Jamie Olivier | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

I have only recently become aware of the (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) and its good work in trying to retain and enhance endangered fish and shellfish species, through a consumer awareness campaign which helps fish shoppers and restaurant patrons to identify which of the fishes they eat are green, orange or red, depending on their degree of endangeredness. Last week I spent a most interesting day with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international organisation that encourages seafood sustainability by conducting audits of seafood products, from the catch until it appears in the supermarket or on the restaurant table. Each of these steps is audited, which results in being awarded the MSC’s ecolabel, guaranteeing fishlovers that the fish they are eating is sustainable in its availability, as well as its fishing method, its processing, and transport to and use in restaurants as well as sales in supermarkets.

The Mission statement of the MSC is as follows:”to use our ecolabel and fishery certification program to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognising and rewarding sustainable fishing practices, influencing the choices people make when buying seafood and working with our partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis”.

The South African branch of the MSC, with the pay-off line “The best environmental choice in seafood”, hosted the workshop, which was held at Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris’ Cooks’ Playground in De Waterkant last week. The MSC “is a global non-profit organisation promoting solutions to the problem of overfishing”. Its blue ecolabel is an environmental standard reflecting “the world’s leading sustainability certification for wild-caught fish”. Consumers are encouraged to choose MSC ecolabel fish products when shopping, to help in reversing the decline in fish stocks. In South Africa brands such as I&J and Sea Harvest carry the MSC ecolabel.

Restaurants have been slow in coming on board the sustainability boat, and we are only aware of WildWoods in Hout Bay and Blowfish in Blouberg that actively promote SASSI on their menus, particularly the latter. Those restaurants buying their fish from MSC certified fish suppliers are encouraged to display the MSC ecolabel on their menus. This will require an annual audit by independent auditors. At the workshop the Shoreline CafÃ© at the Two Oceans Aquarium won a free MSC sustainable seafood audit. The work of the MSC internationally has already changed the habits of a leading chef such as Jamie Oliver, who only selects sustainable fish from the MSC website for his dishes now. Raymond Blanc, Chef Patron at Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons in the UK, says about MSC: “I passionately believe that it is up to each of us, be it consumer or chef, to make a responsible choice. By supporting MSC, I am ensuring that as a chef, I am helping to ensure fish stocks will be replenished for generations to come. I also hope that many more chefs will join this worthy cause”.

Internationally, the following companies have become involved in the MSC seafood sustainability programme: Walmart and Asda (pledged to be 100% certified for fresh and frozen fish by next year); Carrefour; the Dutch Retail Association, representing 99% of retailers in Holland, has committed to 99% of wild seafood sold will be MSC certified by next year; Sainsbury’s; Marks and Spencer; Aldi; Dansk; Compass; Sodexo UK; Iglo; Bird’s Eye, John West; KLM; and many more.

Internationally 5500 product lines from 1100 companies carry the MSC ecolabel, in 66 countries, at an estimated retail value of $1,5 billion. In July 92 fisheries around the world were MSC-standard certified, representing 4 million metric tons of fish, with another 120 fisheries undergoing assessment, representing a further 3 million metric tons.

The MSC certification programme has helped SASSI in its work, according to Dr Samantha Petersen of SASSI: “The MSC certification provided a platform and an incentive for us to work together. Prior to that, the industry was more suspicious of us. Once MSC status was on the cards, it gave us a common goal and opened up a dialogue that was not there before.”

After some demonstrations by Jenny, the workshop participants grouped into teams, and I was lucky to be paired with Ingrid Gold from Caxton Magazines and Eat Out reviewer Greg Landman. Greg is clearly a creative cook, especially when I saw him add honey to the hake he prepared for our team! It was delicious, and it was a good way to get involvement by the participants. Jenny’s team had prepared the most amazing seafood and salad buffet, with salmon and mussels, and we were spoilt with the wonderful looking display and tasty food. I loved Jenny’s paper thin crispy fried butternut slices. Then followed the most delicious seared tuna, as well as a dessert.

What made the lunch really special was the mix of persons at our table. Martin Purves, the Southern Africa Programme Manager for the MSC; Odette Herbert, a photographer and blogger; chefs from Bodega at Dornier wine estate, the Arabella at Kleinmond and the Shoreline CafÃ© at the Two Oceans Aquarium; and Ingrid and Greg.

