A taste of expanding the worth of the Great Lakes fishery

David Naftzger proudly showed his fish leather belt Monday at Kendall College on South Michigan.

It was a good looking belt, all the same the first a head honcho at a news event ever showed me their belt, let alone a fish leather one.

But Naftzger, executive director, Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers, is on a mission, including showing his belt and handing out fish leather key chains.

Fish leather is already being made in the Midwest. Pam Manthei and her husband, Joe, started Fiskur (Icelandic for fish) Leather in 2011 after visiting Iceland, according to fiskurleather.com.

It was part of hyping using all parts of fish caught in the Great Lakes, a “head to tail” Great Lakes Fish challenge at Kendall College.

“The idea is you can use those parts that are not traditionally used,” Naftzger said. “Today is about showing you can.”

The formal idea is GSGP’s creation of “a 100% fish strategy for the Great Lakes St. Lawrence region to waste less of the fish, create jobs, and practice better sustainability. Iceland pioneered the `100% fish’ strategy and has increased the utilization rate of the Icelandic cod from 40% to more than 90%, raising the value of food and non-food products made from each fish from about $12 to $4,000.”

Naftzger said Iceland is already utilizing cod skin in treating burns and other wounds. Notably burbot, the only freshwater cod, are natives of the Great Lakes. I couldn’t find out if burbot would work the same way.

Most important is aiming at 100-percent use.

The tasty part Monday was three dishes made with belly meat, cheeks and meat near the tail. (FYI, many anglers consider cheeks a delicacy.)

“For the students, the challenge was not to use the the flesh, if you will, the traditional pieces, so instead of the fillet they had to use parts like the head or the tail and things like that,” said Chef Wook Kang, Kendall College Culinary Arts executive director and program chair.

The fish came from Fortune Fish & Gourmet in Bensenville. The dishes were Great Lakes fish cakes (Kathryn Semple), Great Lakes walleye with rice pilaf and coconut curry (Ryan Miller) and walleye croquettes (Gavin Bieber).

“Illinois has made great headway in bringing ‘100% fish’ principles to carp management, including the launch of the Copi brand to encourage consumption of a locally sourced, responsibly caught protein source,” said Natalie Phelps Finnie, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. “Today’s event was a terrific opportunity to showcase how Illinois fish processors can connect with chefs to create great food from the fish head to the tail.”

Phelps Finnie had never done similar judging, but said, “I’m a foodie.”

Before judging began, she gave methods her family uses to grill salmon fillets (skin side down) weekly and bluegill fillets regularly over hardwood charcoal.

The judging—based on taste, creativity, temperature, technique and use of fish—came one dish at a time. Think “Iron Chef.”

Beside Phelps Finnie and Naftzger, judges included Ian Harding, fisheries biologist, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Benjamin Garrow, Commercial Officer, Ontario Trade & Investment Office, Chicago, and Jeff Lemke, a former chef and now senior sales representative with Fortune Fish & Gourmet.

This was a dream gig. I love covering food in the outdoors. Tom Palmisano often cracks when we drive the lakefront on opening night of smelt season checking netters that I’m more concerned about cajoling samples of what I consider the varied culinary delights of lakefront haute cuisine.

Beside Chef Kang, Lemke had the most cultivated taste in the room and it showed in his comments during the food tasting of each dish.

I was dubious of the push to use underutilized portions of fish. In raising four kids, I learned quickly the value of fish fillets and deboned fish. But talking to Lemke, who knows far more about food, afterward, he strongly pointed how a market can quickly develop for disregarded or disdained food to “everybody is using chicken skin” and recently pork bellies becoming the next big thing.

“This may well be the next big dish,” Lemke said.

After the event, the assembled sampled the dishes. I concur with the unanimous call by the judges that all three dishes were good, but the curried fish was best. It had a distinctive but not overdone kick and was a more complex presentation.