Ask Chef Walter: Guide to the Right Seafood for Your Feast of the Seven Fishes – Walter Potenza

by Chef Walter Potenza, contributing writer

Bait-and-Switch:

Seven Fishes, Zero Fakes: A Chef’s Guide to Choosing the Right Seafood for Your Feast of the Seven Fishes

With Christmas Eve and the Feast of the Seven Fishes coming up, I think back to the busy kitchens of my family in the USA. The smell of fresh seafood and the sound of family laughter filled the air as we gathered to enjoy this special tradition. This article is for Italian Americans who want to celebrate with both great taste and authenticity. The ‘seven fishes’ tradition is actually more common among Italian immigrants and their families in the U.S. than in Italy, where seafood is eaten on Christmas Eve but without a set number. Even if you eat seafood all year, these tips can help. I only learned about this tradition after moving from Italy.

As a chef, I’ve seen many cases where fish are mislabeled. I can usually spot the difference, but most people end up paying more for seafood; that isn’t what they think it is. Sometimes, this means losing up to $13 per pound on what should be top-quality fish. There are also health risks, like stomach problems from mislabeled fish such as escolar. These issues are frustrating, can be bad for your health, and hurt efforts to protect the environment. If you learn what to look for and buy from reliable sources, you can get real, high-quality seafood, save money, and protect your health.

Research from groups like Oceana shows that seafood mislabeling is common in the U.S., with rates ranging from 20% to 33% overall. For some fish, such as snapper, the rate can reach 87%. Both shoppers and regulators need to stay alert.

Common Mislabeled Fish to Watch For

Here are some frequently encountered examples of mislabeling in U.S. supermarkets, restaurants, and markets:

• Red Snapper: This fish is often mislabeled and swapped with cheaper fish like tilapia, rockfish, or vermilion snapper. Real red snapper, mostly from the Gulf of Mexico, has firm, white meat and a mild, sweet taste. Studies show that 70-90% of red snapper sold is not the real thing. These swaps trick buyers and hide the problem of overfishing, making things worse for real snapper. Knowing this helps you see why honest labeling matters and encourages better choices.
• Escolar: This fish is often sold as “white tuna,” “butterfish,” or “super white tuna.” It has a rich, buttery texture, but it contains wax esters that can cause stomach problems, including oily diarrhea, for some people. Escolar is not real tuna and is banned in some countries because of health risks.
• Tilapia: A mild, farm-raised fish often substituted for more expensive whitefish like red snapper, sole, or cod to cut costs.
• Sea Bass: This fish is often mislabeled, with up to 55% of samples in recent studies being something else. Cheaper fish, such as giant perch or tilapia, are sometimes sold as sea bass.
• Tuna: Cheaper types like yellowfin or bigeye are sometimes sold as the more expensive bluefin. Escolar is also sometimes used instead of albacore “white tuna.” In total, up to 59% of tuna is mislabeled.
• Salmon: Farmed Atlantic salmon is sometimes sold as “wild-caught” Pacific salmon, like Chinook or coho, which are more expensive and have different nutritional values. In the off-season, more than 40% of salmon may be mislabeled.
• Other Whitefish (like cod, haddock, catfish, pangasius, swai, or basa): These mild fish are sometimes labeled as more expensive types or swapped with each other.

Less common swaps happen with fish like grouper and halibut. Salmon and tuna are a bit easier to spot by their appearance and taste, but mistakes still happen.

Tips for Making Informed Purchases

Imagine walking through a busy fish market, smelling fresh seafood, and hearing the sounds of shoppers and vendors. To help you avoid mislabeled seafood, here are some tips:

• Shop at reputable fish markets, supermarkets, or vendors known for transparent sourcing.
• Ask questions: Inquire about the fish’s origin, species, and whether it’s wild-caught or farmed.
• Look for certifications: Labels from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild fish or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) for farmed indicate sustainable, traceable practices.
• Examine appearance: Familiarize yourself with traits like color, texture, and fillet shape (whole fish are harder to misidentify).
• Prefer whole fish; have it filleted on-site if needed.
• Use resources: Apps and guides, such as Seafood Watch from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, offer sustainability and identification advice.
• Buy local/seasonal when possible: Fresher and more likely to be accurately labeled.
• Be wary of deals that seem too good: Extremely low prices on premium species like red snapper may signal substitution.

Why Does Mislabeled Seafood Happen?

Seafood mislabeling happens because selling cheaper fish as more expensive ones increases profits. Complicated supply chains make it easy for swaps to happen at different points. Weak rules, different standards across countries, and high demand for rare fish, which leads to overfishing, make things worse. Because people want greater honesty and traceability, policymakers have launched programs such as the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). When you know this, you can feel more confident about asking for better rules and honest labels.

In response, the U.S. implemented the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), which requires traceability for certain at-risk imported species to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and fraud.

Final Thoughts

We need stronger rules, better tracking from the boat to your plate, and more education to stop seafood mislabeling. This helps protect your money, your health, and the oceans. If you stay informed and buy from honest sellers, you can make great seafood dishes for your Feast of the Seven Fishes and know you’re getting what you paid for. Enjoy the holidays, and buon appetito!

Here a simplified guide to follow. 

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Meet Chef Walter!

There is a constant, recognizable thread in the career of Walter Potenza to elevate the level of Italian culinary culture in the United States. Besides his unquestionable culinary talent and winning business perspective, Chef Walter has been a relentless educator with passion and knowledge who defeats stereotypes. His life, career, and values are a model, an example to follow by any chef of Italian gastronomy working outside Italy.

Chef Walter appears regularly on National and International Networks such as Food Network, ABC, CBS, NBC, RAI, FOX, and Publications such as NY. Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Saveur, Gourmet, and several Italian media outlets.  And now – RINewsToday!