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Chef Charlotte Langley | Scout Canning
111 Plays1 year ago
We’re staying in the culinary world for this one as we venture into the depths of the artisanal seafood industry. The heart and soul that Chef Charlotte brings to sustainably sourced gourmet tinned fish is a beautiful thing and you’re going to love this one, she’s a total wildcard.
In this episode you’ll learn about her experiences and perspectives in the restaurant world, her take on the importance of seafood in our weekly diet, consumer awareness of sustainable practices, traceability and certifications, her approach as a chef to canning, meal creation and shopping — and flavour scheming and delicious recipes and… okay, you get it.
Let’s get into it, here’s Chief Culinary Officer Chef Charlotte Langley from Scout Canning.
Oh, and if you want the highlights - here you go:
Chef Charlotte, residing in Prince Edward County, Ontario, discusses her background and her passion for bringing colour and energy into her culinary creations.
She shares her journey from working in fine dining to becoming the culinary professional she is today, emphasizing her love for creative and engaging environments.
Chef Charlotte envisions her ideal grocery store, focusing on customer experience, a variety of culinary inspirations, and the importance of sustainability. She imagines a store with sections representing different world regions, fresh and on-sale items, and an inviting atmosphere with wide aisles and soft lighting.
Transitioning from restaurant kitchens to creating a sustainable product for home use, Chef Charlotte discusses her venture into tinned fish with Scout Canning. She emphasizes the importance of sustainable, trustworthy seafood and the heritage of canning as a method of preservation.
Chef Charlotte talks about the innovation behind Scout Canning's products, such as incorporating diverse flavor profiles and ensuring the highest quality. She discusses the challenges and opportunities in the tinned fish market and her commitment to transparency and sustainability.
The discussion shifts towards the challenges of sustainability in the seafood industry. Chef Charlotte stresses the importance of consumer awareness and the role of certifications like MSC in promoting responsible fishing practices. She highlights the need for more transparency and accountability in the industry.
Chef Charlotte expresses concern but also hope for the future of the ocean's resources. She discusses the importance of regenerative systems, diverse diets, and supporting initiatives that promote the sustainable use of ocean resources.
Chef Charlotte shares some of her favorite brands and products, giving shoutouts to innovative companies in the food industry.
Learn more at https://enjoyscout.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/scoutcanning/
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Transcript
Introduction to Artisanal Seafood
00:00:00
Speaker
This is aisle 42. We're staying in the culinary world for this one as we venture into the depths of the artisanal seafood industry. The heart and soul that Chef Charlotte brings to sustainably sourced gourmet tin fish is a beautiful thing. And you're going to love this episode. She's a total wild card.
00:00:24
Speaker
In this episode, you'll learn about her experiences and perspectives in the restaurant world, her take on the importance of seafood in our weekly diet, consumer awareness of sustainable practices, traceability and certifications, her approach as a chef to canning, meal creation and shopping, and flavor scheming and delicious recipes. And well, you get it. So let's get into it. Here's Chief Culinary Officer, Chef Charlotte Langley from Scout Canning.
00:00:56
Speaker
Chef Charlotte, having you on this show is a thrill for me. The work you're doing in the seafood community and beyond, it's inspiring. So I'm so glad that we're finally able to connect. Thank you so much for doing the podcast. My pleasure. It's a thrill to see you. Thanks for including me today. Where are you calling in from, by the way? I was meant to ask. I live in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada at this moment. So not PEI. I hope you'll think I live a lot of the time, which is where I'm from.
00:01:24
Speaker
but it's our county. So a little picked in a little snowy pictures picked in the afternoon. You got your Ontario mojo going on. Yeah. I got my little tick and we're in college today cause we've had our lot of a series of gray days. I'm imagining similar in the West coast. So you had to bring color into your life. So I was like, I'm wearing yellow. I'm going to do this. And I've exude energy and warmth and glowing and
00:01:47
Speaker
I love it. It's good on the audio podcast. It's really good to wear color. It's so it changes the way you talk.
