Standing with suzuki: Councilwoman Trish Kenz, Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation, Chef Nobu Ochi, Mike McDermid of the Vancouver Aquarium, and myself. The guest of honor is a farmed striped bass.
The event yesterday at Zen restaurant in West Vancouver was, in my opinion, a good way to jumpstart sustainability awareness in the local sushi industry. There’s a tremendous number of sushi restaurants here in the Vancouver area, and it’s good to see that Chef Nobu Ochi and his staff are committed to moving in this direction, as this kind of effort can prove a model for other restaurateurs in the area. That being said, Zen is not a sustainable sushi restaurant. Not yet. The menu still offers tako, hokkigai, and hamachi, and who knows how the yellowfin tuna is being caught or where it’s from.
Chef Ochi, however, does not make any false claims about this. He is not in any way attempting to fool the media or the consumer public into thinking that his restaurant has made more progress than it actually has. “If we had to go fully sustainable at once, we could never do it,” he told me yesterday. “We need to take these steps and see how our customers react.”
- Woot! I’m outta here!
This is a fair point and I applaud him for doing what he has already done — Zen has eliminated all unsustainable whitefish (karei and others) from its menu. Ochi will not serve bluefin, and I haven’t managed to find unagi on the menu either. In my eyes, these are laudable qualities and certainly differentiate Zen from most run-of-the-mill sushi spots that I’ve encountered.
There is a difference between starting a sustainable sushi restaurant from scratch, and changing an existing restaurant into a sustainable one. Chefs are concerned about alienating their current clientele through the removal of long-standing menu favorites. Distribution and sourcing, too, becomes an issue, as a menu shake-up demands going back to the drawing board with one’s purveyors and drafting a new plan to acquire sustainable and traceable product. This is not an easy thing to do.
So Chef Ochi has a point, and I don’t disagree with him. It is important to allow restaurants to take the steps that they are able to take. If we require an immediate and total jump to sustainability, we will indeed scare off a number of curious chefs that are not yet comfortable with such a leap.
But.
This cannot be allowed to get in the way of the message that fully sustainable sushi is not only possible, but necessary. It exists, and restaurants like Tataki Sushi Bar in San Francisco and Bamboo Sushi in Portland can prove it. Bamboo is a great example, as it was not opened as a sustainable sushi restaurant but actually upgraded into one from a pre-existing unsustainable condition. This is a great model for restaurants like Zen.
Sustainability is a journey, not a place. This isn’t about about getting a restaurant to a particular point, labeling it “sustainable,” and setting the menu in stone. A sustainable restaurant has to be dynamic — continually innovative, responsive to the seasons, and accepting of the changes that our planet is undergoing. The desire for a static solution to this issue is unfortunately unrealistic.
So yes, it’s good that these steps were taken. And I am happy to have been involved. But we cannot allow this kind of progress to be considered to be “enough.” Chef Ochi knows that, though, and seems open to continual improvement. So cheers to him, and cheers to the Zen team — and I look forward to watching this restaurant evolve.
Tags: nobu, oceanwise, ochi, seachoice, vancouver, zen
The unflagging efforts of the stellar team at Seachoice, a coalition of five Canadian conservation organizations, have paid off in the creation of the new Seachoice sushi card. This excellent wallet-sized consumer guide highlights sustainable choices and identifies less positive options, which it differentiates via the tried-and-true red/yellow/green system employed in Sustainable Sushi and by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.
The primary author of this card, Shauna MacKinnon of the Living Oceans Society (a British Columbian NGO forming one of the legs of the SeaChoice pentapod), worked hand-in-hand with both Canadian and American scientists, conservation organizations, and industry representatives to compile a thorough account of the seafood options that are often found at any given sushi bar north of the Peace Arch. The final culmination of this admirable task will take place on April 22nd at Zen, an upscale Japanese restaurant in West Vancouver, when the card is launched publicly. A simultaneous introduction of the sushi card will occur in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will be manned by SeaChoice representative Rob Johnson with support from the Ecology Action Centre, the Maritime piece of the SeaChoice puzzle.
This event also marks the induction of Zen into the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program, a voluntary restaurant quasi-certification system wherein participating restaurants use the Ocean Wise logo to indicate sustainable options on their menu. Zen will be the first Japanese restaurant to join Ocean Wise.
I’m thrilled to see another sushi restaurant getting on the sustainability train. To add to my excitement, I’ve been asked to speak for a few minutes at Zen about sustainability in sushi. My only worry is this: how sustainable is Zen going to be, exactly? I still haven’t seen a copy of the menu. I don’t know if they plan to eliminate unsustainable products permanently, or just for the day. So until I have a few minutes with Zen’s chef, Nobu Ochi, I’m forced to withhold judgment on the veracity of his efforts towards sustainable seafood. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Tags: launch, oceanwise, seachoice, sushi card, tour, vancouver, zen
Just to let you know, the California Report interview about sustainable sushi and Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar was re-broadcast nation-wide today on NPR’s “Day to Day.” Check it out here.
