New seagrass discovery opens up great potential

New values ​​from seagrass can change our understanding of the ocean and reveal great potential for the food industry of the future.
Chefs make scientists ‘take their hats off’

Chef Angel Leon is working on separating seaweed seeds for food. Photo: Time According to Aponiente’s research, lab tests have revealed the enormous potentials of seaweed seeds: Specifically, this seaweed seed is gluten-free, high in omega-6 and -9 fatty acids and high in content. 50% more protein than rice grains. And the most important thing is that this marine plant can grow all over the ocean field, giving normal yield without any conditions like fresh water or fertilizer. The discovery by Spanish three-star Michelin-certified chef Angel Leon made him wonder that the sea meadows stretching across the turquoise water near his home in Cadiz Bay in the past, are now This is an extremely valuable plant. The 44-year-old chef has become even more famous when he is known as one of the most innovative chefs in the world for his efforts to study the nutritional ingredients in seagrass or eel. considered “the rice of the sea”. Thanks to the culinary instinct that has been honed over the years at the famous restaurant and food research firm Aponiente, Mr. Leon is continuing to research and analyze each ingredient in the seeds of this seaweed that soon becomes. the new food of humanity. This discovery opened up the opportunity for three-star Michelin chef Angel Leon to continue on the mission of processing regular eel grass as a potential superfood. “In a world that is three-quarters water, it can fundamentally transform the way we think about the oceans. This will probably be the start of a new concept of the sea as a large garden in the future, “Mr. Leon said. If you first hear this, being told by a chef will be immediately skeptical. But in Spain, Mr. Leon has been known as el Chef del Mar (chef of the sea), has long crossed the boundaries of seafood from tinkering with research and processing of marine plants. discard and turn them into delicious food at restaurants near Cadiz Bay. Close-up of seaweed, also known as eel is seeding. Photo: Aponiente “When I founded Aponiente 12 years ago, my goal was to open a restaurant serving everything that was still considered worthless in the sea. The first years were really bad because no one understood why I went to serve customers with products that no one wanted to use, ”Mr. Leon said. However, he did not give up, the chef continued to pursue “the menu of the unknown of the sea” and his efforts were recorded in 2010 with the first Michelin star. . And by the time his restaurant Aponiente won its third Michenlin star in 2017, Mr. Leon has become an important, defaulted player in the Spanish cuisine as the “chef at the forefront. in an attempt to reposition the way humans treat the oceans “. What Mr. Leon and his colleagues call eel algae seeds “sea grain” or “rice of the sea” in order to continue to deepen and expand research on this issue, is still one of the ambitious projects. most of him so far. Climate change superfood After discovering eel seeds by accident in 2017, Mr. Leon began a search for any documents mentioning the count of eel seeds used as food. The experimental model of growing seaweed for seeds in the Cadiz saline swamp is highly appreciated by environmental scientists. Photo: Aponiente Fortunately, he found an article from 1973 in a scientific journal stating that the seeds of the seaweed eel are an important part of the diet of the Seri, an indigenous ethnic group in Sonora, Mexico. And that is also the only known case of this sea grain, used as a food source for humans. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Leon’s next plan was to consider developing this plant to be harvested in the current Cadiz Bay area, a plant that once grew naturally well before has now been harvested. The narrow area combined with the impacts of humans and climate change makes sea meadows in general decline sharply every year. Mr. Leon personally questioned the researchers at Cadiz University and the local government conducted a pilot eel-seaweed project in three subdivisions of 0.30 ha of salty swamp to become a place where he called “sea garden”. Juan Martín, the environmental director of Aponiente, said it took up to 18 months after batches of eel seaweed seeds to be finished and Leon performed the final tests on his own. “Then one day he asked me to come in a very serious voice and said, ‘Juan, I want to try some cereal because I don’t know what it tastes like.’ And unbelievably, he jumped into this project blindly, pocketing money to find a way to turn this sea grain into different menus, “Mr. Martin said. Mr. Leon says: It’s interesting that you eat eel seeds with the hull tires intact, like brown rice, it has a bit of the taste of the sea. But when the husk is separated, the salty taste of the sea is gone. When he cooked it, he found that the rice tasted very good, and when it was cooked, the rice took two minutes longer and simmered for a longer time, the softer it would be. The positive impact of the sea eel restoration project does not stop there, this seagrass field also has the ability to capture carbon 35 times faster than the tropical rain forest. They are described by the World Conservation Union (WWF) as an “incredible tool” in combating the climate crisis, because seagrasses absorb 10% of the ocean’s carbon each year. although it only covers 0.2% of the seabed area. The good news about Chef Leon and his team was immediately “turbulent” around the world. “When I first heard about it, I said ‘it was interesting’,” said Robert Orth, professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, who has spent more than six decades studying seagrasses. What this chef did “. According to Professor Orth, seagrass has been used as roofing material, insulation and even for packaging seafood, but it has never been grown as food. It is a challenging and mysterious initiative. The wild sea meadows have been dying at an alarming rate in recent decades, while very few researchers have been able to successfully breed and develop seagrass varieties. However, with Leon’s first “sea garden” project, the average yield potential could reach about 3.5 tons per hectare. Although the yield of this eel is only one-third of what humans can achieve with rice, it is valuable that the team has shown the potential for low-cost and friendly farming. environment. “If nature gives you 3,500 kg of food without doing anything – no antibiotics, no fertilizers, only seawater and waves – then we can recommend planting plants. New food – sea cereals ”. Seaweed seeds are considered a superfood in the future because they contain 50% more protein than rice and this plant stores carbon much faster than tropical rain forests .. Photo: Aponiente Now another project is being pushed to expand the scale of the growing eel seaweed to 5 hectares and every step is carefully monitored, in the hope that researchers will better understand the conditions – from temperature. water to salinity – which this new crop needs to thrive. Mr. Leon and his colleagues envision their project to one day go global, paving the way for people to exploit the potential of this new crop to promote aquatic ecosystems, to feed. ocean populations and effectively combat climate change. “We have opened up a window,” said Léon. I believe it is a new way to feed humanity “.