Imagining the Ideal Grocery Store
00:01:56
Speaker
So I'm going to kick things off in classic aisle 42 fashion. And I'm going to ask you if you were to imagine the perfect grocery store of the future, what would it look like? That is so interesting. OK, I would say it says I am a chef. That's my background and training. How I think about grocery stores, it would be
00:02:15
Speaker
the flow of how I create either a menu or a meal, what I'm starting with. So depending on the day or really how I'm feeling, when I walk into a grocery store experience, what I'm attracted to initially will often kind of kickstart what I want to have for the day or that evening with the menu I'm making. So depending on how I'd like to be inspired by or what I want to eat more in my diet, I want to see sort of like the things that are maybe
00:02:40
Speaker
ready to go, like your seconds or your less desirable, or you're like more cost-effective things at the front that need to be moved or consumed because there's so much waste in the grocery store. As we know, lots of things don't get purchased, et cetera. So I want to walk in and see, you know, what's on sale right in front of me? What do I need to use today? I shop regularly. I want to see grocery stores like, you know, you're hitting the market of the grocery store two or three times a week, not once every month. And I want to buy the stuff that's on sale. I want them discounts. So most are not going to be like, you know, risky with my cash.
00:03:11
Speaker
So when you walk in, then I'm going with flavor profiles. I want either fresh herbs, spices, and inspiration from other regions. So maybe like a section, maybe it's like an IKEA, but instead of it being rooms and like, you know, bathroom, living room, dining room, it's like regions of the world and or like what's on sale, what's special, it needs to be consumed like pretty soon. Fresh, ready, hot, happening.
00:03:34
Speaker
spices flavor profiles the liquor store has to be at the very end the last thing that's your grab-and-go section because you're like in a pair after you've done the whole search of the store and then spice it like seasonings cuz I always my little crunchy salt or something new like some kind of fun that's gonna add value to the dish which is like could be a spicer of salt and then I don't know I want it to be really wide aisles so it's like casual and even if you like you know you can cross in the sidewalk you look at each other and smile and nod and pass easily it's not like you're
00:04:04
Speaker
bustling around, low lighting, like dim, warm lighting, and like gentle classical piped in in the mornings, mid-afternoon, little jazz, mid-evenings, funk. Yeah. And then what the source thing is a whole other thing. I thought I was going to surprise you with this question, but you sound like you thought about this a lot. Well, I like fun structures, you know, and I like engaging environments. And I'm sure you have your own route at your grocery store.
00:04:31
Speaker
When I go in, I always do the same route. And if someone's like, we're going on the aisles first, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's throwing off my flow. Probably because I'm a control freak too or something. But I like to navigate and engage with what's going on and see what's happening before I make my decisions.
00:04:46
Speaker
I get it. I like your comment about wide aisles. I don't see that happening, by the way, and retailers are putting more and more stuff in the aisles with palette drops and pop-up displays. And it's, it sort of feels like a maze. But when you talk about the route, I have a route and when I'm going down an aisle in the wrong direction, it's stressful. I'm like, Oh my gosh, something's wrong.
00:05:08
Speaker
That's what's wrong with us. I guess it's like we need to act in this order. But I guess like, you know, what's that called routines? There's nothing wrong with having a routine. So true. But interesting, like going back to the idea of like IKEA for a second or something like IKEA, when you have an ego in IKEA, like you kind of get lost, you know, like you kind of are wandering around in a bit of a daze. If retailers want to get
00:05:30
Speaker
Consumers like trapped into a spending cycle make it like IKEA like just we can't get out We don't know how to leave unless we go through 17 sections of value add or grab and go past casual accoutrement
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's so true. For me, when you talk about where you would start and where you would finish in a grocery store, I can't help but think if I was to... It's funny, I've never asked myself the very question I ask everybody else, but I feel like when I'm preparing a meal, I'm thinking about the protein first. Do I want it plant-based? Am I working with beans? Am I working with...
00:06:05
Speaker
a meat, uh, you know, fish or what, what fish, of course. Um, but you know, where am I starting? What's sort of the big piece of the meal?
Chef Charlotte's Culinary Journey
00:06:13
Speaker
And then, and then I elaborate from there. But then of course the reality is if I was to walk into a grocery store and the first thing I would see would be.
00:06:20
Speaker
Meat and like protein stuff and for whatever it might be a little bit jarring It's not the you know the it's not the safest way to enter the grocery store it would feel Overwhelming and then the prices of these things can be so costly if your first thing in your basket is $50 That might significantly and so there are retailers who figured this out and they don't put meat by the front door so
00:06:43
Speaker
Anyway. Makes sense. I was curious, you know, and I also like the idea of like looking at something that's on sale or like going to that region of the grocery store because as a trained culinary chef lady, I'm like, oh, I have a sense of urgency of production. Like I see something like, oh, that is going to kind of give me a focus to turn it into something delicious in a shorter period of time versus buying a bunch of groceries and burying them in my fridge and be like, oh yeah, I have pork chops or tofu or whatever in the back corner. I like that little sense of urgency.
