The founders of Winter Waters, Alanna Kieffer, Rachelle Hacmac and Kristen Penner, have announced the return of the event series to Oregon for February 2025. Across a range of events and locations, the series will once again partner with chefs and tastemakers across Oregon to celebrate regenerative seafood, with an emphasis on seaweed as well as other local sustainable seafoods such as line-caught albacore tuna, dive-harvested purple sea urchin, and more.
On the menu for this year, the event is promising prix-fixe fine dining as well as casual a la carte events, seaweed art classes, and community events all month in multiple regions across Oregon. The majority of the events this year have a low cost or sliding scale, with several being free to attend.
Sure to be a highlight of this year's lineup is the Seaweed Beer Night, with the casual competition to be judged by Andre Meunier, beer and beverage writer for The Oregonian newspaper. Additionally, the series will host several other collaborations, including Epilogue Kitchen’s James Beard Award nominated Chef Jonathan Jones inviting Local Ocean Chef Enrique Sanchez-Rodriguez to his Salem restaurant, and a Galentine’s Day raw bar pop up in Portland, featuring Chef Maylin Chavez of Nácar Oysters.
This year, the series will also play host to a new Blue Foods Forum in Portland, which will consist of three days of seafood-centric programming for seafare producers, processors, innovators, and eaters. The Forum will include an industry focused symposium, an oyster social by Nácar Oysters, and a seafaring speakeasy at Union Pine celebrating the winter ocean’s bounty.