The 2022 Catch + Cook for a Healthy Ocean Competition brought together an incredible community to celebrate wild food, coastal access and the good stewardship of our natural resources.
A huge thank you goes out to our event partners, Fin + Forage, for their role in helping to make the event an incredible success.
The annual Monterey Catch & Cook for a Healthy Ocean Competition is a family-friendly event where a freedive-spearfisher competes to create the best wild fare before a panel of professional and celebrity chefs. Participants catch their seafood recipe ingredients from nearby coastal waters, and then cook their meal outside at Del Monte Beach in Monterey, CA. Meanwhile, family and friends of competitors are invited to join in a beach clean-up competition. Numerous prizes were be awarded for Best Meal, Heaviest Fish, the Beach Clean-up and much more including urchin culling incentives and a huge raffle.
This year's event featured over $25,000 in prizes donated from 34 different event sponsors including big names such as Messermeister Knives, Traeger, Omer, and many, many more. This event would not have been what it was without the generous contributions from our Corporate Partners and we are very grateful for their support.
WINNERS
1st Place: Aaron Koseba @coolerchef
2nd Place: Huan “So Low” Le @huanso_low
3rd Place: Samantha Johnson @ithaca22girl
Executive Award: Daniel Kim @bigbigtuna
Big Fish: Emmanuel “The Scallop Whisperer” DM @emmanuel_2m
Honorable Mention: Daisy Valdivieso @daisyvaldivieso
Urchin Culling Award: Dan Levy @waddeesay
Beach Clean Up Award: Rebekah Phillips @rebekah_seas
Additional press and praise for the Catch + Cook 2022
EDIBLE MONTEREY BAY ARTICLE: Favorite Recipes from CnC22
https://www.ediblemontereybay.com/blog/favorite-recipes-from-catch-and-cook-2022/
EDIBLE MONTEREY BAY ARTICLE: Firsthand event experience from food writer, Mark Anderson
https://www.ediblemontereybay.com/blog/found-treasure-amazing-catch-and-cook-2022/
NOOB SPEARO PODCAST EP. 188
https://www.noobspearo.com/cnc22/
HARVESTING NATURE PODCAST EP. 501
https://harvestingnature.com/2022/04/14/podcast-episode-501-fin-forage-and-cooking-your-catch/
All of the recipes from this incredible event will be included in the limited edition 2022 Catch + Cook Competition Cookbook.
About Devin O'dea
Devin grew up abalone diving, spearfishing, and backpacking in CA before discovering a love of bowhunting and wing shooting. He worked as a marketing manager for a carbon division of Mitsubishi, but the allure of adventure and wild places led him to BHA