Sushi shines at SIRHA

Seafood from as far as Alaska and Australia is on display at SIRHA, Europe’s largest foodservice trade exhibition, in Lyon, France, this week.

The five-day event — which boasts more than 150,000 visitors and 22,000 exhibitors from around the globe, including around 10,000 chefs from 136 countries — is all about food, and with so many chefs in attendance there is palatable excitement in the air.

Engaging in conversation with chefs about seafood is very different from talking to wholesalers and distributors. Sustainability, quality, provenance and price are common priorities, but chefs pepper their discussions with adjectives about the cooking attributes of a product — how it will taste and what it will look like on the plate. Their enthusiasm is infectious.

So what’s catching their eye? Salmon in all shapes and forms remains popular, but sushi appears to be the fastest-growing sector, as evidenced by its appearance on an increasing number of menus and the emergence of new sushi restaurant chains.

Benjamin Berdah, export manager of Christian Langloys, explained that the company’s sushi sales have increased rapidly over the past year in both foodservice and retail outlets. “We work closely with Carrefour to make a number of sushi products and Japanese recipes, and these are very popular in France, Germany and Belgium,” he said. “An exciting new market for us is Benin, in West Africa, where we are working to introduce people to the new taste and texture of sushi, and sales are very encouraging. We have also introduced fish soup into Dubai and are pleased with the response from consumers and chefs.”

As well as being a sashimi specialist, Spanish supplier Intersmoked SL finds its carpaccio and tartar range growing in popularity. The carpaccio range includes octopus, tuna, baccalao and salmon, while the company’s tartar offerings comprise espadon, albacore, cod and salmon. These are supplied in moulded, modified-atmosphere, ready-to-plate packs and in larger catering packs. “There has been a lot of interest in these products, which offer the chef a very convenient starter portion,” said a spokesman.

Despite a global recession, caviar remains as fashionable as ever, and a host of companies are represented at the show, selling both wild and farmed product. One distributor, Bellorr, explained that its selection is taken only from farmed sturgeon. “Chefs are increasingly asking about the provenance of caviar in response to queries from their customers, and this was a major factor in our decision not to source from the wild,” said company director Romain Belloir.

Prawns are a staple of foodservice and haute cuisine, and the message from companies exhibiting at SIRHA was strong on quality, traceability and sustainability. Cristal Bay from New Caledonia promoted a pesticide-free, GM-free, antibiotic-free, traceable crevette (Litopenaeus stylirostris) that can be served as sushi. This attracted a great deal of attention from big-name chefs seeking something new and exclusive to add to their menus.  

Scottish langoustines were also doing well, and Colin Grahame of Frozen@Sea Ltd. reported a high level of enquiries for his product. “Our langoustine, which are frozen at sea within a few hours of the catch, were chosen for use in the final of the internationally famous Bocuse d’Or competition, which runs alongside SIRHA,” he said. “Because of this we have really benefited from publicity surrounding the event and will need to take on more boats to increase our supply base.”

SIRHA runs through 26 January, and it’s apparent that sushi is one of the shining stars of the show.

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