Barton's Bio
“The problem with our oceans is not a matter of the environment, it’s a matter of our behavior. If we change what we eat, then we’ve got a shot. This is all beyond doable – it’s all delicious.”
Chef, author, and National Geographic Oceans Fellow Barton Seaver is on a mission. He wants to restore our relationship with the ocean, the land, and with each other—through dinner. He believes food is a crucial way for us to connect with the ecosystems, people, and cultures of our world.
Seaver’s first book, For Cod & Country (Sterling Epicure, May 2011), is a full-color exploration of those themes. It showcases seasonal seafood, vibrant spices, and farm-fresh produce. Recipes for family-friendly meals include easy-to-follow instructions, helpful tips, and purchasing recommendations for any cook who aspires to turn a meal into a doorway to community, warmth, and a better way of life.
Seaver’s childhood in Washington, D.C. centered around the family dinner table. After graduating with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, he traveled extensively and found work at a small family restaurant in southern Spain. The casual, ingredient-based cooking style there would prove to be an important influence in his perception of food as an essential part of community.
A transformative trip to Morocco landed him in the seaside village of Essaouiera, where survival is directly linked to the oceans. His experience with the locals, who taught him generations-old fishing methods, helped shape his belief that, at its root, sustainability is both an ecological and a humanitarian issue.
Seaver returned to D.C. in 2005 and began his career as a chef, first with Jose Andres at Jaleo, then as executive chef of Café Saint-Ex and later at its sister restaurant, Bar Pilar. In 2007, Seaver became owner-chef of the sustainable seafood restaurant Hook in Georgetown, which made the Washington Post’s Top 50, Washingtonian Magazine’s Top 100, and Bon Appétit’s Top 10 Eco-Friendly Restaurants. In a single year the restaurant served 78 species of seafood, and Seaver's devotion to sustainability led to national media attention.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium recognizes Seaver as a sustainability leader, and in 2008 he received both the Seafood Choices Alliance’s Seafood Champion Award and the title “Rising Culinary Star of the Year” from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. In 2009, he was named Esquire magazine’s Chef of the Year. Since then he has left the restaurant business to use his knowledge and experience to link seafood to broader socioeconomic, ecological, health, and cultural issues.
Locally he sits on the board of D.C. Central Kitchen, an organization fighting hunger through personal empowerment, job training, and life skills. He also collaborates with the School Nutrition Association, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, Future of Fish, and other non-profit organizations supportive of his message that food is a catalyst for restoring health to ourselves, our communities, and our planet.
As a National Geographic Fellow, Seaver works with the global partnership initiative Mission Blue to increase awareness of the ocean crisis and inspire action. In 2010, he gave a TED Talk on sustainable seafood aboard the National Geographic Endeavor in Ecuador. He developed a list of ocean friendly substitutes for popular yet depleted seafood species, and co-created the Seafood Decision Guide to help consumers evaluate seafood based on health and environmental factors. Currently he hosts the National Geographic Web series Cook-Wise, where he introduces the fishermen, farmers, and scientists working to bring more sustainable food to the table.
Seaver’s recipes and insights have been featured in Cooking Light, O: The Oprah Magazine, the Washington Post, Fortune, and Vanity Fair. He has appeared on CNN, NPR’s All Things Considered, Bloomberg Radio. He is also a regular guest on the radio show National Geographic Weekend with host Boyd Matson.
His three-part television series In Search of Food tells the story of the locavore movement through local farmers, chefs, and food specialists in New York, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. The series premieres on the Ovation network in May 2011.
More at BartonSeaver.org
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