Seafood Throwdown Kick Off - Brooklyn Style

 By Brett Tolley, NAMA's community organizer

Two local chefs. One mystery fish. A spot light on local fishermen and locally-caught seafood. By the end of the day only one winner emerged, but for our 2011 kick-off Seafood Throwdown it was a win-win-win for all involved.

Kicking it off Brooklyn style - check out our Seafood Throwdown video post. 

GrowNYC/Greenmarket invited us back for our second annual Seafood Throwdown, this year to be held at the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Local fisherman Alex Villani was on site and capturing the crowds curiosity and appreciation with stories about locally-caught seafood. The fish of the day was Bonito!

Seafood Throwdowns, in a nutshell, are educational and community driven events to engage the larger community in issues affecting our ocean, fishing communities and fisheries. They help us promote the ecological and economic importance of locally-caught seafood and build a broader base of support for efforts to transform fisheries and ocean policy. Read more here. And not to mention, they produce some darn-tasty food!

Under the hot Brooklyn sun the event had a great turnout and was certainly a true collaborative effort. The two local restaurants, iCi and Thistle Hill Tavern, battled for the most creative and delicious dish. Judging the event was Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn's deputy editor and James Beard award-winning writer, Rachel Wharton, Blue Moon Fish's Alex Villani, and GrowNYC's David Hurd, director of the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education. Matt Timms, famously known for his rollicking Takedown series was our Emcee, giving the play-by-play for all the action.

Check out more pics from the day. 

After all was said and done iCi Restaurant nudged out a one point victory over Thistle Hill Tavern. Congrats to their head chef Nate Courtland! And congrats to Thistle Hill Tavern's head chef Rebecca Weitzman, because really it was an extremely close call. Both dishes were superb!

Hope to see you at our next Seafood Throwdown. To check when a Seafood Throwdown might be coming to a neighborhood near you please see our events page.