00:07:13
Speaker
I feel the same way. So I don't always take guests back to the beginning, but given my awkward culinary cooking dish pit background, I can't help but ask, what got you into cooking? Like, what's your chefing journey been like over the last few years? Oh, goodness. Well, I've always been saying I was a happy accident. I've said this for years now, like over 20. I've been cooking for this year, like 24.
00:07:43
Speaker
I've been culinary professional for 20 years, which is half of my life. And that's crazy for one, but it was really,
00:07:53
Speaker
I'm not super academic, like not in the traditional, like, you know, I'm getting calculus, triple A's and all that. See, I don't even know what to call it. Like I would be an A plus, I guess, in calculus on a triple A. That's a standard of B for fish. It's a meat grade standard. But I was really interested in learning, but in something in a different format. So I didn't really like push myself to get to university for lack of a better word. I was like, you know, the classic model, graduate, go to university, become a doctor or something like some version of that. Not in the cards for me. And really to summarize it quickly was,
00:08:23
Speaker
I was in the real world outside of high school and I had no money and I needed a job, but I didn't know really what I wanted to do. So I was like, well, what's a craft or a skill or a trade that I like? And cooking has been a big part of my life. My grandfather,
00:08:41
Speaker
I owned a meat packing and production facility in the 60s, 70s and 80s. And I was always around like delicious food. Like he was an amazing cook, my dad was an amazing cook. You know, it just sort of happened naturally or organically, I guess you could say. And I happened to get into it. I went to culinary school 20 years ago and I excelled. And I'm not sure about you, but when you get like a win, you know, like you step into a field and you're like, I'm actually like kind of decent at this. And then you get a couple of accolades, like a high five or a pat in the back
00:09:11
Speaker
good grades, those triple A's, you know, it's really rewarding. So I kind of fell in love with it. And my version of it today versus what I thought I was going to be doing when I started is completely, completely different. So you started in like a McDonald's or you started in a local pizzeria where, what kind of a restaurant did you kind of break in? Well, I started in like fine dining, actually.
00:09:40
Speaker
Well, I'm like laughing, but I don't find it because I was like, I also am like, what's it called? A masochist. You know, like, I just need to like throw yourself on the most hardest, craziest position with no experience, pray to whoever that it's going to work out. So I applied to a bunch of restaurants across North America, a couple in New York at the time, one in British Columbia, which is where I actually started. It's called Sea Restaurant. How much if you were there then?
00:10:02
Speaker
So Rob Clark, Rob Belgium, they are running the restaurant and they, those are the things that you go to culinary school, which is really fun and great. And then in between your first and second year, you have to do an internship and you can go and get a paid internship if you're lucky, or you can, you know, work for free stash for the season. And, uh, which is totally wrong, but anyway, and get your credits either way. So they offered me a paid position of a gamma jay. And I was like, I'm obviously going to take a paid job.
00:10:29
Speaker
And I threw myself into this Grand Manger station at one of the most high-end restaurants in Vancouver at the time, which is during the peak of like the Al Buli molecular gastronomy craze too. It wasn't just like here, cut this carrot and make it into a puree. It's like making a nice hiss up bubble and this hibiscus foam to go on this, you know, jelled blah, blah, blah. So it wasn't like a straightforward introduction, but it was awesome. So I started there, but why I said it was what I wasn't expecting is when I left culinary school, I was like, my goal is to become
00:11:00
Speaker
the first female Michelin star chef in Canada. And that was like my driver. I was like, I'm going to be the best. Like, I'm going to kill it. I'm going to step up. I'm going to represent. And it was also an ego. Like, I think I've walked into culinary school with more ego than I have now, I hope anyway. And, um, I decided that once I started going to the path and working at the restaurants and stashing and working online and moving up pretty quickly from graduating from culinary school, I became an executive chef at my restaurant, my first restaurant.
00:11:27
Speaker
at 21, which was like a year after I graduated, which also was a bit ridiculous. Like, I didn't even know what executive chef meant, you know, except for what I learned in culinary schools, like a description. It was like, this is what they do. I was like, oh, okay, I can do that. That's like a triple A chef. That's like a triple A chef, exactly. You get your little toque, exactly, you know, and that's when the word toque, like the Canadian hack comes from, the chef hat, by the way. And the little like collar, like a little scarf, and your little chef jacket, and now I'm running a restaurant.
00:11:57
Speaker
And the restaurant was called Cafe Resto Bar, et cetera. Like, what does that even mean? It's a cafe, it's a restaurant, it's a bar, it's whatever. The La Trattoria.
