Slow Fish Connections: Eat More Forgotten Fish and Give Overfished Species a Fighting Chance

The chef before me is flushed and brimming with energy; after a vigorous round of knife sharpening, he raises his gloved hands to his chest, as if he has scrubbed in and entered an operating room. A tall chef's hat sits atop his gleaming bald head, and even a surgeon would not look this imposing.

At the Slow Fish event held in Genova (Genoa), in northwestern Italy, the fishermen's market is buzzing with voices. I scan the "cooking station" and try to guess which one is Slow Fish president Silvio Greco, who is presiding over this "meatball from the sea" cooking session.

The show begins. I had failed to recognize true greatness: the chef is none other than the marine biologist Greco himself. Besides leading the Slow Fish committee, he also teaches at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Slow Food, serves as a government adviser, has traveled seas all over the world, knows the Mediterranean like the back of his hand, and has even taken part in an Antarctic ocean research team. To pass on the knowledge and taste of the sea, today the professor personally dives in to demonstrate how to make fish balls.

Continue reading: [Slow Fish Connections] Small shrimps take on the big whale: small fishers gather at "Slow Fish" to mend the broken global fisheries net