Fish Talk: From Head to Tail

Speakers: Chef Allen of The Café at Books & Books and Michael Aldonas of Sereia Films

Come learn about seafood with Sereia Films in the second installment of their seafood lecture series: Fish Talk. We’ll learn about the seafood supply chain, sustainable seafood certification, how chefs think about sustainable seafood, and more! Sereia Films will be screening short segments of their web series Eating Out: The Hunt for Sustainable Seafood at the event as well.

About the Speakers:

Chef Allen Susser is a James Beard Award winning Chef. He has a passionate commitment to local, fresh ingredients. The New York Times called Allen the “Ponce De Leon of New Florida Cooking”. His landmark restaurant changed the way people ate in Miami forever, and affected how we all eat today. Food & Wine magazine named Chef Allen “One of the Best 10 Chefs in America”.

Chef Allen’s Consulting is a boutique sustainable restaurant and hospitality consulting firm – providing strategic initiative, culinary resources, and innovative direction for the industry. One of his current projects is pioneering chocolate in St Lucia, West Indies. His Emerald Estate Vintage Chocolate is a bean to bar authentically hand-crafted organic Chocolate.

Chef Allen is the Culinary Director for the Café at Books & Books. He was recently recognized by Slow Food with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to working with local farmers and food artisans. Susser is a spokesman for the National Mango Board and is a Culinary Ambassador for the Monterrey Bay Aquarium for its sustainable seafood watch. He received an honorary Doctor of Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University. And received the President’s Award for community service from Florida International University.

He is the author of New World Cuisine and Cookery (Doubleday, 1995), The Great Citrus Book (Ten Speed Press, 1997) and The Great Mango Book, (Ten Speed Press, 2001). His latest book, Green Fig & Lionfish, Sustainable Caribbean Cooking is forthcoming from Mango Media in 2020.

Michael Aldonas is a seafood industry professional focused on bringing sustainable seafood products to market. He has worked with

prominent producers and research facilities based in Latin America, Asia and the United States. Michael holds graduate degrees in business and marine science. He sits on the executive committee of the Surfrider Foundation’s Miami Chapter and currently lives on Miami Beach with his wife and red heeler. Sereia Films is a Miam-based environmental education nonprofit. They believe that if you care about the ocean, you should care about the seafood you eat.