workshop five businesses  pledged their support for the Sustainable Fish City campaign, joining the strong list of existing supporters (includes D&D London restaurant group, Leon, Wahaca, Feng Sushi).

With the chance to meet suppliers and put questions to experts from Good Catch, the Marine Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Fish City campaign, the event gave chefs and restaurateurs a solid grounding in sustainable fish, to help them make better choices as to which fish to put on their menus. The morning was rounded off with a delicious kedgeree brunch using sustainable smoked coley.

The Top Ten fish swaps for restaurants can be downloaded at http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/11/top_ten_fishswaps_restaurants.pdf and photos from the day at Billingsgate can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28183553@N05/sets/72157626062155571/

This year's National Fish and Chip Awards were presented amid a flurry of seafood interest, as celebrity chefs on the Fish Fight TV shows were trying to guide taste buds toward less-known sustainable fish options rather than the standard favourites of cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. Chefs from the Fish Fight team were at the awards promoting their 'mackerel mission' - encouraging chippies across the land to show some love to a great British fish by serving 'mackerel baps'.

With about 10,500 shops across the United Kingdom, fish and chips are a key part of the nation’s fish culture and important businesses when it comes to sustainable sourcing and winning over the public to sustainable fish options. The Good Catch Award - one of the fish and chip awards presented in London last week - recognises those fish and chip shops that are improving the environmentally responsible practices of their business and the seafood that they serve. This year the Good Catch Award judges had tough decisions to make as the quality of the applications was especially high, all showing dedication to advancing sustainability.

This year’s Good Catch Award-winning restaurant is The Chip Box, in Stewarton, Scotland whom judges felt had really done their homework to source sustainably and impressed with the knowledge and enthusiasm of the whole Chip Box Team and their promotions to encourage diners to try often-overlooked fish choices. Judges also applauded this year’s other finalists, Alfie Grimshaw, of Kenilworth, and Harbour Lights of Falmouth in Cornwall as real ambassadors doing a fantastic job of encouraging other fish and chip shops and suppliers to join them on the sustainability journey.

Ronnie McCulloch, of The Chip Box, said, “It’s fantastic to see the nation as a whole getting behind sustainable seafood and more people demanding the fish they eat comes from a MSC-certified fishery. If we don't act together now, future generations will not be able to enjoy the fish we currently take for granted.”