Portrait of a Gourmand – Martin Reed – i Love Blue Sea Sustainable Seafood
Portrait of a Gourmand – A gourmand is simply, someone who takes pleasure in food and eating. This is a continuing photographic series of gourmands, from all walks of life. There are many gourmands that inspire us in profound ways that make us experience and think about food differently. These portraits essays and interviews share their amazing stories.
Martin Reed is a modern day, renegade fish-monger. Young, passionate and a dedicated ambassador to saving the oceans, Martin is an advocate of cleaner oceans and sustainable seafood. Rather than choosing a corporate life after college, he chose to devote his time to time to more sustainable causes and started i Love Blue Sea, the world’s first online sustainable seafood market.
He’s a surfer too, so you can basically call him a fish!
Martin Reed, the sustainable fish-monger
-What would your most special dinner be like?
Guest list is most important and I’m going with people dead or alive – my mom, dad, the rest of my wonderful family and all my great friends. Menu is super fresh sushi, sustainable of course, and you know where I’d get it!!
-Your most memorable meal?
In recent memory was at the Lazy Ox in LA with the coolest food writers, photographers and bloggers – steamy kitchen, food woolf, matt bites , no recipes and, of course white on rice couple! Food was off the hook (do people still say that?) and we sat at a raised table in the middle of the restaurant talking about food for hours. Good times!
-Things that make you laugh
Diane (WORC) during a photo shoot!
-Things that make you sad
When you can’t go surfing or even go in the ocean after a storm because you’ll get sick from the urban runoff.
-Hidden talent that no one really knows about you
If i tell you it won’t be hidden anymore
— Why is sustainable seafood important?
Because if we don’t make some simple changes, we’re going to go down as the generation that had the opportunity to save the oceans and blew it. Just because we can’t see what’s happening to our oceans doesn’t excuse it. Imagine how lame it would be to have to tell your grandkids what fishing was like because we exhausted the oceans. Sustainable is about freshness and trying new things. Expand your horizons and give the same old items a break allowing them to rebound.
— How did i love blue sea come about? what circumstances inspired you to start this?
After moving to Tucson for college I realized that the majority of the country doesn’t have access to a varied selection of quality seafood. Researching what it would take to solve this, I learned of the truly sad state of seafood and determined to do everything in my power to shift course away from our oceans’ demise.
— Anything else interesting you want to share with readers?
While I’m on my soapbox here, please help spread the word about us showing the seafood industry the importance of sustainable seafood. Consumers will support them only if they make responsible decisions. Sustainability needs to become an economic necessity!
- Martin’s website: i Love Blue Sea
- Martin’s twitter: @iLoveBlueSea
- Interview on Suite 101 by Jacqueline Church
More on the Portrait of a Gourmand series:
- Chef Hasty Torres of Madame Chocolat
- Martin Reed of I Love Blue Sea
- Dan and Jael Rattigan of French Broad Chocolate Lounge
- Amy Scattergood of LA Weekly Food Squid Ink
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oppsies i meant to say *you are A beautiful person inside and out… (i missed out the article A hehehe)
Martin is an inspiration. I hope his cause will snowball, and get everyone involved. Beautiful pictures as always Diane and Todd looking forward to more POG’s. It was a pleasure to meet him during the seminar… and of course you Diane… you are beautiful person inside and out!
Hey, Scott Foley is now a fishmonger?? Just kidding 🙂 I learned a tiny bit about seafood sustainability when I reviewed The Seafood Handbook and I was saddened that even that book didn’t expose a whole lot. I actually don’t know much about the local situation either, though there’s plenty of farmed seafood (and actually even in the US there’s no governance for farmed seafood either). I’m glad there’s people like Martin for rallying for this important cause.
Martin Reed rocks my socks. What a wonderful, inspirational article. It is rare to read of such a true, modern-day pioneer, espcially with such an admirable cause. Thank you, Martin, for foraging down the path less traveled, for the convenience of the rest of us.
Gorgeous photos (oh how I miss the coast & the palm trees…) and great post. Martin sounds like an awesome guy! Looking forward to more POG posts!!
Broderick- definitely more to come! you’re next.
Great photo essay.
Thank you for the reminder that just because I can buy it doesn’t mean I should. Beautiful pictures!
Great story and awesome pics, as always. Also, I bet it helps when you’re working with such a HOTTIE 🙂
Anna- LOL! he was easy to work with and his good looks help too. 😉
Hooray for sustainable seafood! Great story and shoot.
Great shoot with Martin. He’s really such an inspirational guy. I’m glad to see he’s getting a lot of love and attention. He deserves it!
Hey guys – thanks for the link love. Really beautiful shoot here. Martin should use one of these on his site! 😉
jacqueline- he is using some on his site! now it has it smiling face to spread the joy of sustainable seafood.
Thank you everyone for kind words and support! So glad to see everyone rally behind this great cause!!
Nice interview with a really great guy. I had coffee with Martin over the weekend and really like what he is doing. The best part of i love blue sea (besides saving our oceans) is he takes the guess work out of buying ‘correct’ fish.
great interivew.
I can understand his passion about the ocean when he is surrounded by such beauty on that beach. I do hope that people will wake up to what is happening in the oceans. I try to stick to the seafood watch guide to pick the right stuff.
Such a pleasure to meet him at Food Blog Seminar, and inspired by his drive and passion for sustainable seafood. All the best to him and i love blue sea.
Great interview. I don’t even know him. And nice shots too of the ocean and the fresh sea vegetables. It’s really nice to read about young individuals making a huge difference in the food chain.