Industry experts discuss the importance of fish

Westminster Kingsway’s School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts in Victoria recently hosted a round-table discussion on the use of fish and seafood in restaurant menus. The event was sponsored by trade body Seafood from Norway and was extensively covered in the leading hospitality trade magazine, The Caterer.

The panel featured figures from the seafood industry, foodservice companies and restaurant, including Westminster Kingsway alumnus Ben Murphy (Head Chef at Launceston Place in London).  The college was represented by Chef Lecturer Jose Souto, who wrote the college’s culinary sustainability and ethical buying policy.

As Jose explains: “Here at Westminster Kingsway, we strongly believe that all our culinary students should understand where their food comes from, how it is produced and any of the welfare issues that are connected with its production.  So we try to ensure that all of our produce is sustainably sourced, cared for under the highest husbandry standards and ethically farmed with the lowest environmental impact.

“Fish and seafood are really important part of our curriculum. Students visit Billingsgate fish market and we train them to work with whole fish (as opposed to fish that has already been filleted and prepared), so that they learn the fundamental knife skills that they’ll need to work in the best kitchens and restaurants.

“We use a variety of different fish to train our students – fish which we also serve to customers in our public restaurants. All the fish that we use are sustainable species as listed by The Marine Conservation Society (MCS). We work very closely with our fish suppliers to ensure we keep within the MSC guidelines and we keep a close eye on the sustainability status of each species, as well as on seasonal variations in fish availability, cost and quality.”

After the roundtable, the panel enjoyed a lunch of fish cooked by our second and third-year students.

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