Armadale students have $4.5 million reasons to engage with seafood

Students tasting their creation

Students tasting their creation

WAFIC’s Smartfish education initiative received a real boost with a visit to students at Armadale High School and their recently revamped $4.5million hospitality suite – including a state of the art kitchen.

The Year 11 students were given a comprehensive presentation by Asher Flynn, from Fremantle Octopus.

Asher also promoted the sustainable nature of fishing for octopus with the “Trigger trap” and invention of Fremantle Octopus director Craig Cammilleri.

“If we lose a trigger trap, it can only catch one octopus, which is not really going to affect the sustainability of stocks,” Asher explained to the attentive classroom.

“But if someone loses a net, it can drift around for ages before it is retrieved and it can keep catching fish the whole time. That is called a ghost net.”

Crown commis chef Zoe Kumar took the class through a practical demonstration of how to prepare, cook and plate Lemon myrtle cuttlefish and garlic chilli mussels on a bed of bush tomato and river mint verde, garnished with edible sand balsamic pearls and fresh cucumber.

The initial reaction of the students to both cuttlefish and mussels was that no way would they eat them.

But by the time they had dished up their own attempts to recreate Zoe’s recipe, they were more than happy to sit down and voraciously consume the results.

Hospitality teacher Michelle Tilly said it was a fantastic class and thanked WAFIC, Asher and Zoe for their efforts and time.

“It was a fantastic opportunity – something that we would definitely do again. Even the students who were saying at the beginning that they don’t like seafood absolutely loved the cuttlefish and couldn’t get enough of the octopus!”

Fremantle Octopus Asher Flynn education students on sustainability and local produce

Fremantle Octopus Asher Flynn education students on sustainability and local produce

Chef Zoe Kumar teaching students the secrets to cooking seafood

Chef Zoe Kumar teaching students the secrets to cooking seafood

Underutilised species 'cuttlefish'

Underutilised species ‘cuttlefish’

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