"Diners and seafood shoppers have let us know that it's hard for them to tell if they are buying true Maryland blue crab meat or not when ordering from menus or at the market," Vilnit said. The True Blue program will outfit participating restaurants with authorized True Blue logos, signage and labeling.
"We're not saying that imported crab meat can't be delicious. We just happen to believe that fresh Maryland crabs are better," Vilnit said.
Participating restaurants must commit to use exclusively Maryland crab meat to qualify for the program.
The idea for True Blue orgininated in part at a crab meat taste comparison conducted at Woodberry Kitchen for a Baltimore Sun article about the widespread use of imported crabmeat on Maryland menus. Spike Gjerde, the chef and co-owner of Woodberry Kitchen, remembers being struck with what he thought was the marked superiority of Maryland crabmeat to the imports. "I told Steve [Vilnit] that there should be a labeling program," Gjerde said.
For Gjerde, True Blue will be another way to communicate with diners about his restaurant's devotion to Maryland crab meat, without diners having to ask about where their crab meat is coming from. "It can be an awkward question at the table," Gjerde said.
Woodberry Kitchen received its first shipment of Maryland crabmeat Friday.
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