Pollock — all year round”. Event planners of "O!Mega Taste" Festival keep the project going on
All participants agreed that the festival was a success, as evidenced by the final figures of the project: 30 cafes and restaurants, more than 300 thousand guests, more than 30 thousand pollock dishes served. "O!Mega Taste" Festival is going to become a regular event and will be included in the list of significant food festivals both for the region and for the whole country. During the meeting an important decision was announced: signature pollock master-dishes would remain on the restaurants’ menu cards as a la carte food, and RFC would become a supplier of wild white fish for the food outlets.
Pollock is a unique food — natural and ecologically clean. Pollock is easy to cook and it can acquire new flavors as a mono-product as well as in combo with other kinds of food. Pollock Food Festival was primarily aimed at contributing to popularity of pollock food products and healthy cooking, developing domestic gourmet tourism as well as promoting the Far Eastern signature regional cuisine.
"Today we welcome you at “Russian Pollock” plant, where deep processing of wild white fish caught by 10 vessels owed by Russian Fishery Company takes place. Our company is one of the leaders in the national fishing and fish processing industry. RFC is engaged in commercial fishing in the cleanest waters Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. Russian Fishery Company ensures the whole production chain — from catching to deep processing of fish into high- quality fillets, mince and surimi. Today you can see the production process for yourselves. I hope for our fruitful collaboration."
During the tour around the plant the caterers clearly saw the manufacturing process of high-quality fish products, the stages of processing raw product from defrosting to finished output; they were able to make sure of its quality and safety, to extend their knowledge of wild white fish, as well as to select suitable pollock products for their restaurants.
The assortment of Russian Fishery Company is of a wide variety that can meet any demands of chefs. Headed pollock, block fillets, "shutter pack" fillets, individually frozen pollock fillets, "loins", pieces, minced pollock and other products are manufactured on plant’s processing lines.
"You can definitely say that there was a "wow effect" at the festival. The chefs of the restaurants transformed still "unknown", healthy pollock into real signature master-dishes. Those kinds of food the residents and guests of Primorye had tasted as part of restaurant and street festival menus – it was delightful. When you had demonstrated the ways of cooking this fish, I think pollock was pushed on to the level of halibut, red salmon and even scallop. We should keep on developing pollock food culture. Pollock dishes should stay in menu cards of restaurants, and the festival should go on all year round."
The caterers revealed their own top festival dishes and pointed out that some of them would become menu items in their restaurants.
"We have participated in different kinds of festivals, including national ones, and we can say that Pollock Festival "O!Mega Taste" was arranged according to high standard. We would like to thank the Russian Fishery Company for providing the product. High-quality pollock fillet from the manufacturer is half the success of the dish. Our most popular item of street festival menu was "Fish & Chips", and among restaurant menu items our guests gave priority to Pollock hot dish. As soon as we update the menu, our popular pollock items will appear in it again."
Awarding of restaurants for active participation in the first Russian Pollock Festival was the finishing touch of the meeting. The heroes of the festival were awarded with memorable gifts and letters of gratitude.
As a reminder: Pollock Food Festival "O!Mega Taste” had taken place from the 15th of May to the 4th of June in Primorsky Krai. 30 cafes and restaurants of Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk, Kamchatka, and Buryatia took part in the project. Russian Fishery Company had provided 10 tons of ultra-processed food — pollock fillet — for master-dish cooking process within the days of the festival.
Russian Fishery Company (RFC), Gastronomic Map of Russia and Tourist Information Center of Primorsky Krai (TIC) performed as the event managers of "O!Mega Taste” Pollock Food Festival. The festival was supported by the Government of Primorsky Krai. The event was divided into two parts — restaurant and street ones.
"Healthy Eating" Project of Rospotrebnadzor (Russian Federal State Agency for Health and Consumer Rights), RYBNY SOYUZ (Fish Union), ROSKACHESTVO (Russian Quality System) within the context of promoting fish products and supporting "Russian Fish" Project, FSA (Fishery Shipowners Association) and PCA (Pollock Catchers Association) became the Pollok Festival partners.
Official websites of "O!Mega Taste" Festival, Russian Fishery Company and “Healthy Eating” Project present a lot of healthy and challenging recipes that can rediscover pollock for consumers.
Pollock Food Festival "O!Mega Taste" had been held for the first time, but the event has already had a development strategy for the next five years. Within the days of the festival the event planners have signed cooperation agreements. The above documents shall constitute proper vector for developing regional gourmet strand. The festival arrangers feel certain that in the near future the event will be supported by dozens of caterers all over Russia.
