Congress Diary of a Young Chef, by Belinda Ng

WACS – Congress 2012
Congress Diary of a Young Chef (Page 23 of WorldChefs - July 2012 issue)

Belinda Ng from the Singapore Junior Chefs Club Learns a Thing or Two


Today was another interesting day at the Bill Gallagher Junior Chefs Forum. Chef Rick Moonen shared about Sustainable Seafood, and how it is important to source ingredients from the right suppliers, to ensure that suppliers are doing their part to keep the eco-environment sustainable. Some examples are such as not over-fishing/over trawling, and also reduce by-catch by fishing with sustainable methods instead of trawling. A given example was Shrimp trawling, where there was a 20:1 discard ratio.

Possible good solutions would be marine aquaculture. But it is important that they maintain the aquaculture in a closed contained system, and not in the ocean, as this will cause other possible risk to the environment, such as overcrowding that could lead to illnesses of the fishes, effluence, etc. Which then leads to the introduction of antibiotics, pesticides/germicides, to the environment, affecting ocean ecosystem as a whole.

As chefs, it is possible that we make a difference! Chef Rick shared his definition of sustainability, which is “not taking an active role in the extinction of a species”, which can help prevent the extinction of certain species. An example would be the “Give Swordfish a Break” campaign.

What really set me thinking was Eric Nilsson’s speech, titled “Home-made from the factory”, where he encouraged people to look at labels. When a packaging say “home-made” is it really home made? Look at the labels carefully and see what is in there. What are you eating? Are there any  chemicals? He showed pictures from Peter Menzel’s book, “What I eat?”, highlighting what different households/families around the world eat in a week, and how many eat natural food, and also, how many actually consume processed foods.

It was an awakening moment. I’m starting to think, “Am I eating what I really am eating?” If you realised the types of additives that are in the market, it is even possible to create the “flavour” of strawberry, without
even using a single strawberry.
Honestly, how many people really look at the label when buying food these days? With so many  convenience  food available in the market today, and with the busy lifestyle, most of us would just buy frozen convenience food off the shelf, as our hungry late night snack. But it is time, that we start looking
at what we are eating! I would like to urge all young culinarians, to look at the label, the next time they go shopping at the supermarket or when they pass a convenience store!