NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — September 30, 2015 — The following was released by the Working Waterfront Festival:
Chef Chris Cronin of Little Moss Restaurant (Dartmouth, MA), was the winner of the Seafood Throwdown at this year’s Working Waterfront Festival. The Seafood Throwdown, which took place on Sunday, September 27th, is an “iron chef” style cooking competition in which two chefs compete to create a winning dish using a surprise local seafood ingredient which is revealed to them at the event. This year the secret seafood was DOGFISH! In a close competition with Rob Pirnie, Executive Chef of Warren, Rhode Island’s Trafford, Chef Cronin was lucky enough to get an egg bearing dogfish, and clever enough to incorporate the fish roe into his dish (grilled dogfish, sugar pumpkin & lamb chorizo with scrambled roe and peach jam), scoring extra points for “use of the whole animal”. Judging criteria includes taste, creativity, presentation, and use of the whole animal.
The Seafood Throwdown typically highlights underutilized species. Dogfish, while abundant in New Englandwaters do not have a strong domestic market. According to Marder Brands, the New Bedford company which supplied the dogfish for the Throwdown, Spiny Dogfish are fished in Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Chile. The meat is primarily consumed in England where it is used in fish and chips. In France Dogfish is considered to be like a “little salmon,” while in China, Dogfish fins and tails are commonly used in shark fin soup.
For the Seafood Throwdown, chefs can bring three of their favorite ingredients and, once the secret seafood is revealed, they get $25 and 15 minutes to shop the Festival Farmers’ Market. After their shopping spree, they have one hour to cook and plate their dish for the judge’s consideration. This year’s panel of judges included food writer Heather Atwood (author of In Cod We Trust), author and food activist Ali Berlow (author of The Food Activist’s Handbook), Chef and Culinary Arts Instructor Henry Bousquet, and Margaret Curole,Executive Chef for Commercial Fishermen of America. The Seafood Throwdown is a collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Working Waterfront Festival.
The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more. It all takes place on working piers and waterfront parks in New Bedford, MA, America’s #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend in September. Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.