The Rise of Scout Canning
00:12:10
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. One day it's an Irish pub, the next day it's a three-star Michelin wannabe restaurant. That's not what I want to do now. Not even close. I like making fancy food, but I think my perception was skewed at that time, you know? It felt glamorous.
00:12:27
Speaker
That's how I prove myself in the world and the culinary world is to be the best. And these last few years, you've found yourself in the fishing community and tinned fish. Now, first off, I have to ask, what's the difference between canned fish and tinned fish? Is it the same? Is it just a fancy word?
00:12:45
Speaker
It's the exact same, but tin fish caught on social media versus canned fish. So it's tin fish now. Okay. It sounds a little bit more hipster friendly. So that's good. It rolls every time more than canned fish. But I have seen images of you and a, and a hand packing tin fishing, like contraption. Um, are you like a tin fish nerd? Like what's going on?
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I'm a tin fish nerd. I'm like, you know, I think, well, he's my bad joke. I think I've got the nicest cans in Canada. And please laugh. Thank God you're laughing. And what I like about it is so many things I love about tin fish. One is that there's the heritage of it. It's a very old method of preservation and, you know,
00:13:31
Speaker
packaging something in the peak of a season. It wasn't meant to be like we mass produce this to export all around the world. It was meant to make sure everybody had food over the winter when there was no fishing to be done. So I love that heritage component of it and that neighborhood component of like communities, fish communities coming together, cleaning fish, cutting fish, seasoning, you know, canning it, hand packing it, all those steps. But I also love how it can have so much
00:13:56
Speaker
innovation and flavor and surprisingly depth and variation. Like I just did a shoot that's just coming out this week with a company in New York talking about being a tin fish expert. And it's like wine or cheese, you know, like it is in the category where you taste a tin that was canned fresh. It's delicious. It has very interesting notes. It's more bright than you give it four years and it's like evolved and the oil has gotten richer and darker and the fish is a,
00:14:23
Speaker
more mild flavor is taken on other umami components because as things age they change. So to answer your question quickly, shortly. Yes, I am a tinfoil. Okay. I better be careful with my next question. So you co-founded Scout Canning and
00:14:41
Speaker
You know, there's no shortage of canned fish on any grocery store. There's usually large sections of an aisle dedicated towards fish and seafood and cans. Why in the world would you start yet another, you know, fish company? And what was it that made you guys feel like, okay, this is the way we're going to do it and why we're going to do it with fish? Well, it's funny, I found this kept getting sort of solo in 2014 being like, okay,
00:15:08
Speaker
I'm a seafood expert, as in I've been working in restaurants for 10 years, specifically focusing on seafood. Like, C was a seafood restaurant, which is in BC. I worked at a myriad of seafood restaurants after that, and that became kind of my thing. And then I became the embassy chef ambassador for Canada, which I still am today. Like, this seafood life has sort of come with me my whole career. And being in restaurants, I was like, I need to get out of a restaurant. Actually, the other time I was like, I love so much being in a restaurant. I need to find a product.
00:15:37
Speaker
I can get to more people that are going to love to eat delicious fish the same way that I want to make it for them at home or in my restaurant, but they have it at home. So I was trying to think of a way to develop a product that I could reach more people to have sustainable, responsible, delicious fish in general. And the original idea, because it was one like plaques, like backpack bags, it sort of just hit the market as in like, you know, the first and Nova circulator came out. Everyone's like, Oh, you know,
00:16:03
Speaker
My molecular gastronomy training had kicked into the public consumer market. So everyone was trying out with soup eating. And I was like, okay, there's enough plastic in the world. There's way more than we need. So I want to look at a product that's alternative to plastic. What is left? And I've said this joke many times too in storytelling. Do you remember the Mason jar phase of the late early 2000s where you could get a cocktail, a salad, soup,
00:16:26
Speaker
You get a full cocktail ring, like everything in the restaurant was coming to you in a mason jar, which I get it. They were looking for alternate vehicles, chefs were trying to find ways to get creative and serving and storing. And mason jars are amazing, but I was like, the market was flooded. So the only really thing that was left was cans. And I was like, okay, how do I do fresh prepared canned food? And the idea was to have like a backpack vibe, like idea, like, you know, it's a,
00:16:49
Speaker
sealed in this oxygenless environment. You know, it's not going to grow bacteria, et cetera. And you would keep these cans in the fridge. So you'd get like a beautiful can of tin fish made by me, but like you would see that you're grab and go or like, you know, where you buy your kombucha at Whole Foods, be there. And you'd pull it out and pop it in the oven or refresh it in the pan or whatever. And you would taste like a piece of me at home. So then I did that illegally for a while.
