- April 19, 2024
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Attendees could try food from Modern Events, Deep Sea Diner, Mattison's, Michael's on East and Indigenous and vote for their favorite at the annual lionfish tasting event.
Besides food, tables like 7-year-old Miles Fetherston-Resch's business, Kids Saving Oceans, were present at the tasting event. Kids Saving Oceans creates products like the stickers out of ocean plastic.
Linda Gerlach compliments the chefs of Modern Events on their Hawaiian Lionfish.
Chefs Mike Yoder and Victor Gaviria created the Hawaiian Lionfish dish. The fish is crusted with almonds, which Yoder says complements it well.
Indigenous serves up a refreshing lionfish crudo.
Chef Steve Phelps shows off his raw lionfish crudo.
Diego Vega, Chef Steve Phelps and Doug Baira put together the dishes for Indigenous this year.
No dish was left untasted at the event.
Arnold Postell and Markus Pallos, here from the South Carolina Aquarium, pose with Katherine Kelly.
Juliette Camara snaps a photo of her lionfish.
Cindy Polzer and Kathy Grant, the latter of whom came from Tampa for the event, pose together.
Nick Bryan of Mattison's tastes another lionfish dish.
Jamil Pineda of Michael's on East serves up his bisque.
Liam Ward, Mary Ellen Ward, Ernie Garcia, Tim Coleman and Michelle Fleter came as part of Morgan Stanley's group to the event.
Before voting, the crowd began to clear out.
Jessica Stich and Juliette Camara tally the votes.
Part of winning chef Steve Phelps' (center) prize was a painting donated by artist Carlos Cardenas (left).
Though they weren’t fishing them out of the Gulf of Mexico this weekend, people got together and helped cut down the population of invasive lionfish at Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium on July 14 in a different, delicious way — by eating a lot of them.
The tasting event would have been the culmination of a weekend of lionfish hunting in the waters off the coast of Sarasota, complete with a competition based on which team could spear the most. Rough seas, though, prompted organizers from REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation), the organization behind the event, to call that portion off.
“It’s a bummer the tournament got canceled,” said Chef Steve Phelps of Indigenous. “It’s just a different vibe. Usually the fishermen are still here running around.”
The event would also have spilled out to the outdoor portion of Mote, with scoring, dissection, filet and other tents set up to educate the public about lionfish and their negative impacts on the Gulf ecosystem.
“It just was the right call,” said REEF invasive species program manager Alli Candelmo. “From what I heard, people tried to go out (Saturday) and had to turn back.”
Even without the fishing derby, 850 previously caught fish went towards the tasting event, Candelmo said. At REEF’s table, Candelmo educated visitors on lionfish, backed by a banner that read “Take a bite out of lionfish,” and offered a Cajun-style lionfish dip for people to try.
The chefs of the event wowed with creative, artistic and delicious takes on lionfish, from a pan-seared piece on a sweet corn bisque courtesy of Jamil Pineda of Michael’s on East to a “texture explosion” (Phelps’ words) lionfish crudo. Some, like Phelps, served a similar dish to what they serve in their restaurant, but others such as Alex Vasquez of Mattison’s cooked up something new.
“It’s (lionfish) not something you get on a daily basis, so you try to make something special when you do,” Vasquez said.
Guests could mingle at the chef’s tables or see what organizations such Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or Kids Saving Oceans brought to the event as they tasted and mulled over their votes for the top dish.
“They were all just superb,” said Katherine Kelly. “But Indigenous was my favorite.”
After the votes were tallied, chef John Mancini’s lionfish fritter with corn curry sauce won third place, Mike Yoder and Victor Gaviria’s Hawaiian Lionfish took second and Chef Steve Phelps’ lionfish crudo nabbed first place in the competition.
