Two-thirds of the fish Australians eat is wasted.
After the fillets are taken, the rest is usually thrown away.
This poor recovery affects the price.
“You’re paying for the whole fish, but you’re actually only eating a third, but all the parts of the fish have huge value, like the head, the tail, the skin,” said Patrick Hone, director general of Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
Chefs are starting to use more fish, including offal.
Delicious leftovers
The beef, lamb, pork and chicken industries have much higher recovery rates, ranging from over 50% to the 70s, but why is seafood recovery so low?
“Seafood offal is a really unexplored area,” said Chef Danielle Dixon.
Chef Danielle Dixon says championing underutilized spices is very important. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
“With the average net profit for a food company sometimes being just 1% or less, it’s really crucial that we start educating people on how to take a little-known product that’s low-priced and really we’re elevating it to a menu item. enjoy it, and you can really make money.”
Ms. Dixon trains apprentice chefs at Brisbane’s Institute of Culinary Excellence.
His team recently prepared fish dishes with trimmings as well as underused fish species to show Brisbane chefs the flavors and savings they are missing.
“I’ve never come across one of these underutilized species that is unpleasant to eat,” Dixon said.
“We’re not going to get too dirty because they’re all remarkable and beautiful products. We just have to help people see it.”
Exploring new flavors
The event was the brainchild of seafood purveyor and former chef Umar Nguyen, who represents some of Australia’s most prestigious seafood brands.
Despite working with high-end seafood, he is campaigning to get chefs to use more of each fish and serve more lesser-known species.
“If a chef starts using it, consumers will use it. They influence home cooks and end consumers,” Ms Nguyen said.
Former chef Umar Nguyen represents some of Australia’s most prestigious seafood brands. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
Aiming Chefs has the full support of the fishing industry.
“It’s the ripple effect. Five chefs will talk to 10 other chefs. [Then] they will talk to 50 other chefs,” said Patrick Hone, chief executive of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
One of the most surprising dishes was a pate made with 1.5 kilos of eagle ray liver.
In Australia, liver is usually packaged, but Gold Coast executive chef Dayan Hartill-Law was inspired by a French fish pate called the “foie gras of the sea”.
“The monkfish liver is one of the most revered menu items in Paris, so why wouldn’t we try it? [to] do it with something that’s in our waters here?” he said.
“Why would you throw it in the trash?
This pâté was made from a 1.5 kilogram eagle ray liver. In Australia, the liver is usually preserved. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
Chef Shane Veivers described the pate as “elegant and rich”.
“We’re going to see a lot more products that traditionally would have been discarded because they’re delicious,” Veivers said.
Impressive pearl-blue scampi eggs were also on offer.
Once discarded, the “caviar” is now worth more than the scampi meat.
Unadventurous eaters
Darwin skipper Grant Barker supplied the rarely used fish species for the event.
“There’s darktail snapper, dark groper, crimson snapper, Indonesian snapper and longnose emperor. All of these fish are very good to eat, but they’re not well known,” he said.
Hundreds of edible but little-used fish have long been in need of a cheerleader, but Barker says it would take a lot to change people’s preferences because Australians are tribal shellfish eaters.
This prawn ceviche was made from an unpopular Australian deep sea prawn. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
“People in Melbourne will eat flake, people in Western Australia have their kind, South Australians only want to eat fish, pink snapper and king George whiting. They don’t even know about these things, and there’s this reluctance generational to change,” he said. said
Mrs Dixon was excited to see how the chefs enjoyed the tales of roast monkfish.
“People think those little tails, those jagged sizes, aren’t really worth it, but for the price it could bring to a chef’s menu and the flavor and versatility of this fish, it really needs to be showcased.” . she said
Chef Matt Golinski was surprised that fishermen found them such a hard sell.
“Crazy! I’d like to use them… [they’re] amazing,” Golinski said.
Ms Nguyen said chefs could lead the way in tackling the problem of seafood waste and underutilisation.
Chef Telina Menzies runs the kitchens of 50 hotels in Melbourne.
He says the times fit Ms. Nguyen’s message.
Rap burgers were served to the chefs and the reception was promising. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
“We can’t take, take, take [from the ocean]. We really need to look for ways to give back and look for other ways to put food on the table and offer customers something interesting as well,” he said.
Australians eat only a fraction of the 5,000 species of fish in our waters.
Industry research predicts that the use of more overlooked fish species could increase the national fishery catch by 250,000 tonnes.
Less dependent on imports
“That’s about two-thirds of what we import from overseas,” Dr Hone said.
“Ethically, it’s important that Australia uses its fish stocks for their optimal sustainable catch. We owe it to the world. We shouldn’t be importing food from other places if we can produce it ourselves.”
Dr Hone was impressed by how “The Fish Girl” – as Ms Nguyen is known on Instagram – uses social media to connect fishermen and chefs.
Chefs say pate made from eagle ray liver is surprisingly delicious. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
“I just put up a picture and said, ‘Hey chefs, we don’t want to waste this, help me, help the producers, help yourselves,’ because we need the producers to stay in business to have product for you.” Ms. Nguyen said.
The ambassador for the unloved fish has many followers in the culinary and seafaring communities.
“Umar’s tenacity and ability to see the industry as a whole means he can bring these products to markets that would normally say, ‘No thanks.’ So the role he plays as an advocate for these underutilized species is so incredibly important,” Ms Dixon said.
Umar Nguyen says it was difficult at first to get the chefs interested in trying new things, but their persistence has paid off. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)
“Umar is not the greatest defender of Umar, but … it wouldn’t be good to have a thousand more Umars,” Dr Hone said.
Watch this story on ABC TV Landline at 12.30pm on Sunday or on ABC iview.