Would you like to try this blue scampi caviar? Fishermen say there is a price benefit to being more adventurous with your seafood choices

Two-thirds of the fish that Australians eat is wasted.

After the fillets are removed, the remainder is usually discarded.

The poor recovery had an impact on prices.

“You pay for a whole fish but only really eat a third, but all the parts of the fish actually have enormous value, like the head, tail, skin,” said Patrick Hone, managing director of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

The chef slowly started using more fish, including their offal.

Delicious waste

The beef, lamb, pork and chicken industries had much higher recovery rates, ranging from over 50 percent to the 70s, but why is seafood recovery so low?

“Seafood offal is a completely unexplored area,” says chef Danielle Dixon.

Chef Danielle Dixon says advocacy for underutilized species is critical.(ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

“With the average net profit in the food business sometimes being just 1 percent or less, it’s really important for us to start educating people about how to take lesser-known products that have a low price point, and actually upgrade them to menu items. enjoy, and you can actually make money from it.”

Ms Dixon trains intern chefs at the Institute of Culinary Excellence in Brisbane.

His team recently prepared fish dishes using chunks, as well as underutilized fish species to show Brisbane chefs the flavors and the savings they were missing.

“I’ve never come across one of these underutilized species that isn’t good to eat,” Dixon said.

“We’re not going to mess around too much because they’re all amazing and beautiful products. We just need to help people see them.”

Exploring new flavors

The event is the brainchild of seafood provenore and former chef Umar Nguyen who represents some of Australia’s most prestigious seafood brands.

Despite working with high-end seafood, he campaigns to get chefs to use more of each fish and serve up more of the lesser-known species.

“If a chef starts using it, then consumers will use it. They affect home cooks and end consumers,” Nguyen said.

Former chef Umar Nguyen represents some of Australia’s most prestigious seafood brands.(ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

Targeting chefs has the full support of the fishing industry.

“It’s a ripple effect. Five chefs will talk to 10 other chefs. [Then] they will talk to 50 other chefs,” said Patrick Hone, executive director of Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

One of the most surprising dishes is the pâté made from the liver of a stingray weighing 1.5 kilograms.

In Australia, liver is usually discarded, but Gold Coast executive chef Dayan Hartill-Law took inspiration from the French fish pate dubbed “foie gras of the sea”.

“Monkfish liver is one of the most respected menu items in Paris, so why don’t we try it [to] do that with something that’s in our waters here?” he said.

“Why did you throw it in the trash?

This pâté is made from the liver of an eagle stingray weighing 1.5 kilograms. In Australia the liver is usually removed.(ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

Chef Shane Veivers describes the pâté as “elegant and rich”.

“We’re going to see more of a product that’s usually thrown away, because it tastes good,” says Veivers.

A stunning pearl-like blue scampi egg is also on offer.

Once discarded, the “caviar” is now worth more than the scampi meat.

An adventurous eater

Darwin’s trawler captain Grant Barker supplied underutilized fish species for the event.

“There are black-tailed snappers, black snapper, red snapper, Indonesian snapper, and long-nosed snapper. All of these fish are delicious to eat, but they’re not well-known,” he said.

Hundreds of good-to-eat but underutilized fish have long required cheerleaders but, says Barker, it takes a lot to change people’s preferences because Australians are tribal seafood eaters.

This shrimp ceviche is made from the unpopular Australian deep sea prawns.(ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

“Melbournians will eat flakes, Western Australians have their own species, South Australians just want to eat garfish, pink snapper and King George whiting. They don’t even know about this, and there’s a generational reluctance to change.” he said.

Ms Dixon was thrilled to see how much the chefs enjoyed the grilled monkfish stories.

“People think that little tail, that irregular size, isn’t really worth it, but – for the price point it can bring to a chef’s menu and the taste and versatility of the fish – it really needs to be showcased,” he says.

Chef Matt Golinski was surprised the fishermen found them so hard to sell.

“Crazy! I’ll gladly use it… [they’re] incredible,” said Golinski.

Nguyen said chefs could take the lead in tackling seafood waste and underutilization.

Chef Telina Menzies runs the kitchens of 50 hotels in Melbourne.

He said the timing was according to Nguyen’s message.

The chef was served a monkfish burger, and the reception was promising. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

“We can’t just take, take, take [from the ocean]. We really need to figure out how to give back and look at other ways to put food on the table and give customers something exciting too,” he said.

Australians eat only a fraction of the 5,000 species of fish in our waters.

Industry research estimates using more neglected fish species could increase the national fish catch by 250,000 tonnes.

Less reliance on imports

“That’s about two-thirds of what we import from overseas,” said Dr Hone.

“Ethically, it’s important for Australia to use its fish stocks for optimal sustainable catch. We owe it to the world. We can’t import food from elsewhere if we can produce it ourselves.”

Dr Hone was impressed by how “The Fish Girl” — as Ms Nguyen is called on Instagram — uses social media to connect fishermen and chefs.

The chef says the pâté made from the liver of the eagle stingray is delicious. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

“I just put up a picture and said, ‘Hey chef, we don’t want to waste this, help me, help manufacturers, help you’, because we need manufacturers to stay in business to have products for you,” Nguyen said.

This unloved fish ambassador has many fans of his own in the culinary and seafood community.

“Umar’s tenacity and his ability to look at the industry as a whole meant he was able to bring this product to market who would normally say, ‘No thanks’. So the role he plays as an advocate for this underutilized species is very important,” Dixon said. .

Umar Nguyen said it was difficult at first to get the chefs interested in trying new things, but his persistence paid off. (ABC Landline: Pip Courtney)

“Umar is not the greatest advocate for Umar, but … wouldn’t it be better to have a thousand more Umar,” said Dr Hone.

Watch this story on ABC Landline TV at 12:30 on Sunday, or on ABC iview.

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