Slow Fish Challenge

The international Slow Food network - members and convivia, Terra Madre food communities, cooks, academics and young people and Presidia producers - is taking action in 2009 by organizing countless activities dedicated to sustainable fish in all corners of the world. In the Slow Fish Challenge, participants investigate the sustainable fish choices in their region, and hold a a small event (tastings, dinners, workshops...) to pass this information onto their community. Following the event, information and recipes are sent to be published here in an online cookbook of good, clean and fair fish and seafood from around the world.

If you would like to participate, here are the instructions:

1. Find your fish!

Avoid endangered species such as bluefin tuna, Atlantic salmon, tropical shrimps, swordfish etc. Click here to view regional sustainable seafood guides.
Choose a local fish, i.e. caught in seas or rivers near to you.
Ensure the fish are of the minimum size necessary to reproduce (there are fish such as Orange Roughy which only reach the age of reproduction at 20 years!)
The fish should be in season, i.e. outside its period of reproduction.

2. Choose a recipe

A traditional recipe from your region; or
A recipe invented by you, which might become the tradition of tomorrow.

3. Plan an event to cook your fish...
... at home, in a public space or during an event, at a restaurant or canteen, where you can share your meal - with friends, customers, journalists, school children etc. Explain to your table companions why this fish was chosen and others were avoided. Your recipe will be an opportunity to celebrate, marked by conviviality and a small but significant gesture of responsibility.

4. Send the information you have collected about this fish (its characteristics, how, where and when it is caught, why it is sustainable...) your recipe and a photo, or other material such as children's drawings, an illustration, fishermen's tales etc.

Slow Fish Challenge is happening across 2009, and the first entries will be published in August.

Send your recipes and information or any questions to communication@slowfood.com
We look forward to hearing from you!