So glad to see that this issue is getting press.
Now I just have to get her to do a story about the book…!
Well, by this time, the radio spot is already over. I should have probably posted this a few days ago, but hey, I’ll make the best of it.
Rachael Myrow of KQED sat down a couple of weeks back for an interview with Geoff Shester and Stephanie Danner of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, and invited me to tag along. It was a great experience. The piece was aired this morning (Feb 13th) on KQED in San Francisco, and KZOR in the Monterey Bay area.
I consider myself very fortunate to count both Geoff and Stephanie among my colleagues in the ocean conservation movement; they’re both brilliant scientists and have a great deal to teach.
But best of all… they’re huge Tataki fans!
I can’t express what an incredible thrill it is to hear representatives from the Monterey Bay Aquarium express their approval of what Kin, Raymond, Gretchen, and and the rest of the Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar family have done here in San Francisco. I mean, this is Seafood Watch — these are the gods and goddesses of sustainable seafood! So I’m a little humbled today… but I’ve also been strutting around down with a stupid grin on my face for the past several hours.
Anyhow, about the spot:
Rachael asked a lot of questions about bluefin tuna. In fact, I think the piece was originally intended to be mainly focused on bluefin. When it aired, though, it had transformed into something much broader.
Bluefin tuna is an extraordinarily important topic: an iconic fish that embodies both the awesome lifeforce of the ocean, as well as the heart-stopping peril in which our waters find themselves. That being said, Rachael veered from what would have been a concentrated piece on bluefin (similar to the excellent recent work of Alastair Bland in the Santa Cruz Metro) and broadened her focus considerably to discuss seafood sustainability in general.
I think it’s commendable for KQED to approach this issue from such a holistic perspective. It’s important to see the ocean not as a collection of individual fish and organisms, but as a living, interwoven fabric. All the animals and plants of the ocean are intermingled. The majestic bluefin tuna is incredibly important, sure, but the homely urchin, the tiny nudibranch, and even the drifting aquatic weeds of the Sargasso are equally integral to the health of our oceans.
Thanks, Rachael, for your interest, and for helping us put it all in perspective.
You can listen to the radio spot here.
Tags: bluefin, California report, KQED, NPR, rachael myrow, radio, seafood watch, Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar, toro
Well, it looks like word is finally getting around!
The saintly Jacqueline Church of Leather District Gourmet fame has just released a review of Sustainable Sushi. It makes me blush, but I’m not so humble as to miss my chance to post the link here. So if you’ll allow me a bit of shameless self-indulgence, take a look at Ms. Church’s article.
Thank you 
Tags: gourmet101, jacqueline church, leather district gourmet, review
Posted by Casson on Jan 10, 2009 in
Restaurants and Reviews Rules are coming soon — I promise!
San Francisco’s Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar is the first sustainable sushi restaurant in the world. Here’s a little peek at what chefs Kin Lui and Raymond Ho are slinging:
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The Tataki roll, which tops an Alaskan crab and pollock mixture with six different kinds of sustainable fish and multi-colored Icelandic masago.
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One of Tataki’s many vegetarian options, the Reggae Roll uses shaved pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, and other luscious vegetables to invoke the classic red, green, and gold.
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Tataki Sushi Bar’s sustainable sashimi deluxe.
The sashimi plate in particular is an incredible example of what conscientious chefs can do with sustainable fish. Clockwise from the top:
- British Columbia trap-caught spot prawns as ama ebi
- MSC-certified domestic albacore tuna from the North Pacific as shiromaguro
- Handlined yellowfin tuna from Hawaii as maguro
- Closed-containment farmed striped bass from California as suzuki
- Suspension-farmed Hokkaido scallops as hotate
- A few more slices of the same Hawaiian maguro
- Farmed almaco jack from Hawaii as kanpachi
- A lovely rose of closed-containment farmed arctic char from Washington State as iwana
Posted by Casson on Dec 26, 2008 in
Restaurants and Reviews As the sushi industry begins to wake up to the damage that it has caused, one can hope that some chefs will change accordingly. Part of the mission of Sustainable Sushi is to identify those restaurants that are actively working to preserve our oceanic ecosystems and to leave a smaller footprint on our planet.
Restaurants reviewed on this site will be evaluated not on terms of food quality (although it certainly may be mentioned in the review), but rather on the sustainability of the seafood offerings on the menu and the perspective of the chef. Does he/she acknowledge that sustainability is an important issue? What kind of fish and shellfish are served? Does the restaurant promote eco-friendly options, or does it sling bluefin tuna without compunction?
The task of writing restaurant reviews is open to all visitors to Sustainable Sushi. Interested in contributing? Read the rules of review post.
So yes, it’s good that these steps were taken. And I am happy to have been involved. But we cannot allow this kind of progress to be considered to be “enough.” Chef Ochi knows that, though, and seems open to continual improvement. So cheers to him, and cheers to the Zen team — and I look forward to watching this restaurant evolve.
