Seafood has been at the heart of renowned Twin Cities chef Andrew Zimmern's recipes from the time he first set foot into the kitchen as a teenager.
"It dominates the food I like to make," Zimmern said in a recent interview.
He wants to keep it that way for decades to come, but for that to happen, the four-time James Beard Award winner says the food and fishing industries need to embrace new food technologies and employ creative solutions to meet the rising demand for seafood while at the same time protecting overfished oceans that also are threatened by pollution and climate change.
Emmy-winning Zimmern and his production company Intuitive Content are behind "Hope in the Water," a new three-part PBS documentary telling the stories of innovators, fishing professionals and aqua farmers working to create a sustainable future for the planet. The first episode premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
"We can't keep doing things the same way," Zimmern said. "We can't survive without the ocean."
To produce "Hope in the Water," Zimmern collaborated with storytelling visionary David E. Kelley, whose credits include "Love & Death," "Lincoln Lawyer" and "Big Little Lies," and assembled a star-studded team of authors, actors, chefs and environmental enthusiasts like Shailene Woodley, Martha Stewart, José Andrés and Baratunde Thurston to join the show.
The four hosts traveled the globe over three years and visited five continents to find success stories. They found one in Blomkest, Minn., a tiny town about 95 miles from Minneapolis and 1,300 miles from the nearest ocean. It was there that Paul Damhof did the unimaginable, transforming his family's dairy farm into a shrimp hatchery.
"Who in their right mind would raise saltwater shrimp in the state of Minnesota?" Damhof jokingly says during Episode 2, which is titled "Farming the Water" and will air June 26. Another farmer, Barb Frank, teamed up with Damhof to form Simply Shrimp.
With no playbook, the two set out to learn the business, and there were some rough moments. They persevered and got help from scientist Tran Huu Loc from Ho Chi Minh City, who built a shrimp farm in Vietnam. Loc shared his expertise and helped Damhof and Frank overcome a huge obstacle: keeping the water clean.
The breakthrough kept Simply Shrimp alive, and thriving. Damhof says a facility expansion will be done by next year, according to a posting on the company's Facebook page.
"Let me prove the concept and this is something that can be replicated throughout the United States and the world," Damhof said during the TV episode. "That is what excites me."
It was exciting for Zimmern, too.
"I'm thrilled the Minnesota shrimp story is being told in our show," he said during a phone call. "We are able to have good jobs growing fish (and crustaceans) indoors. The science is there. This is a vital piece of economic development."
Zimmern is preparing for more TV shows, including the new "Field to Fire" to encourage outdoor cooking over live fire, coming this fall. He and Intuitive Content also have a few other projects in the works, but Zimmern said he could not talk them about yet. And he hopes to do more documentaries like "Hope in the Water."
"I can't imagine we won't," Zimmern said. "They are important stories to be told and we are thrilled to tell them."
