Day 75
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American Morning – John Roberts
Top Chef‘s top judge and 5-time James Beard awardee (including 2010) Tom Colicchio has chosen to promote Gulf seafood on his menus in his many restaurants.
He mentions seafood is not usually tested and in this case the seafood coming out of the Gulf is being tested and has thus far been proven untainted. And it’s not like the Gulf fisherman are going to risk any chance of getting their lives and livelihoods back by sending out even one tainted fish.
70% of the Gulf is now open to fishing, including oyster beds.
Select quotes
COLICCHIO: What’s interesting is seafood typically is not tested. It goes from the fishermen to a distributor and gets to restaurants or supermarkets, whatever. There’s no USDA inspections. But the fish coming out of the Gulf now, every bit is being inspected. Since May 5th, I think there has been over 330 samples taken from 11,000 different fish, all of it 100 percent clean.
Why is he doing it?
COLICCHIO: You look at the spill and you have to feel sorry for what’s going on down there with the wildlife and people, the livelihoods. You ask yourself, how can we support them? This is one way to support them.
I talked to people from Louisiana Fish and Game, from NOAA, from the FDA, and they are saying it is clean. And so my feeling is that will he people know it is safe and — I can’t just say it is safe. I want to put it in my restaurants and actually sell it, stand behind it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS
ROBERTS: Top chef and owner of Craft restaurant Tom Colicchio recently went down to the Gulf of Mexico to take a look at the situation with fishing down there. And he’s come back with an attitude he’s going to promote Louisiana seafood.
Gulf seafood — you see the images and you have to wonder if any of it is safe to eat. One of the most famous chefs in the world decided to check it out himself. We watched how the testing fish and oysters in the Gulf, and he came away with this advice — eat it. In fact, he is bringing it to all of his restaurants. Chef Tom Colicchio, head judge on “Top Chef” joins us now. Tom, great to see you.
TOM COLICCHIO, CHEF/OWNER, CRAFT RESTAURANTS: How are you doing?
ROBERTS: Good. Thanks so much for stopping by. You actually canceled a planned fishing trip in Massachusetts to go to the Gulf.
COLICCHIO: I did. My buddy and I were going to Massachusetts to fish. I fish pretty much whenever I can here in New York. I have a boat here. I had an opportunity to get down there and mingle with the fishermen and talk to the people in Grand Isle. It was really eye opening.
There’s two stories going on down there. It’s an absolute disaster. It is a mess. We see the fishers every night on the news. But there’s hope. You know, there’s plenty of fish now. Only 30 percent of the gulf is closed. So there’s 70 percent of the area that’s open. Water are pristine and not affected by the spill. And fishermen are fishing.
And the seafood is safe. What’s interesting is seafood typically is not tested. It goes from the fishermen to a distributor and gets to restaurants or supermarkets, whatever. There’s no USDA inspections. But the fish coming out of the Gulf now, every bit is being inspected. Since May 5th, I think there has been over 330 samples taken from 11,000 different fish, all of it 100 percent clean.
ROBERTS: You are a fan of north Atlantic seafood. I have eaten in a couple of your restaurants in New York and Atlanta, and the food is fantastic. But you decided to put Louisiana fish on the menu. Why did you decide to do that?
COLICCHIO: You look at the spill and you have to feel sorry for what’s going on down there with the wildlife and people, the livelihoods. You ask yourself, how can we support them? This is one way to support them.
You know, I talked to people from Louisiana Fish and Game, from NOAA, from the FDA, and they are saying it is clean. And so my feeling is that will he people know it is safe and — I can’t just say it is safe. I want to put it in my restaurants and actually sell it, stand behind it.
ROBERTS: Now, in your restaurants are you promoting the idea it is seafood from Louisiana?
COLICCHIO: Right now we are working through our sources to get a good consistent source. I have a gentleman I met recently trying to sell me on it. I’m not sure I want to do that just yet. After going down so and talking to the fishermen, I will start serving it, right now trying to deal with my sources. Once we do that, yes, we will promote and it let people know we are selling it.
ROBERTS: You said during your trip, what you can be here is “a mouthpiece.” What does the mouthpiece want people across the country to know?
COLICCHIO: That fish coming out of the Gulf is safe. Fish, you know, again that spill, there is a huge buffer zone around that spill where you can’t fish. The questions I asked were what are the penalties for fishing? Fishing in closed off areas, you lose your license to fish in international waters. And I know you’re actually in Federal waters. So that’s three miles off the beach, to start. You lose your license to fish, you’re done.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: So that in effect the fishermen will know that if they can simply manage to get out to the public, it is over for them.
ROBERTS: Yes that would be troubling, that would be terrible and not just for this year, but for years to come.
COLICCHIO: That’s exactly right.
ROBERTS: So — so –
COLICCHIO: But the important thing is the entire seafood industry will get behind this because people are walking into my restaurants now and I’ve talked to the other chefs saying they don’t want to eat seafood at all.
Even though it’s coming from Alaska or from New England or what have you. And so I think this is something the entire seafood industry needs –
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: So what are you bringing in from the Gulf shore? Because oysters are a big problem, all right.
COLICCHIO: Well –
ROBERTS: With P&J oysters, one of the biggest distributors in New Orleans they are not really doing right –
COLICCHIO: No they are not and a lot of the oyster beds — and recently I think some of them have been opened up. And in fact the other night I think Anderson Cooper was eating oysters right out of the Gulf on a boat.
So some of the oyster beds are opening up but the shrimps, grouper, snapper. Most of the tuna — or a good percentage of the tuna that is on — on — in restaurants in New York comes from the Gulf.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: So the crawfish. That stuff is all safe. Crawfish.
ROBERTS: Crawfish is fresh water.
COLICCHIO: Exactly. People still think that –
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: And there is a perception that that oil is washing up on the beaches in New Orleans. Well, it’s 100 miles from the spill.
ROBERTS: So we’re going to see a good crawfish (INAUDIBLE) on your menu?
COLICCHIO: We’ll have, we actually had a crawfish dish on a little while ago. And it’s going to go back on, not — not so much an (INAUDIBLE), but a crawfish dish.
ROBERTS: Right.
COLICCHIO: You know the other thing, I think, a lot of people are maybe are gun shy about going down to New Orleans because one of the major attractions, I think you know is to go down there and seafood is safe.
ROBERTS: You know the time that I spent in New Orleans, we were going about in the race, we are working so much and all these fabulous restaurants in New Orleans, we were eating beef jerky from the 7- Eleven.
Tom it’s great to see you. Thanks so much for dropping by. I really appreciate it.
COLICCHIO: Thanks for having me.
