Patrick Properties

Director of Events Jennifer Goldman just sent me a link to a nutrition blog. Normal enough, as we send links throughout the company on a regular basis about local fishing practices, wedding trends and the occasional photo of a cute baby. In this blog, however, I was surprised to find a huge photo of Nico’s food taken from our Flickr page! Surprise! I love to see our beautifully presented dishes on other people’s blogs!

What makes this feature of Fish especially great is that the blog is about the practices chefs are moving towards in 2010. After reading the list of 50 trend-setting ideas I realized that Nico, Charron, Deveaux and the gang are really ahead of the curve as far as progressive cooking techniques, particularly when it comes to using local and sustainable product. Nico was one of local fisherman Mark Marhefka’s first restaurant clients and has continued to incorporate local purveyors and sustainable practices into his kitchen for years. Did you know that Fish currently contributes to a compost program? All food scraps are separated into bins that are composted, and what’s more is that raw vegetable leftovers are separated and taken to Keegan Farm to be used as natural vegetarian pig feed instead of being thrown away. Pretty progressive stuff. It takes a little extra time and energy on our part, but makes a big difference in working towards a more sustainable environment and local economy.

Not only that, but the article mentions nutrition, allergy awareness and healthy children’s meals among the top trends, all of which Fish has already incorporated into our menus. Fish is known for accommodating food allergies by creating specialty dishes on the fly for guests with special needs and requests. Gluten free? No problem. Wheat allergy? We’ve got you covered. Vegan? We’re on it.

Just this summer Fish added a healthy kids menu for lunch that includes a moo shu wrap overflowing with pineapple, carrot, lightly breaded chicken, rice and house made local honey mustard that is low in fat and calories. Being right around the corner from the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry we felt that parents needed an option to feed their kids that didn’t include a burger or fries and according to this survey the rest of the country agrees.

Those are just a few of the things that we do around here to make sure we’re making smart decisions for our environment and our bodies. Glad to see that these trends are catching on in the new year!