:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/38828340/dereknl.0.jpg)
Chris Johns, Derek Dammann's cookbook co-author and present travel crony in Spain, reports in The Globe and Mail on the Maison Publique chef's collaborative seal dinner at Mallard Cottage, in Quidi Vidi Village outside St. John's, Newfoundland in two weeks.
As host, Todd Perrin is the initial focus of the article. The Mallard Cottage chef has a common sense perspective on a practice that has led to a controversial boycott of Canadian seafood.
People have very strong opinions about the seal harvest and what goes on. It's a resource that's harvested by fishermen around the coast, it's part of their lives.
In an encore evocative of his sharp tweets at the apex of the Chefs for Seals shitshow last October and November, Dammann also drops some knowledge on seal-as-food.
It's a carefully regulated harvest. And no different in that sense from harvesting any other game and maybe better than commercially raised animals.
The event on April 17 will unite Perrin and Dammann with soul bros Jesse Vergen (St. John Ale House, New Brunswick), Jeremy Charles (Raymonds, St. John's) and Sean Hussey (Chinched Bistro, St. John's). Johns also writes that diners "will have a chance to experience [seal] in nearly all its forms, from a sophisticated version of flipper pie to raw, smoked seal." And, possibly, Perrin's "seal oil ice cream."
Another relevant statement in the Globe article for vocal opponents of the commercial seal hunt - and this still includes some of the most famous chefs in the United States of America by the way - is this statement from Eldred Woodford, the president of the Canadian Sealers Association.
There's no difference hunting seals as a resource than there is hunting any other wildlife. Here in Canada we make a sustainable resource out of it, we've got a wonderful natural resource there, well-protected and well-conserved.
· Why this NL Chef is Hungry for Controversy with 'Delicious' Seal Meat' [G&M]
· Chefs for Seals [Facebook]
· All Seal Controversy Coverage [-EMTL-]