Mauro Colagreco launches an SOS for biodiversity

On June 8, 2024, at the instigation of the United Nations, World Ocean Day will be celebrated. Mauro Colagreco, chef of the MIrazur restaurant in Menton and vice-president of Relais & Châteaux, is taking advantage of this occasion to launch a #SOSBiodiversity by encouraging the association's restaurants to remove eel from their menus, and more broadly endangered marine species.

The vital role of chefs

For Mauro Colagreco and the Relais & Châteaux association, which has been working alongside Ethic Ocean since 2009 to preserve the sea's resources, this request is far from anecdotal. "It's absolutely necessary. Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet, and its rapid decline is a threat to both nature and us humans," insists the 4-toque chef.

"Generally speaking, chefs have been communicating widely and for a long time about the seasonality of fruit and vegetables, so the information is now pretty well integrated. Now we need to do the same for seafood, by raising awareness of the importance of provenance (wild or farmed), the type of fishing (necessarily passive), and seasonality", maintains the Italian-Argentinian chef.

Today, illegal fishing accounts for 20% of global catches, and 35% of catches are wasted. And according to Mauro Colagreco, chefs have a vital role to play in combating this environmental catastrophe: "Our profession enables us to make a direct link with nature, because we are first and foremost food artisans. Our hands are in contact with the raw material, which is our link with the land or the sea", assures the chef. "The strength of visibility of chefs, the prestige of an association like Relais & Châteaux (which counts 800 restaurants worldwide) are a further motivation to show a new way forward, inspire other chefs and encourage as many people as possible with a positive message about the role of our profession and the impact of food as the right choices every day."

The eel as an example

While many marine species are under threat, Relais & Châteaux has chosen the eel as a true symbol of this struggle.

On June 8, 2024, at the instigation of the United Nations, World Ocean Day will be celebrated. Mauro Colagreco, chef of the MIrazur restaurant in Menton and vice-president of Relais & Châteaux, is taking advantage of this occasion to launch a #SOSBiodiversity campaign, encouraging the association's restaurants to remove eels from their menus, and more broadly, endangered marine species.

The vital role of chefs

For Mauro Colagreco and the Relais & Châteaux association, which has been working alongside Ethic Ocean since 2009 to preserve the sea's resources, this request is far from anecdotal. "It's absolutely necessary. Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet, and its rapid decline is a threat to both nature and us humans," insists the 4-toque chef.

"Generally speaking, chefs have been communicating widely and for a long time about the seasonality of fruit and vegetables, so the information is now pretty well integrated. Now we need to do the same for seafood, by raising awareness of the importance of provenance (wild or farmed), the type of fishing (necessarily passive), and seasonality", maintains the Italian-Argentinian chef.
Today, illegal fishing accounts for 20% of global catches, and 35% of catches are wasted. And according to Mauro Colagreco, chefs have a vital role to play in combating this environmental catastrophe: "Our profession enables us to make a direct link with nature, because we are first and foremost food artisans. Our hands are in contact with the raw material, which is our link with the land or the sea", assures the chef. "The strength of visibility of chefs, the prestige of an association like Relais & Châteaux (which counts 800 restaurants worldwide) are a further motivation to show a new way forward, inspire other chefs and encourage as many people as possible with a positive message about the role of our profession and the impact of food as the right choices every day."

The eel as an example

While many marine species are under threat, Relais & Châteaux has chosen the eel as a true symbol of this struggle.
"We're asking chefs and customers to stand up and say 'no' to its consumption, because the facts are clear. Until the 1970s, eels were abundant in the streams, rivers, lakes and seas of Europe. Wrongly blamed for the depletion of "noble" fish such as trout and salmon, eels were classified as pests until 1984. As a result, its fishing was encouraged, giving rise to numerous culinary traditions. However, since the 1980s, the eel has virtually disappeared from European waters. It has become so rare that it has been placed on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list of endangered species. Scientists have been calling for action on all the causes of the species' decline for 20 years, but to no avail. At the end of 2023, we took up the baton by mobilizing the Ministers of the European Union through a letter co-signed with Ethic Ocean (without success).s), and secondly by calling on all Relais & Châteaux chefs to remove eel from their menus. Today we're relaunching this campaign because the game is still far from won, but I'm hopeful."