my baby's name is jamco, new media

(the fun i have w/ my work... chef john caputo of

bin 36 cutting swordfish steaks before service)

to grab the bull by the horns, i've lost any momentum i had going with this blog with my writing silence over the past few months - and that's a major bummer to me.

i moved to chicago with no job and a recent master's degree specified to a field that - because i couldn't have plotted my career course better - doesn't exist in the job marketplace. it's not like there are tall buildings in new york full of firms eager and awaiting a creative writer to come and start crunching ledger sheets and quarterly earnings and mutual funds. writers crunch words, and as the internet grows, the written word holds less and less value.

so this blog, for all its worth, was my way to try and crack any kind of something that might lead to a job in chicago. and funny enough, it did.

writing that piece way back in july on stephanie izard's backyard party scored me a gig working her social media and website (a gig i'm still working). in turn, working for steph scored me a job waiting tables at hot chocolate, which is helmed by mindy segal who this year is nominated, for the fourth year in a row, for a james beard award for outstanding pastry chef in the country - and she's gonna win it this year. while i swore off waiting tables ever again after leaving boston, i made some good cash working this job and became friends with even better people, one of which set up an introduction to a woman i'd heard so much about, even before moving to chicago, and i badly wanted to meet. it was through this woman - i don't know why i'm keeping her anonymous, her name is ellen malloy - that i found work with the hearty boys doing the same type of work that i do for steph. that was november.

and i think it's pretty safe to say that november was the last month that i really kept this blog running at a pace that engaged the few readers i had.

(when the hearty boys' catering vans

were tagged, there was work for me!)

a couple weeks after i met ellen another friend of mine, who i also met at stephanie's dinner, referred me to bin 36 for social media work and again, i'm doing the same type of stuff for them that i do for steph. obviously, a pattern was developing. restaurants and chefs, so consumed with the thousand moving parts that compose restaurant operation, had no time to keep up with this new thing called social media, but like those who i'm working with, were smart enough to understand they needed to find some way to manage social media somehow in order to keep their business relevant. which, is too bad when you think of it, because shouldn't food speak for itself?

(and work with steph is never dull...)

the pattern was obvious. there was work to be had in this field, and there were few in chicago who could do it. and so, almost five months later, i'm finally putting the last pieces in place to move forward and enter this wide open field.

my company is called jamco, new media and when the logo is finished, it'll be a playfully spilled jar of jam that i hope will reflect my laid back and fun edge, while still instilling the confidence and appearance of someone who gets it. because if it doesn't, then obviously... i don't get it. and there's a good chance i just don't.

i'm working with lawyers for the first time in my life and saving up cash for the big checks i'll have to write to get this thing going. but it's fun - a lot of fun - and hopefully, i'll be back in my old cities, crossing familiar bridges, and pulling along old and new friends on this venture (that's right dante, i'm coming for you!)

so here i am, clearing the stale air from the past few months that covered the navel - and i hope taking the first step to resurrecting this little platform of mine to share these little stories about this stuff i love so much, this stuff called food.

know what seafood you should be eating, and what you shouldn't be

(the copper river in alaska, source of some of the finest

salmon in the world, via walt k's photostream.)

it's not often i find comments on the blog—and worse, not often i'm posting—but this morning i came across a comment that was left on the blog yesterday afternoon, and after spending the better part of the last thirty minutes responding, i realized i'd actually written my first post in weeks.

so, to break the silence, more on salmon, starting with the comment:

how does one know if the "wild salmon" served in a restaurant, really is viable wild salmon?

and, my attempt to answer...

first off, our consciousness needs to improve on all aspects of seafood, not just salmon. with that, the monterey bay aquarium has established a program that constantly studies and analyzes the status of catch around the world, and rates their finds in a guide that's available for anyone to use (broken down depending on where you live in the u.s.).

go here to get it. but seriously, go there. and don't just read it, but print this out and bring it with you. or better yet, do the environment one better and download the app on your phone!

(the seafood card i use here in chicago. where is yours?)

right now, wild alaskan salmon (and that's what the menu needs to read, be it king, sockeye, or coho) is the only salmon you should feel good about eating. even then, eat in moderation. the demand is far too great if we consistently eat this fish and will eventually deplete the supply if it remains the only sustainable salmon option.

the western u.s. wild salmon fishing is on the rise, and hopefully even california will enter the picture as a local option, which is what we need. currently, wild salmon from washington is recommended as an alternative to wild alaskan.

which leaves us with farmed and atlantic salmon - which, like i point out in the post, is farmed salmon from european countries on the atlantic seaboard like norway, scotland, ireland, and iceland.

that said, some european salmon farms are on the upswing in practices and soon enough we may see a shift.

(the seafood card i'll use when traveling to

california this summer... unless it changes.)

so when you're at a sushi bar and all the menu reads is "salmon." ask where it's from. most sushi bars will print "wild alaskan" or "king salmon" because it costs them far more to purchase, and hence will charge you more to eat it. whether you're at a chain restaurant like maggiano's or a steakhouse like ruth's chris or you're even at some swanky restaurant in a downtown hotel, even then, avoid the salmon—if you truly want to make a difference both for yourself, our fisheries, and the environment—unless it reads... "wild alaskan!" simple enough, right?

(and, finally, the seafood card i use when eating sushi!)

the other thing to do? try other fish! go to the link above and find out what other options there are for you. just because you don't recognize the name of this fish doesn't mean it's not worth eating. you'd be surprised how good these fish are, and might even like them better than the beloved salmon...