Found Treasure: Get Hooked! Community Seafood Program

March 1, 2024 – Helping do good rarely tasted so…good. 

The full-bodied flavor also comes with a school of mini food scoops, from the sneaky amazing cheffing happening at Meals on Wheels to a new food bank partnership to a major overhaul for my favorite hotel bar.

It’s all happening with the new slate of onrushing Get Hooked! Dinners.

The special-event meals direct 100% of proceeds straight to the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust’s Community Seafood Program. The CSP, in turn, distributes healthy and sustainably harvested catch to local families, farmworkers, seniors and others in need of food assistance, while generating economic support to the region’s fishermen, food workers and seafood businesses. 

Locals get to try hyper-fresh local seafood—harvested by their fisher folk neighbors precisely for this meal—prepared by some of Monterey Bay’s most compelling chefs. 

Interested parties can jump on board here, at the non-profit MBFT’s website, where I’m a contributing writer and the mission is to ensure that our coastal community supports a healthy fishery in all its facets.

The meals will feature unfiltered star wattage (peek the upcoming sequence of participating restaurants below). Celebrated chef Jonny Black and Chez Noir, fresh off rare Michelin and James Beard recognition, kicked off 2024’s dinners last month..

But they will also spotlight low-key masters of their craft. That’s the case come July, when Meals on Wheels executive chef Isaiah Cortright and sous chef Chase Ewing pull the curtain back on their rarified culinary backgrounds (at spots like Dominique Crenn and Atelier in San Francisco).

Free from rules on nutritional content that govern their normal gig—bring on the fancy sea salt!—they’re already at work on a five-course menu, staged on slices of oak they harvested and sealed themselves.

“The really cool thing about Get Hooked! is that Chase and I came from fine dining, and this lets us get our creative juices flowing again,” Cortright says. “Keeps our knives sharp.”

In 2023, the Trust provided 15,000 seafood meals to food relief partners including Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula, Al & Friends, Food Bank of Monterey County, Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes, and The Big Share in Big Sur. 

The goal for 2024: 20,000 meals.

The newest partner in that effort is Watsonville-based Second Harvest Food Bank, where Dawn Barreras is a spokesperson.

“Second Harvest always tries to provide nutritious, high-quality food to our food-insecure recipients, but healthy fish is rarely an option,” she says. “Our new partnership with Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust allowed us to provide grenadier to our local neighbors in need and they were thrilled to receive it.

“This partnership with MBFT aligns directly with our recent sustainability efforts for the people of Santa Cruz County and the environment.” 

And, yes, the Monterey Bay fishers who partner with the Trust find additional outlets for their catch amid challenging times, and access new audiences. 

The 2024 lineup brims with thoughtful contributors, and unfolds like this, with dinners usually ranging between $75-$125 in tax-deductible donations:

Mar 7: Colectivo Felix at Madson Wines

Two upstart—and uplifting—Santa Cruz flavor makers in the same place makes for a fun affair. Not only does Diego Felix know how to craft a good hang—from the empanadas to the vibe—Madson is one of the better kept small-plot secrets of the Santa Cruz Mountain wine world. The plan for next week’s dinner includes local fish empanadas and paella, paired with great vino at Madson’s tasting space *Tickets ($90) are now on sale.

April 10: Folktale Winery

The most social vineyard in the region quietly has an A+ kitchen program, and Chef Justin Robarge will break out some doozie preparations. He wrote the menu yesterday, and it includes octopus poke cones, black cod tacos and “borracho gazpacho” with local crab. The fact the Trust’s new community-and-communications ace Emily Hess previously worked at Folktale and knows the team well—and that they’re repeat Get Hooked! participants—bodes well.

“It’s in the open air, in our gardens, next to the vineyard, with live music playing,” Robarge says. “We really throw down—our Get Hooked! dinners are more of a party than anything else.” (My last visit to check out their Music and Dinner Series definitely bears that out.)

May 5: Maligne

The Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient burst onto the scene with a focus on wood-fired seafood, which makes it a synergistic partner for a second Get Hooked! Dinner. 

June (date TBD): Salt Wood Kitchen & Oysterette

Here too wood-fired fish and shellfish shine, with a chef skilled enough to represent the entire state of California in Mexico City.

July 19: Meals on Wheels of Monterey Peninsula 

Not many would think of MOW as an epicurean revelation, which is what makes this installment so special.

Sept 12: Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn

A singular place with pedigree and a talent-rich team makes meals magic in large part by sourcing fastidiously with local fishers.

Oct 10: Wild Fish

It’s there in the name, and clear in WF’s game: They walk the talk and flex the power of great Monterey Bay product, and have backed the Trust and its fishers from the beginning. 

Nov 7: Monterey Tides

Part of the excitement here is the chance to explore the overhauled Monterey Tides. It relaunches this spring after extensive updates to rooms, the lobby bar and top-floor restaurant.