Christine Blank

The U.S. oyster industry is up in arms over a U.S. Food and Drug Administration official’s proposal to ban raw Gulf oysters and substitute them with processed oysters.

“If we don’t have the raw, live oysters on the menu, people will just be getting something else,” Kevin Begos, director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force in Apalachicola, Fla., told SeafoodSource on Friday.

“This would cost us thousands of jobs and

Tying Florida pink shrimp in with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October is just one of the ways the state’s shrimp industry is trying to spur sales of the product.

Working with the Florida Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing in Tallahassee, Sweetbay Supermarket is tying the “Think Pink” Breast Cancer Awareness campaign in with Key West pink shrimp.

For two weeks in mid-October, the 102-store Florida chain is featuring the shrimp

A new program in Florida is connecting local seafood suppliers and school districts’ foodservice directors.

The Florida Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing lau nched the “Seafood to Schools” program this summer to help school districts in the state find local seafood. The agency is now looking for more seafood vendors to participate in the program.

“The schools are looking for healthy meals, and we are trying to get them introduced

Alvin Binuya, who was the chef of Ponti Seafood Grill in Seattle when it opened in 1990, is back at the eatery as a partner and executive chef. He was most recently the owner and executive chef of Madoka in Bainbridge Island, Wash. Binuya will oversee the sourcing of more sustainable seafood and a menu makeover at a restaurant known for an eclectic mix of pan-Asian, Pacific Northwest fusion, Mediterranean and classic European cuisine.

Specialty food sales — including seafood items — continue to grow, but some Americans are cutting back on specialty food purchases, according to a new survey.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) on Wednesday released the results of a survey of 1,500 adults conducted by Mintel International and Greenfield Online.

While the specialty food market is worth USD 60 billion (EUR 40.3 billion), 46 percent of consumers said

Upscale seafood restaurants are among the top rated restaurants in New York, according to Zagat’s 2010 New York City restaurant survey, released yesterday.

Zagat’s “top newcomer” restaurant is Marea in Central Park South, which the publication says offers “inventive” Italian takes on seafood. Other top newcomers include: Porchetta, Buttermilk Channel, Txikito and Char No. 4. Meanwhile, Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin, which focuses

Executive Chef Thierry Meissonnier leads a 65-member culinary team at the 1,400-room Hilton Orlando, which opened in September near the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Meissonnier, who began his career at the Beau Rivage hotel in Paris, oversees Hilton Orlando’s seven dining options, including Spencer’s, a casual contemporary restaurant featuring steaks and chops. Other dining options include: The Bistro, a casual dining

 The Lanesborough, an upscale hotel in London, recently opened Apsleys — A Heinz Beck Restaurant, an Italian eatery that prominently features local seafood. Apsleys is Heinz Beck's first restaurant beyond Italy. The German chef is celebrated in Italy. His restaurant, La Pergola in the Cavalieri Hilton, is Rome's only restaurant to earn three Michelin stars.

SeafoodSource caught up with Beck to talk to about his latest venture, which opened in

John Regan, the new executive chef at Founding Farmers in Washington, D.C., an LEED-certified restaurant owned by a collective of family farmers, is sticking with the one-year-old restaurant’s sustainability initiatives. The upscale-casual eatery, near the White House, features entrées made from sustainably farmed and harvested seafood as well as local seafood. To that end, Founding Farmers and its sister restaurant, Agraria Farmers &