Sustainable seafood is not yet a sourcing priority for French chefs, but the tide could be turning, suggests the findings of a new guide launched in France this week.
Questioning 76 restaurants across France, the Fish2Fork survey found one chef in three was interested in the environment and sourcing, Sylvette Peplowski, editor of the Fish2Fork France guide, told journalists at a press conference on Thursday.
The guide — which has already launched in the United Kingdom, the United States and Spain — ranks restaurants according to the impact their fish dishes have on marine life.
The online guide questioned French chefs about the species and origin of the seafood served in their restaurants, and the type of fishing gear used to catch the seafood.
Restaurants, invited to fill in questionnaires, were scored for the sustainability of the fish on their menu and their sourcing policies. When rating a restaurant, the guide uses data from the UK’s Marine Conservation Society as its benchmark. The best restaurants receive up to five blue fish, and the worst get up to five red fish.
The French guide rated 23 restaurants “above average,” scoring as high four blue fish. By contrast, 53 restaurants, or 70 percent, were “below average,” dropping to as low as five red fish.
The Fish2Fork France team stresses the aim of the online guide is “not to point the finger” but to help chefs in their move toward sustainable sourcing. A red rating “does not mean they’re not working toward” sustainable sourcing, said Peplowski.
Indeed, the guide is designed “to help consumers and validate conscientious chefs,” British journalist Charles Clover told SeafoodSource at the launch. Clover, the editor of Fish2Fork, is the author of the influential 2004 book “The End of the Line” that later hit the big screen in the form of a documentary film.
The Fish2fork France guide singled out a handful of French chefs driving sustainable seafood consumption. And leading the charge is Francois Pasteau, chef/owner of l’Epi Dupin in Paris. Click here to read an October 2010 SeafoodSource interview with Pasteau.
Speaking at the press conference this week Pasteau asserted: “I want my grandchildren to taste the great species of today.” For Pasteau, forging consumer awareness of sustainable species is “essential, just because a fish is cheap, doesn’t mean it’s not tasty.”
“I’m very worried about the future,” Mark Chevalier, chef of Au Petit Gari, based in Nice, in southern France, told journalists. He pointed to the information gap, suggesting, “We all need more knowledge, both the chef and the consumer, about which fish to avoid and to eat.”
Joining Chevalier and Pasteau as sustainable seafood champions are Philippe Pentecôte of Le Petit Bordelais in Paris and Emmanuel Taib, owner of the French sushi chain Côté Sushi. Michelin-starred chef Christian Têtedoie, owner of Têtedoie in Lyon, is also mindful of how he sources fish and seafood for his menus. “The maritime world has yet to follow the meat or vegetable supply chains” that promote the provenance of the foodstuff to consumers,” said Têtedoie.
His sentiments echo those of the Fish2Fork team, who pointed out that one restaurant questioned in Bordeaux could name the actual village that supplied pigeon for its menu and precise details on the race of its beef ingredients, but could not state the origin of their cod servings.