00:17:18
Speaker
Oh, I love it. Oh, let's lean in. Illegal fish tender. Illegal, illegal, tender. And by illegally, as in I was exploring the marketplace of what it could look like. I was a new entrepreneur at the time. I'm going, is the market even going to be interested? Are people going to want to buy this great thing? So I bought a canning machine. I started like messing around and like freezing stuff and backpacking stuff and canning it and just exploring, you know, exploring the market.
00:17:47
Speaker
And because I was doing it from my home, like everybody starts at their home, you know, their garage or their wherever, creating a product. And I'm like automatically walking into a $6 million facility and, you know, running fancy retorted products. They're like, what am I doing? So I was doing, what am I doing phase? And quickly realized that the education piece and talking with consumers around tin fish in general, and then, you know what, that was like mostly salmon and tuna in North America.
00:18:15
Speaker
There's some crab, there's some other things, let alone a fresh prepared canned food item. Like what does fresh prepared mean? I'm like, well, it's freshly prepared. And then goes in the fridge and be like, I don't get this. So the education piece where I'm bringing that to life didn't make a lot of sense at the time. And I was like, okay, I need to, I need to make this more legit and to make it safer. I need to make it make sense. I need it to be delicious. I need to have a better shelf life. You know, like refrigeration is expensive.
Cooking with Tinned Fish
00:18:39
Speaker
Transportation is expensive. Refrigeration, et cetera. All these boring business things.
00:18:43
Speaker
So I met up with some friends and we named my current partners and we decided to take this legit and get it into a safe retort situation, which is doing it on a plant and working with a giant thermal process retort equipment. And we commercialized in 2020. So it went from fresh prepared to delicious. I think our first announcement was North America's most trusted seafood brand, but now it's scout delicious tin fish because we make delicious tin fish.
00:19:13
Speaker
I love it. And I've had some of your product. I've had all of your salmon and tuna variations, but I haven't ventured into, I think there's mussels and lobster. And trout. Oh, I'm sorry. I've had the trout as well. It was very good. Yes. Well, thank you.
00:19:31
Speaker
What do you want to give sort of the bit of the rundown on everything you guys are doing? And I've also, as you can see in my background, you saw your snack kit. So give everyone the rundown on everything that Scout Canning is making.
00:19:47
Speaker
Okay, so you hit on the lines. There's sort of like three categories of our tins. So the craft cam line, which is the ones we launched in 2020, great auspicious year, was the tuna mussels and trout. Those are my babies. Those are the ones I've worked on for years. They're very much my flavor profiles. And then we're moving into our pantry staple lines. This is where I like to replace or to challenge the tuna and salmon you see in the grocery store. The majority of those tins you see, the traceability on those products aren't
00:20:16
Speaker
always the best so we were trying to bring an alternative to the market so you'll be like okay you can trust us and this is our sourcing and this is a transparent you know packaging on it and the labeling is very clear and the ingredients are very clean nothing weird and that was sort of like you know to challenge that section of the grocery store which you said you see a lot of cans in the Nile and the third one is a seafood snack so these seafood snacks are meant to sort of disrupt even further where
00:20:43
Speaker
You're looking to have a little healthy snack in the afternoon, like a high protein, something that's nutritious, it's filling, that's good for you, and the ocean too. And these seafood snacks are to fill that void. Plus, the one thing that is missing in tin fish, really, is texture. And I mean, like, crunch. And as a chef, I want crunch in my diet. I, like, let's go in the fridge and you remain, like, lettuce, you know, once in a while. I just want, like, crunchy stuff. So adding a crunchy topper, like, a seasoning mixture to the seafood snack
00:21:12
Speaker
brings that crunch to life. People always put like, you know, tins on toast or chips or crackers where there's not a crunch that goes with it. But I, as fast incorporating the crunchy bits on top of it or into it, you add it yourself, you get all the crunch. And you get all that flavor. Some of the flavor packs you guys have. They explode in your mouth. It's so fun. It's super fun, right? And you're like, it's well, Adam always likes to say is to surprise and delight.
00:21:41
Speaker
And I like that setting because we want to surprise and delight people. And it is a little bit different than some of the others you'd find on the shelf. I find that, you know, I love crackers, but I want the cracker to pair with what I'm eating. So if I'm having like, you know, my jalapeno lime, a seafood snack, it may not pair well with a flaxseed cracker. It may be more like a seaweed cracker or like a very neutral rice cracker, actually.
00:22:05
Speaker
Whereas, you know, they are more ubiquitous for this one across the board. It's all the same thing, but I want to get surprised and delight with each bite. So lots of crunch, lots of flavor and super high protein because people are still obsessed with eating a lot of protein. Yeah.
