Macgregors Seafood Notes

There is no shortage of seafood appetizer options in the marketplace. At a glance, this plethora promises to add an element of diversity and even exotic flair to a menu. The sheer multitude of products means that there is something for just about any restaurant operation; casual right on up through fine dining. The venerable Shrimp Cocktail and Bacon Wrapped Scallops have found their place on countless menus across Canada and the US, insomuch as they are now commonplace.
The success and penetration of seafood in the appetizer section of menus, however, isn’t all rosy. What once had the lure of diversity and uniqueness has become a very homogenized segment. The incentive for these menu items to add increased profits to the operator’s bottom line has led or pushed producers to find more and more inexpensive ways to manufacture these products. The bottom line is that the quality of the raw material has decreased and much has become over processed, and unvaryingly similar in taste. In fact, there is much room for improvement and arguably, the operator that chooses to go back to basics in sourcing natural, fresh (where possible) seafood for their appetizer section will find a renaissance of sales and profitability from diners seeking quality and value from their restaurant experience.
As an operator, the best place to start is the ingredient declaration of your current products. Take, for example, the Shrimp Cocktail. The shrimp cocktail is great example because in its essence, the shrimp are being served as “natural” as they can be, and the point of the dish is to highlight the shrimp (hopefully not just the cocktail sauce). It’s surprising then that nearly all the shrimp coming into North America, and indeed the shrimp found in shrimp cocktails everywhere, is a multi-ingredient item. Most labels would look something like this: Shrimp, sodium tri-polyphosphate, salt, water – or some variation of this. These ingredients are processing agents and they act to increase weight & water retention prior to freezing, and invariably, they affect the taste. A natural shrimp would have in the neighborhood of 80mg of sodium per serving and a typical shrimp you’d find either in grocery or in restaurants would be upwards of 500mg – before anything is even done to it. The flavor that the diner has now become accustomed to is salt, not shrimp. Side by each, natural shrimp has a vastly less “salty” taste; it is also denser with a significantly “crunchier” texture and much more pronounced and vibrant color. The operator who markets a natural shrimp in their cocktail or any other dish now has a story to tell the diner - a point of differentiation and “value”, and in most cases, it’s merely the cost of moving down a size. It would also award a better dining experience, meaning return customers and more appetizer sales.
Continue analyzing ingredient declarations and you’ll find a similar story across the board, notably scallops. Most of these customary seafood items are in need revitalization. They are available in a natural, untreated form and in many cases fresh. They offer significantly different eating experiences vs. their traditionally processed frozen forms. When buying fresh and unprocessed products, the lines of traceability and sustainability are predictably much clearer and the priority is typically quality over price. The cost associated with making a switch to this is not as significant as to limit it only to white tablecloth restaurants either.
At the end of the day, any products a chef / operator can menu that have a “story” or a point of differentiation will only add value to the dining experience. In today’s foodservice climate, customers are looking for value, which doesn’t mean the most food for the least. It is quality, taste, and food they can feel good about. Today that means going back to basic, natural & fresh ingredients. Ingredients people will come back for…