Chef Jamie Steele Champions Underutilized Sea Urchin at Glenelg Festival

Chef Jamie Steele stood behind a busy demo bench preparing sea urchin for curious festival-goers at the Sea to Shore Glenelg Seafood Festival in Adelaide, many trying it for the first time.

Jamie believes chefs have an important role to play in helping people feel comfortable trying unfamiliar seafood. One of the easiest ways to work with it is through urchin butter, which brings depth and richness to familiar dishes.

After watching the Great Southern Reef Foundation’s documentary White Rock, Jamie said the issue hit differently. “Once I found out there’s these actual bonuses to eating it, then I’m all in!”

That mindset is part of a broader shift now happening across Australia’s seafood scene. More chefs are starting to experiment with underutilised and environmentally beneficial species.

Through the growing chef collective and recipe series featured on the GSRF’s Eat An Urchin platform, he hopes other chefs will also start seeing urchin not as a novelty, but as a genuinely exciting and sustainable ingredient worth championing.

#seafood #sustainableeating #chefs #underutilizedseafood #GreatSouthernReef