2017 WWF-SASSI Trailblazers announced

SASSI programme manager at WWF-SA Pavitray Pillay commented: “Our partnerships with chefs are inspired by a love of seafood and a shared commitment to help restore our overexploited seafood species. The chefs we are recognising have gone the extra mile in advocating the sustainability message.”

Philip Alcock, Robert Giljam, Massimo, Giles Edwards, Julie Carter

The 2017 WWF-SASSI Trailblazers are:

• Philip Alcock - SeaBreeze Fish & Shell
• Robert Giljam - Societi Bistro
• Julie Carter – Ocean Jewels
• Giles Edwards – La Tete
• Massimo- Massimo’s
• John McArdle- The Big Mouth
• Graham Neilson – 9^th Ave Bistro

A previously awarded trailblazer and now mentor, chef Brad Ball added: “Chefs serve as the gatekeepers for the food and hospitality industry and therefore play a critical role in leading market forces and influencing popular taste. The reality is that chefs who support and promote ocean-friendly seafood can help ensure that there are fish to catch and enjoy tomorrow. My role is to do this, and to make up-and-coming chefs aware of what’s at stake.”

The criteria for the awards were:

• The restaurant’s seafood sustainability policy
• The effectiveness of their communication of their seafood sustainability practices to their customers, employees, and suppliers
• Their level of engagement in communicating their seafood sustainability practices to a wider audience
• The ‘trailblazer factor’ (those chefs and restaurants that are going the extra mile in promoting and supporting seafood sustainability)

The SASSI Media Award for 2017 went to Anna Trapido, a well-known journalist who writes extensively about food and sustainability in South Africa. Trapido covered sustainable seafood issues in many articles in magazines, print, TV, and radio.

Awards organiser Clare Mack of Spill Communications said: “It’s gratifying to see, in the fifth year of these awards, that many restaurants are adopting sustainable practices in seafood, without any intervention or prompting. Sustainability is now mainstream; it has really caught on.”

wwfsassi.co.za