00:22:20
Speaker
What about, you mentioned earlier on about taking tinned fish and like warming it up in the pan. I think when a lot of people think of tinned fish, they just think of tuna fish sandwiches and sort of very pedestrian, quick, easy meals. But what are some of the other ways that a family, even with young kids, could enjoy fish in a way that isn't quite so, I don't know, prosaic?
00:22:48
Speaker
I love that, like, don't get me wrong, I love a tuna fish sandwich. I'll crave them every once in a while, you know, or tune them out. Like, you can't really mess with that. Like, you must have seen the tuna kata wave that caught up in the old TikTok there. But I would say, like, for, depending on, like, what your family is interested in, you know, I make a jigae, which is a Korean-style stew, a kimchi stew, pretty often at home. And I'll just throw in a can of smoked tuna. You know, at the end of it, that's the protein, so you get that, like,
00:23:15
Speaker
Rich, nice kimchi. It's a big bowl. You see it with some rice on the side. You got a little, like your onions and your garlic, your ginger. You got a little bit of spice. It's sweet and savory at the same time. Very filling, very satisfying. I love that. Why not a big cop salad? This is fresh crunch free if you're not getting seafood snacks. Make the crunchiest salad that you can. Braised cabbage with a yogurt dressing and a little bit of lightly shredded salmon on top of that that's been roasted.
00:23:43
Speaker
such variety and creativity when it comes to this. I've written, I don't know, three or 400 recipes for tin fish exclusively. And I'm also really interested in just cans in general, you know, adding cans to your hanging out, just checking out your pantry every once in a while and seeing what's in there to evolve what's going to happen for dinner. So cool. Yeah. I feel like
00:24:07
Speaker
the, you know, maybe I'm not a sardine eater, like my dad is a big sardine eater. And I remember as a kid, you know, lunchtime, it would be lunchtime. I'd come home from school because that's what we did back in the 80s at times when he lived close by. And my dad would have a bowl of, I think it was like, you know, bacon and bean soup and open a tin of sardines and get some toast. And I think I have really good memories of it. I don't know if I'd necessarily eat that now, but
00:24:37
Speaker
This is a random factoid. I want you to know that your tinned fish was the first tinned fish I had had for almost 40 years. That's crazy. And that was because as a young boy, I had tuna fish sandwich and I had a wicked allergic reaction. No.
00:24:56
Speaker
My throat swelled up. And there was no prior reason that I would know that this was going to happen. And at the time, it was sort of, it was like when the doctors did their thing, like, what did you eat? They kind of walked through my everything I had that day and the day before. And they're like, it's got to be that whatever was in that fish you had an allergic reaction to. So from that day forward, I never ate canned, any canned protein at all.
00:25:21
Speaker
And so it was about two years ago when I first kind of came across you guys. I'm like, all right, here we go. And I'm like, I made sure my wife was home and that her cell phone was charged. And I'm like, I'm going to eat this. Oh, my God. Well, I'm so glad we didn't kill you because that would have really messed with business. Yeah, that would have been a bad review. Absolutely. Well, I'm really glad. Well, thank you for sharing that and also being brave to try it again. Thanks for not killing me.
Sustainability in Seafood Industry
00:25:49
Speaker
Let's go down the path of sustainability for a second. And I know that you are an MSC ambassador, so we can talk about that. But when it comes to fish companies, seafood companies, highlighting where they're
00:26:04
Speaker
product is coming from, who's fishing and farming the product, that traceability. And there are many brands out there that say like 50% of our seafood is traceable and they're celebrating that. And I guess if it was zero, that'd be bad, but I kind of as a consumer, I kind of assume that most or all of it should be, but it isn't that way. The fishing world is kind of a dark and mysterious world. What's going on in fishing?
00:26:32
Speaker
that is making this so challenging. Why aren't more brands B Corp certified? Why aren't more brands MSC certified in the fishing world? Well, I'm going to have to say that some of the challenges are not everyone wants to be an open bucket, but how they're doing business. So if you want to drive the most revenue for your company, there are some companies that are less inclined to be really forthwith and very honest on what they're doing because they've found ways to
00:27:02
Speaker
make the biggest margin for the smallest amount of output. There are lots of companies that I won't name names, obviously, but that have such large production that they also get access to most of the seafood. They are majority buyers. They're the biggest buyers. So they get the first phone call. They're not going to call somebody like myself and say, hey, girl, I got three million pounds of albacore tuna coming in hot. Would you like it? They're going to call somebody else for guaranteed sale because they want to keep that supply chain moving.
