For Immediate Release July 8th, 2013
New York, NY – Seafood Throwdown, a unique cooking competition that highlights the importance of local seafood in restoring a healthy ocean ecosystem, is coming back to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on July 13, 2012 from 11am to 1pm.
In this Iron-Chef inspired program, Slow Food NYC and Brooklyn Food Coalition will face off against each other in a heart-pounding race to transform a secret seafood ingredient with other foods from the farmers market vendors into culinary delights.
Judging this spectacular competition will be Blue Moon Fish’s Stephanie Villani, GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen, and reigning champion Cheryl Smith of Cheryl’s Global Soul. Matt Timms of The Takedown will emcee the event giving the play-by-play of all the action.
Seafood Throwdowns present an opportunity to learn more about fisheries policies and what we can do to protect the marine environment while supporting local fishing communities. The Grand Army Plaza Seafood Throwdown is a collaboration between Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) and GrowNYC/ Greenmarket.
“Current fisheries policies are turning fishing into highly extractive operations modeled after industrial agriculture and turning fishermen into sharecroppers. The family fishermen are going the way of the family farm leaving the ocean to the highest bidder. This endangers the marine environment, our access to healthy locally caught seafood and our local fishing economies,” said Niaz Dorry, NAMA’s director.
“Our not-so-secret agenda is to raise awareness about these flawed policies and the ecological and economic importance of small-scale, locally caught seafood to the marine ecosystem, local economies, coastal communities and our food system.”
“We think about where our tomato comes from, who grew it, how they grew it and how far it traveled before it ended up on our plates. We need to think the same way about our shellfish and seafood,” said Liz Carollo, GrowNYC/Greenmarket Publicity Manager. This year’s competitors bring to the table significant experience in building robust local food systems.
Slow Food NYC is the New York City chapter of Slow Food, a non-profit, member-supported organization founded in 1989 to counteract the culture of fast food. Slow Food stands against the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
The Brooklyn Food Coalition is a grassroots organization dedicated to the vision of a just and sustainable food system in Brooklyn. The Coalition is fundamentally committed to building an inclusive, multi-racial, multi-cultural alliance of residents and community-based groups from all parts of Brooklyn, reflecting the borough’s rich diversity.
This marks the third Seafood Throwdown at Grand Army Plaza. In 2012, Chef Cheryl Smith of Cheryl’s Global Soul and Chef Sam Sherman of Applewood came face to face with Alex Villani’s locally caught flounder. This year’s promises to be another fun, educational and community-driven event linking the importance of locally caught seafood to the health and resilience of our ocean.
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For more information, please contact: Niaz Dorry, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, 508-982-3748, niaz@namanet.org Liz Carollo, Publicity Manager, Greenmarket/GrowNYC, 212 341-2321, lcarollo@greenmarket.grownyc.org