"Last year we started cautiously the first advance on restaurants in New York to get them to put cod on the menu. Our focus is on sustainability and quality," said the US envoy for the Norwegian Seafood Council, Karin Olsen.
Now restaurants in Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis will get a similar introduction.
"All these towns are known to have excellent seafood restaurants. Therefore we have a chef in each of the cities to be ambassadors for Norwegian seafood. Chefs are inspired by chefs," explains Ms Olsen.
One of cod's foremost ambassadors of the United States is chef Ben Pollinger, who runs Oceana Restaurant in New York. Mr Pollinger was one of the seven chefs who recently went on a trip with the Seafood Council to learn more about cod and become familiar with its exotic history.
"Namely amazing. It is nice, firm and has a full-bodied taste. It is good to see where the product comes from and meet the people who live by fishing it. I think cod is becoming very popular in the United States, the more people learn about it," said Mr Pollinger.
America is no stranger to eating cod, but has steadily gained less access to fish from their own coasts. Therefore, the Norwegian Seafood Council believes that the cod will have a future in the US market.
"We are especially excited about the response of Minneapolis. Here we know that there is a large percentage of citizens who have Norwegian and Scandinavian origin," said Ms Olsen.
