Vancouver Magazine
Opening Soon: A Japanese-Style Bagel Shop in Downtown Vancouver
The Broadway/Cambie Corridor Has Become a Hub for Excellent Chinese Restaurants
Flaky, Fluffy and Freaking Delicious: Vancouver’s Top Fry Bread and Bannock
Protected: The Wick is Lit for This Fraser Valley Winery
Wine Collab of the Week: The Best Bottle to Welcome a Vancouver Spring
Naked Malt Blended Malt Scotch Whisky Celebrates Versatility and Spirit
The Orpheum to Launch ‘Silent Movie Mondays’ This Spring
5 Things to Do in Vancouver This Week (March 27-April 2)
Meet Missy D, the Bilingual Vancouver Hip Hop Artist for the Whole Family
What It’s Like to Get Lost on a Run With a Pro Trail Runner
8 Things to Do in Abbotsford (Even If It’s Pouring Rain)
Explore the Rockies by Rail with Rocky Mountaineer
The Future of Beauty: How One Medical Aesthetics Clinic is Changing the Game
4 Fashion Designers From African Fashion Week Vancouver to Put on Your Radar
Before Hibernation Season Ends: A Round-Up of the Coziest Shopping Picks
Green Award winner of Vancouver Magazine's 26th Annual Restaurant Awards
Four years ago, Ned Bell was on a beach in Halifax one night with a bunch of colleagues. They were unwinding after a day of Canadian Chefs Congress meetings, shooting the breeze and watching the stars, when the aha moment hit. “We’re all about what’s growing in our own regions and provinces, but we didn’t have a national conversation around sustainable seafood,” says the Okanagan-born chef. He’d just taken a job with the Vancouver Four Seasons, rebranding its storied Yew restaurant into a standard-bearer for environmental responsibility. It became the first luxury hotel in the country to sign on as 100 percent Ocean Wise, and Bell has seen that hyperfocus pay off with his bosses (revenues have jumped from $6 million a year to $9 million), with his customers (“If you give them a choice between cheaper, non-sustainable seafood and premium seafood from a well-managed fishery, even if it’s a few bucks more, they’ll choose the latter”), and with Mother Nature.Last summer, he put his feet where his mouth was, biking from St. John’s back home, running 24 sustainable-seafood events en route. It was 150 kilometres a day, all to educate his peers on halting the strip-mining of our oceans, managing our fisheries through inland farming, and eating down the food chain to preserve rivers, lakes, and oceans. For the chef, a fit 41 and infectiously passionate about his nascent foundation, the challenges (Prairie headwinds, bedbug motels) paled beside the payoff. “I feel so fortunate to have this wobbly soapbox to stand on. This is my life now. I have found my calling.” Chefsforoceans.com