April 14, 2024 — A group of chefs, seafood professionals, writers, economic development specialists and educators will travel to France from April 14-22 to explore French techniques for handling and preparing scallops in support of the scallop farming and commercial fishing sectors in Maine.
The project is made possible by a grant from the NOAA National Sea Grant Office to the Maine Sea Grant College Program. Among the Maine delegation of culinary professionals and other specialists traveling across France are Dana Morse, senior extension program manager and aquaculture lead at Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and Rob Dumas, UMaine food science innovation coordinator and manager of the Dr. Matthew Highlands Pilot Plant.
The group will be in Paris, Normandy and Brittany. The trip will wrap up with a scallop festival in Paimpol April 20-21. The week of travel will be followed by educational programming led by Dumas to share what the group learned from its travels with other chefs and other culinary professionals.
The project is spurred by the unparalleled quality of Maine dayboat scallops, both the traditional product from the fishery and whole live product from Maine sea farmers.
“The quality of dayboat scallops from Maine is finally getting the long overdue recognition it deserves. Scallops from different areas have different flavors (merroirs) and Maine is the only state in the country offering whole cultivated scallops. I look forward to learning from the masters of place-based gastronomy how to get the word out about our amazing scallops,” said delegation member Togue Brawn, owner and founder of Downeast Dayboat.