Marine Stewardship Council. www.msc.org Tel (021) 551-0620. The MSC also has offices in the UK (its head office), as well as in Japan, Australia, and the USA.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

The first ever Food Bloggers’ Conference in the southern hemisphere was held in Cape Town on Sunday, and was attended by some 60 food bloggers, so dedicated to their craft that they gave up a whole Sunday over a long weekend to attend the Conference.

One of the attractions to attend the Bloggers’ Conference was meeting bloggers and Twitterers that one has read or one follows. JamieWhoSA, Michael Olivier, Sam Wilson (speaker) and CookSister (speaker) were in the audience. At the end of the day, a number of friendships had been formed, and new followers were added to Twitter accounts.

The key lessons learnt throughout the day were the following:

1. Decide whether you are a cook who likes to write, or a writer that likes to cook. This will guide one’s writing style and content

2. Bloggers love an audience, so they must write for them, and not for themselves. That means that one must research one’s audience, and find out what they like to read and why. Measurements may have to be “translated” to suit the American market, for example. Alternative product/fruit/vegetable names may have to be provided for names used in other countries.

3. “Find your inner voice” – you must love writing to blog. If you are struggling, change direction.

4. Punctuation, spelling and grammar accuracy are of paramount importance

5. Have focus about what you are writing, and it can be as wide or narrow as you like

6. Keep motivated – 60 % of new blogs close down after one month

7. Photograph everything you eat or prepare or are served, so that you can use the photographs at a later stage

8. Take inspiration and motivation from comments, and delete and ignore the negative comments

9. Evolve the blog, “shake it up” and make it better all the time, to keep it fresh

10. One’s blog writing is a permanent record on the internet, and therefore can be a reflection of one and one’s brand for many years to come.

11. Recipes should be treated with reverence, to show respect to women who came before

12. Not all celebrity chefs can write recipes, e.g. Jamie Oliver, and they have a team of food editors, stylists etc that do that for them

13. The headline or title of the blog must be snappy, interesting, mouth-watering, evocative and say “bite me”. It also is important for Google searches, more so than the blog content.

14. The first paragraph must summarise what the post is about. It should not be too long. It should not contain any whining, complaints, excuses or excessive bragging. It must want to make the reader read the rest of the post.

15. The picture must go in the top half of the post

16. Ingredients in recipes should be listed in order of usage, can be categorised in sections, and must be accurate. The method should be written with precise instructions, to realistic serving sizes, without the use of jargon

17. Natural light is the best light to use to photograph food. Use a muslin cloth to soften it if the light is too bright. Avoid using the flash.

18. Choose a blog template that suits you and your needs, i.e. ability to accept comments, to have RSS feeds, to have links to Twitter and Facebook. The template will influence what your blog looks like.

19. Be realistic about the time blogging takes, and the blogging frequency you can keep up with.

20. Don’t write about what everyone else writes – be the first to write about a new topic.

21. Check the appearance of the blog on different computers, as it can be influenced by browsers. Avoid light type on a dark background. Check the font size and type. Avoid clutter.

22. “You are the heart of the blog, it is about you, show yourself, be yourself” (CookSister). Stay in touch with your readers.

23. One’s Facebook, Twitter and blog persona must match. Decide upfront how much to reveal of oneself.

24. Use YouTube, Ning, BlogHer and Stumble It!

25. A picture creates read-appeal. Contrast dark and light colours in styling food for a photograph. Less is more. Props must be photographed out of focus. Tag photographs.

26. Copyright is a consideration. Ingredients cannot be copyrighted, but the preparation method can. Add a copyright sign to the blog and each post.

27. Do not be too intimidated by a lawyer’s letter re defamation and copyright, but don’t fight it if they are serious.

28. Free products/meals must be transparent in a review

29. It’s OK to make money out of one’s blog, as it costs money (e.g. restaurant visits, ingredients) to write it. Do not slant the blog to sponsors’ products or services if they take an ad. It will blow one’s credibility.

While many improvements can be made to a Food Bloggers’ get-together in 2011, the Conference was enjoyed by all, and all were delighted by the many give-aways, as well as heavy-weighted goody-bags they received. It was R 430 well spent. The Giggling Gourmet, Jenny Morris, served a very generous and delicious lunch in her new Cook’s Playground test kitchen on Napier Street.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com