Monday, August 3, 2015

The second annual Trashfish Dinner was held at Louie's Modern in downtown Sarasota, Florida, on Sunday August 2, 2015. The event was again a huge success selling more than 100 tickets in a week raising money for Chef's Collaborative. The event helps educate diners and communities about using the lesser known species of fish and "bycatch" that are typically thrown back by fisherman. With the education being focused on how delicious some of these trashfish can be, we can change the way people purchase fish in the future. The knowledge will take pressure off the commonly known species such as grouper, tuna, salmon etc. and will also create new outlets for fisherman to sell, resulting in more jobs. 

Seven local chefs had the opportunity to work together creating dishes with species such as knobhead porgy, black drum, white grunts, jack crevalle, and mullet. Some of these fish were never heard of before, others were thought not to be edible. Bringing chefs together in the kitchen to collaborate and work side by side is one of the most inspiring details of this event. Some chefs had never met before the meetings and planning began. By the end of the night they were toasting each others efforts and sharing ideas. The chefs assited each other in prepping, plating, tasting, and techniques proving to be very well executed.

Tracy Freeman of Edible Sarasota and Nikki Curran organized the event from the other side of the kitchen, promotions, grab bags, t-shirts etc. with perfection. And the gracious staff and team at Louies's Modern could not have done a better job of decorating and catering to the guests. Its going to be tough to beat this one at the 3rd annual Trashfish Dinner next year.