Sustainable fish tales draw foodies to water

On June 6 at Fibonacci’s Bistro on Campus Pointe, a sold-out crowd of 350 foodies gathered for the kickoff event of Sustainable Seafood Week, sponsored by Cooks Confab and Slow Food Urban San Diego.

Cooks Confab, a group of chefs who believe in sustainable dining, includes some of our area’s top cuisine-artists, who were among the 11 chefs featured at the event: Trey Foshee from George’s California Modern; Jason Knibb from Nine-Ten; Jeff Jackson from A.R. Valentien at the Lodge at Torrey Pines; and Andrew Spurgin, executive director/chef of Waters Catering, whose newest venue, Fibonacci’s, is a splash away from UCSD.

Spurgin, a co-founder of Cooks Confab, hosted the evening of tastes and tipples that also included a presentation by Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine ecologist Nancy Knowlton and an excerpt from “The End of The Line,” a documentary film about overfishing.

“We love to educate and share good information about good food,” said Waters’ event designer Courtney Gallagher. “Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword to us. It’s not a trend, it’s a lifestyle.”

Sustainable dining means choosing good, safe, healthy foods that don’t deplete our natural resources and do contribute to our local economy. Fish-wise, it means avoiding species threatened by overfishing, giving them and our oceans a chance to make a comeback.

For information on ocean-friendly seafood, check the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Pocket Guide,

www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx.