Two Fine Dining restaurants, Q Roadhouse and Brewing Co. and Il Villagio Osteria, have made moves toward sourcing their seafood more sustainably by becoming members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program helps consumers and businesses make choices for healthy oceans.
Better known as just the Seafood Watch, this program helps restaurants and consumers choose seafood that is fished or farmed in ways that protect sea life and habitats. They recommend seafood items that are “best choices” or “good alternatives”, and which ones you should “avoid.”
Since 1999, the Seafood Watch has been raising public awareness about sustainable seafood issues through consumer guides, their website, and their smartphone app. Their main goal is to encourage restaurants, distributors, and seafood purveys to purchase from sustainable sources.
As a member of the Seafood Watch, you agree to source your seafood in a responsible, sustainable manner.
Q Roadhouse and Brewing Co. and Osteria Chefs feel strongly about this program.
Osteria’s Executive Chef, Eric Greenwood grew up on the East Coast, and remembers catching crabs as a young child with his family. He shared that as he grew older, the crabs started to get smaller and smaller, while the prices continued to increase, something he didn’t understand. ” I asked my parents why this was and they told me the demand of crabs had gotten so high that the fisherman were over fishing the crab population to keep up with the demand. This is where my passion for sustainable and environmental seafood really started. Now that I am an executive chef, I feel as though I’m in a position to make a difference and to lead by example. If I am able to only serve seafood caught or farmed in a responsible way, the cooks in my kitchen and the customers in my dining room will hopefully become more wise to the serious situation that is facing us. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program is designed to educate industry professionals and consumers alike who are interested in helping bring attention the of over fishing of our waters. It was a no brainer to team up with them. They will help me educate my staff and diners and in return I will help spread the word on what they do.”
Q Roadhouse and Brewing Co.’s Chef de Cuisine, Matty Melehes, acknowledges wanting to have been a part of this program before he was a chef. “I have wanted to be part of this program ever since I moved back from Vancouver, British Columbia. As a young chef in culinary school, I was fascinated by how much guests in BC cared about the fish they were eating, almost to the point where a restaurant could be made or broken by how well they sourced their fish. When I returned to America, most specifically the Rockies, no one seemed to care or pay much attention to this at all. It became a pet peeve of mine, especially when I realized the chefs here did care, it was more of a lack of understanding among consumers. In fact, the chefs I know in Jackson Hole cared deeply about where their product was coming from. By becoming part of this program, not only are we supporting responsible fishing efforts, we are allowing our guests to make informed decisions about what they are eating. They can feel good eating our seafood dishes because they know where they have come from. It requires some additional effort on our end, but it is time happily spent because it puts our culinary principles into action, while also providing our guests with the very best product.”