00:27:30
Speaker
But when it comes to sustainability and traceability and transparency in the supply chain, the biggest thing that I can think of that can contribute to it is people like you and I asking for more information in public. Most people that go to the grocery store don't go to the fish counter at all or they, or even ask questions and maybe they'll buy something that's on sale or they're like taking a look at curiosity or they, I think it's something like 7% of people go to the fish counter at a grocery store in Canada. I don't know if it's a quote for America, but I think that's more accurate than Canada.
00:28:01
Speaker
And unless we start asking more questions about our transparency and traceability and where it's come from and engaging with the producers and suppliers of the supply chain that are putting this food in front of us, it's going to take longer to change. So having certain certifications or aligning with B Corp and having accountability and transparency for the company themselves, that people that want to see this change, we spend a lot of time and energy making that happen because we stand by these values and we want to be able to say we are the most trusted brand in North America or Canada, whatever it may be.
00:28:31
Speaker
because you can see where everything's coming from. There's no slavery in our supply chain, that this harvest was caught at this time. You can see that it was audited by a third party auditor to ensure that the stocks of the environment were reasonable or variable or in a good or bad state. We want you to have this information because you as a consumer, us as consumers,
00:28:51
Speaker
This knowledge is absolutely powerful. And I keep saying this like that. The power is truly in our pockets. And when we inspire people to ask these couple of questions, like, where did that come from? Hey, brochure, or hey, monger, where did this come from? How is it caught? You know, who, what are any certifications associated with it? May I see that? The more we engage in these conversations, the better it's going to be and the more change it's going to make, because we, the consumers, make the economic impact. It's us asking. It's not,
00:29:18
Speaker
Yes, they've sort of forced things into our supply chain because like, oh, red peppers are hot right now or we have a lot. We're going to put those on sale and everyone's going to buy red peppers. Same things happen in the seafood industry, but really we have to start asking more questions. And other brands, someone's got Scout started and I've been working with Scout as the, you know, I've, I said, part of my mandate for the Scout is that all the while it has to be MSC certified. I'm like, there's no way I'm not going to be able to represent my own brand by saying that it's not certified.
00:29:47
Speaker
So we've made a big mandate and mission to make sure that's, that's working. That's having, you know, lots of audits that happen every year and to prove that we are being very transparent and traceable in our supply chain, how we're purchasing, et cetera. And then that also just sort of said to myself, guys, if we are going to be championing these sort of things, we know we have to be very honest and be very visible with what we're doing. So let's add B Corp, let's add organic, let's add 1% for the plan, all these things that hold us accountable.
00:30:15
Speaker
Basically it holds us accountable. And that's what I want. I don't want to be able to, I want things to slip through the cracks. We need to show what we're doing and I'm proud of it. And I think lots of other companies are seeing this and going, Oh, consumers are going like, I want more information or I want to know where I'm spending my heart and dollars. And, you know, I, I was actually driving on the highway. Maybe it was six months ago and there was this huge ad for, uh, salmon canned salmon. And it was, uh, oceans, I think it was an oceans brand ad.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it was like proudly MSC certified. Since I started Tinfish 10 years ago and I've seen, since I've been in this industry, in this sector, I've never seen a billboard that big that had a logo that said MSC certified proudly beside a can of fish. I was like, this is epic. Like this is change happening. People, these big brands are recognizing that they have to be better and their choices, their supply chain, their management, the people that work for them in order to keep up with the demands of the public. So that was pretty awesome.
00:31:15
Speaker
That is awesome. I agree with you. I think when consumers are exposed to the, you know, the behind the scenes stuff, it changes what we buy. It influences what we feed ourselves and our family. And it can be a beautiful thing when that amount of work can be highlighted and celebrated and kind of move the needle. Yeah. When I first started cooking beyond the whole being a Michelin star chef thing,
00:31:41
Speaker
I was like, I'm doing the research and I, you know, when you, when we have a good relationship and you can trust me to be your chef in a restaurant or in a catering or your wedding or whatever it may be, I'm doing all this extra work because I'm really interested in it and I want to make sure that I'm making the best choices for you, whether that be health, you know, environment, socioeconomic impacts that are positive. All of those things are important to me and my personal beliefs and morals. And I will, it's a, it's a sword I'll definitely die on, that's for sure.
