Buzz-Buzz-Splash, Super Chef

By JULIETTE ROSSANT How do you put Bumble Bee Tuna together with Rick Moonen, an American uber chef of sea food? After hanging around quietly but steadily at Oceana for a number of years, Moonen cut out of there in Fall 2002 to open rm with the Harrington family in New York -- for whom he is also consulting on their own restaurant, Branzini. Now in late Fall 2004, he will be opening a second rm in Las Vegas. (The press, including the reliable Las Vegas Business Journal has been following the still-unscheduled opening. By phone today the Mandalay Bay said there is still no official date because of continuing construction, but currently the opening is scheduled for some time in late December. -- I guess we all know what to get you for Christmas this year, Rick: your very own second rm in Vegas!) Bumble Bee announced in a press release yesterday that they are going to start marketing "Prime Fillet Albacore Steaks" -- ready-to-heat, 4-oz. tuna portions, a step up from the Premium Albacore Tuna in Water Pouch currently available in the market. In lending his name to the launch, the press release quotes Rick, saying, "Together with rice and a vegetable, or your preferred choice of side dishes, the albacore steaks provide for an easy, tasteful microwaveable or stovetop meal... Each variety is suited to different consumer preferences, offering three unique flavor presentations. A couple of specialty side dish ingredients and a few extra minutes can produce an affordable gourmet dinner that's also ideal for entertaining guests over the holidays." The tuna comes in individual servings of 100% natural, grilled and firm albacore tuna steak packaged in easy-open, vacuum-sealed pouches in three seasoned varieties -- Lemon & Pepper, Mesquite Grilled, and Ginger & Soy. (For those interested in how Bumble Bee, founded at the end of the 19th Century, started the 21st Century by being bought and sold by ConAgra, please click here to read more.) So, one of America's best sea food chefs will now be hawking packaged tuna? Well, at least it isn't canned tuna... but it does seem to go against the credo of his new book, Seafood Without A Doubt (New York: Houghton Mifflin, Fall 2005) that is intended to "demystify cooking with fish." If consumers open a packet of Prime Fillet, will they need to learn to cook fish at all? I'm trying to imagine a new jingle... buzz-buzz -- splash...? Besides, for all this super chef branding, nothing resolves the rather strange premise of having a bumble bee represent a tuna canner. Previous articles: Chef Branding: B&G Foods Exposes Emeril? Lights, Camera, Cooking! (from Nation's Restaurant News)