Eight South African chefs were awarded Trailblazer status at the SASSI Trailblazer Awards, held at Harbour House, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, Monday 29th October 2018.

The eight awarded chefs are;

Kayla-Ann Osborn of The Chef's Table, Durban.

Ash Heeger of Riverine Rabbit, Cape Town.

Glen Williams of Foxcroft, Cape Town.

James Diack of Coobs, Johannesburg.

 Louis van Reenen from Arabella, Kleinmond.

 Lucas Carstens of Majeka House, Stellenbosch. 

Michael Cooke of Vergelegen, Somerset West. 

Xavier Francis of The Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg.

 Building on the phenomenal success of SASSI's "Green, Orange, Red" guide amongst the South African public, the SASSI Trailblazer Awards recognise and celebrate chefs who are actively championing sustainable seafood practices in their restaurants. 

Pavs Pillay, SASSI Programme Manager at WWF-SA, commented, "Our partnership with chefs is inspired by a commitment to help restore our overexploited seafood species. The chefs we are recognising have gone the extra mile in advocating the sustainability message." 

"Chefs serve as the gatekeepers for the food and hospitality industry and therefore play a critical role in leading market forces, influencing popular taste and promoting ocean-friendly seafood." she added. 

Awards organiser Clare Mack, of Spill Communications, said: "It's gratifying to see, in the sixth year of these awards, that many restaurants are adopting sustainable practices in seafood, without any intervention or prompting. Sustainability is now mainstream; it has really caught on." 

The criteria for the rewards were: ·  

• The restaurant's seafood sustainability policy;·
• The effectiveness of their communication of their seafood sustainability practices to their customers, employees and suppliers;
• Their level of engagement in communicating their seafood sustainability practices to a wider audience
• The 'Trailblazer factor' (those chefs and restaurants that are going the extra mile in promoting and supporting seafood sustainability).