00:32:07
Speaker
And seafood, fish, these are primary protein sources for like half the planet or something like that. So when it comes to regenerative systems and in general, like wild fish stocks out there, are you hopeful or are you worried about the future of what's coming out of the ocean? Well, I'm absolutely worried as we all should be. And it's not just about being worried. I think it's about being aware of the environment and
00:32:33
Speaker
Like tin fish, the ocean hasn't really been like a sexy environmental challenge until more recently, as in people have been looking at forestry or big oil or, you know, lots of different categories of how horrible the world is right now. And the ocean and the water is now becoming more of a frontline topic. I have hope always because there are so many amazing, regenerative companies out there that are looking to
00:32:58
Speaker
you know, sequester carbon to produce more food in a sort of passive way.
Innovative Brands & Future Vision
00:33:03
Speaker
For example, like Green Wave, I'm a huge fan of theirs. They do kelp farming, but they also have a sort of a three-tiered system or two-tiered system. It's a combination of oysters, clams, mollusks, like mussels or scallops. You kind of pick your choose. And they plant these crops in bays and people start their own farm and they're trying to produce local food from a generative system with no impacts, no hormones, no nothing.
00:33:27
Speaker
no feed as they feed off of the sea. And companies like that are doing some really amazing work. There's lots of them out there. People putting in demand are creating seaweed based products. You know, we're, we're seeing more of that being produced all the time. So that demand increases the production, you know, the quantity available. That's supply and demand right there. And when it comes to larger fish species, there's lots of books I can say for you to read for fish is one of them, but,
00:33:55
Speaker
We're so obsessed with only a few top predatory species, especially in North America, when it comes to consumption. So like the salmons of the world, the tunas, the bass, and those sort of categories where I really wish we could look at other species and have a more diverse diet. So when it comes to going to the grocery store, we're seeing farm salmon as our only option. That's the only thing that's there, or one of the few things that's there. It's really frustrating to me because
00:34:22
Speaker
We're stuck in this cycle of feeding people the same food and we're not giving these larger species a break because they need a break. Some species only regenerate or make babies every couple of years. So they're not making babies every year. And like two and a half, you know, making 10,000 babies a year, they only make a few, like they make less. Salmon on the other hand, you know, depending on the species, only spawn every one to three years depending on the species.
00:34:45
Speaker
Give them a break. Plus, they're also the largest species that consume the most fee and the most time and energy they produce, whether they be farmed or wild. Why not eat a species that's less costly to you, like eating a piece of hot egg, or going to your freezer section, finding beautiful packaged fish that's in portions, that's like portion controlled, you know, it's four or five ounces. You can pull it from the freezer as you need it. It's very convenient. It has, you have all the traceability on the packaging that you're looking for. The storytelling is there.
00:35:14
Speaker
We just need to give it a break and look at more of those diverse options out there. Beautifully said, Chef Charlotte. Beautifully said. I have a final question for you and it's an easy one. There's no triple A here. If you were to go into a grocery store right now and grab your green basket, what would be some of the brands that you would make sure that you would have in there? Let's give some shout outs to some of the brands that you love. Ooh.
00:35:43
Speaker
Okay, goodles, absolutely. Sea monsters, they make these amazing puffs, these like kelp puffs that are all these super fun flavors. Love those very good crunchy snack. I'd probably pick up a few of my friends, tin fish breads. I'm always curious about exploring them. So maybe it would be some wild fish cannery options from Alaska. It would be a great one to pick up right now. Or if they're importing some josie gourmet. Those are my favorite guys. I've been in Portugal. Locally, I would say,
00:36:12
Speaker
Sapsuckers new sparkling line of beverages that just sort of got picked up and I think they're at Costco now, which is really exciting. Heyday canning, I'm talking about disrupting the bean category. I would grab as many of their sesame kimchi beans as possible. They're delicious. Who else do I love? Oh man, there's so many brands. Um, I think your basket might be full. Yeah. I think my basket would be full. Especially with puffs in there, like a bag of puffs, that takes up a 30 year basket. That's true. But I always usually,
00:36:42
Speaker
to play big basket, but yeah. There's so many amazing, delicious brands out there that are disrupting the grocery store, like the main aisles. And as tough as that may be right now, being in one of those categories, I'm loving it. I'm loving the innovation, the creativity that's coming out of that space.
Conclusion and Sign-Off
00:36:58
Speaker
So good. Chef Charlotte, thank you for doing this. Thank you for your time and for everything you and your team at Scout Canning are doing for the Earth and for people. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor.
00:37:12
Speaker
There you have it. Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Chef Charlotte. The future of the grocery store and our oceans are brighter, thanks to passionate people like her. On behalf of Ethical Food Group, I'm Corwin Hebert, and I'll see you in the future.