About The Kitchen Inc.
The Kitchen Inc. blog is written and edited by Kate Gibbs – a journalist, author and cook.
Food, travel, design >> How, when entwined together, these things inspire our daily culinary experience >> The Kitchen Inc. covers food, kitchen-based inspiration, and workable design as it impacts our dining, eating, cooking lives.
Kate Gibbs writes a weekly column for Sunday Life in The Sun Herald called The Perfect… She is a regular contributor to the SMH on food and travel. She writes food features for The Wall Street Journal.
Kate writes for The Foodies Guide to Sydney, The SMH Good Cafe Guide and SMH Everyday Eats. Kate has 11 years’ journalism experience and has written for Russh, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Frankie magazine and others. The interest in journalism began at London’s The Evening Standard newspaper. Her first cookbook, The Thrifty Kitchen, was published by Penguin in 2009. Her second cookbook After Toast: Recipes for aspiring cooks, will be out in September. Kate’s grandmother Margaret Fulton is also in the food business.
In The Kitchen Inc, Kate writes restaurant, bar and cafe reviews, and shows the most interesting and inspiring places to eat and gastro-explore. Kate reviews new food-relevant design and books, she writes about new trends in cooking, how different ingredients are being used by our top chefs and cooks, and how to use these ideas at home.
Kate is a freelance journalist, as well as being a blogger – contact her on thekitchenincblog [at] gmail [dot] com for freelance queries or commissions (!).
If you’re an Editor, book publisher or PR company and want to send her something to review, Kate would be happy to receive it. But please keep in mind that she will be honest in all reviews, and can’t guarantee a shining report. She rarely does go into blogging vitriol, however. Kate writes honestly, giving reports and analysis that her readers can rely on. Thanks for your understanding.
Advertising and sponsorship opportunities for The Kitchen Inc. are available. Please contact thekitchenincblog [at] gmail [dot] com
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Heidi – thanks for reading the column! That is VERY interesting, something I definitely was not aware of. Not only will I consider this in future articles, I’m going to investigate it further – I don’t think people realise there are some fisheries that do this locally.
Imported shark fins, of course, are another matter completely. The practice involves cutting the fins off live sharks and throwing them back in the water to drown – fisherman do this to save room their boats for more shark fins – the animal’s flesh sells for less than the fins do, so this is a very common and very cruel practice worldwide.
Plus, it’s important to note that many shark marketed as flake are in fact not sustainable – we shouldn’t be eating these creatures at all in most cases – they are often endangered and they are an overfished element of the underwater ecosystem. The Australian Marine Conservation Society says wild shark, sold as flake in Australia, is caught using gill net, longline and trawl, and that depending on the species and fishing locations – because they are slow-growing, long-living and late-maturing group of species, and because they produce few young, all shark species are vulnerable to fishing pressure. There have been large declines in shark populations worldwide, with several species listed as threatened with extinction. School Shark is listed by the Commonwealth Environment Agency as conservation dependent. It’s only one source of course, and I am sure it’s likely there are exceptions. Something definitely worth looking into further!
It’s also worth noting that a lot of shark fin sold in Chinese restaurants are actually imported. Not all are from fisheries as sustainable and ethical as your husband’s, alas.
I will do more research into local fisheries and how sustainable the fishing of local sharks is, as well as the cruel practice and where and when it does and does not happen.
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention – it’s really interesting and is something I can’t to find out more about! Cheers, Kate
I was reading your review on Hai Au in Sunday Life and I wanted to bring something to your attention. Your reference to shark fins being ‘an unsustainable ingredient and cruelly gathered’ is not entirely correct. My husband is a commercial fisherman based in Queensland targeting Yellowfin Tuna and Swordfish, amongst his bycatch are various types of shark which are sold and marketed generally as flake in fish and chips. All shark that are caught and brought in (by law) are allowed to have their fins removed once they are unloaded on the wharf and are then sold to customers, most of whom are Chinese. Our fishery (ETBF) is 100% sustainable and works on a quota and licence system as regulated by the government, scientists and enviromentalists. This includes monitoring bycatch such as sharks to ensure the long term viabilty for all Australians, in fact Australia leads the way in world’s best practice when it comes to sustainability in our fisheries. Making a broad statement such as yours can be damaging to the restaurant reviewed and Australia’s fisheries. I hope this information helps you for your future reviews which I must say I really enjoy. Thanks Heidi Walker
I love your blog, your words and your photos. I will be moving to Perth in Dec 2012. Although I know it’s not Sydney, I will feel closer to all you funky creatives down under:)