Copper River Salmon is Here!

There is just something about this amazing fish that makes you get all excited! It is a huge party atmosphere at the airport as the first plane arrives. That plane arrived this morning at 6:51am and was covered live on all the local stations. Here is an article on the event from the Seattle PI.com:

Seattle-based Alaska Air Cargo on Friday delivered the season's first shipment of Copper River salmon to Sea-Tac Airport, marking the start of the summer salmon season.

"Alaska Airlines flies more Copper River salmon throughout the season than any other airline," Joe Sprague, Alaska's vice president of marketing, said in a news release. "With enhanced food quality procedures and additional flights to support the Alaska seafood industry, we are going the extra mile to deliver fresh seafood throughout the country."

Alaska's freighter brought in Copper River king and sockeye salmon from Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Trident Seafoods and Copper River Seafoods. Alaska said at least four more Friday flights will transport salmon from Cordova, Alaska, to Seattle and Anchorage, Alaska, and across the United States.

Seafood processors and shippers follow "cool chain" standards, providing maintaining a consistent temperature range from the time the salmon leave the water to when they arrive at stores and restaurants, Beth Poole, Copper River Marketing Association's executive director, said in the news release. Alaska Airlines and Alaska Air Cargo are the only airlines who follow the standards.

"The first Copper River salmon of the year is a celebrated rite of passage, and Alaska Airlines plays a critical role in delivering Alaska seafood across the Lower 48," she said. "The airline's 'cool chain' program helps ensure prized Copper River salmon stays as fresh as possible."

This year, Alaska Air Cargo sponsored its first "Copper Chef Cook-off," giving executive chefs from Seastar Restaurant, Waterfront Seafood Grill and Anthony's Restaurant 30 minutes to prepare and serve the first catch of the season to a panel of judges, including: former Seattle Mariners slugger Jay Buhner; Mike Fourtner, deckhand on the F/V Time Bandit, featured on Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch"; Washington State University football coach Paul Wulff; and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden.

Pat Donahue from Anthony's Restaurant won.

That first plane had 25,000 lbs. of salmon and most of it was headed to Anthony's Restaurants around the area. Let me tell you, a few more have landed and stores are rushing to get it out in time for the weekend. Heck, we are including it in tomorrow night's wine dinner we are putting together. The "we" would be moi plus Jodie and Rob. We are going to have a few others join in and take in 7 courses of amazing food and wine will be paired with 6 of them. Check back for a full recap in a future blog posting. Cheers!