An interactive chef education initiative produced by Wild Atlantic Prawns has seen an increased awareness of more than double in less than a year the company said today at Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium.
The success of the program has directly resulted in further investment from processors into cold water prawns in Iceland and Norway. New investors will join current funders Royal Greenland and the Association of Seafood Producers in Canada.
“After less than a year since the project launch, awareness of the programme among our target audience of trainee chefs and lecturers has gone from 18 percent to 43 percent. In addition, 92 percent of these chef lecturers are able to tell us about the provenance and wild nature of these prawns compared with just over half at the outset of the project – something the project was established to address,” said project director Karen Galloway.
“We believe these amazing results highlight the importance of the food industry in supporting trainee chefs to make the most of any food produce, particularly our Wild Atlantic Prawns. We are incredibly grateful to all the partners for their support and look forward to delivering an even greater programme of engagement in the year ahead. ”
The program, which launched in 2015, is designed to increase the knowledge of prawns among UK-based chefs, chef lecturers, student chefs and hospitality management students. The project includes a suite of master classes, involvement in events and UK competitions, and blogger and social media outreach.
The program was created from a collaboration between Royal Greenland and the Association of Seafood Producers. With the addition of seafood producers from Iceland and Norway, the program now represents most of the wild Atlantic prawn processing regions in the North Atlantic.
“Given the many varieties of prawns, not to mention seafood generally, it is imperative that future chefs are educated about wild Atlantic prawns and equipped with the foundations of a true understanding of this great product before they enter professional kitchens,” said Derek Butler, executive director and board chair of the Association of Seafood Producers.
