GOAL: Chefs use social media to draw consumers to seafood from aquaculture

During his address to attendees at this year’s GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland, organized by the Global Aquaculture Alliance, restauranteur JP McMahon discussed the expanse of the chef’s educational toolbox, which can be used to actively engage consumers with aquaculture and seafood. 

Nowadays, chefs have a great deal at their disposal when it comes to the things they can do to guide consumers in the direction of farmed seafood, and seafood in general, McMahon said. Most notable among these tools is imagery and social media, said McMahon, who serves as the culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group.

“When we think about chefs as influencers and how we can influence people, the way I do it is through imagery. I also do it through my food. But, as I always say, sometimes it’s not enough just to cook – you need to tell people about it,” he said.

Preparing responsibly sourced seafood is only part of the battle, argued McMahon – in today’s highly visual, digitally-integrated world, it matters that consumers see chefs who they can relate to fulfilling sustainable seafood promises.

“It’s not enough for me to just use seafood sustainably – you really need to tell people about it and change attitudes towards it, because if we don’t, then we keep going the same old way, and then, of course, we’ll run out of fish,” McMahon said. “Because of social media in the last five or so years, imagery on food has absolutely taken over. There are about 70 million images of food put up daily on Instagram."

McMahon, who also helps organize an international chef symposium called “Food on the Edge,” pointed to Danish chef René Redzepi and English chef Nathan Outlaw as positive examples of how foodservice professionals can use social media to share the story of seafood sustainability and engage with consumer audiences. 

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