BIO
A renowned Canadian culinary talent, Chef Ned Bell has forged a unique path as a chef advocate for healthy oceans and waterways, keynote speaker and educator, and can currently be found as the co-owner of Hatch Hospitality, Buy BC Chef Ambassador, Culinary Director at Planetary Health, and Board Member and Co-Chair of Sustainability at Chefs Table Society.
Ned’s lifelong passion for sustainable seafood, combined with his culinary interests and remarkable talents, have led him through many roles, including Culinary Director of The Vancouver Club, Executive Chef at YEW seafood + bar, Ocean Wise Executive Chef, and now Chef Ambassador for the Vancouver-based global program Ocean Wise. As a father of three sons, he has dedicated himself to inspiring and educating people to become part of the solution for healthier oceans for today's children and all the generations to come.
In 2014, Ned founded Chefs for Oceans to raise awareness and advocate for responsible seafood choices and the importance of supporting healthy oceans, lakes and rivers. He launched this commitment with an 8,700-kilometre bike ride across Canada, staging dozens of awareness-building events along the way. Ned’s commitment to seafood stewardship has skyrocketed ever since. His ability to excite, inspire and educate individuals, industries and governments about sustainable seafood has made him a much sought-after chef, speaker and change-maker, earning recognition for his clear — and often deliciously illustrated — education that supports the long-term health of the world’s waterways. He joined the table at the United Nations headquarters in New York to engage his Chefs for Oceans platform in awareness initiatives leading up to him cooking for the UN’s General Assembly in New York. He was also scheduled to be on the ticket as a lead presenter at the UN’s Oceans Conference in Portugal in 2020. Through his culinary network, Ned works with the James Beard Foundation’s Smart Catch program and their continued series of Impact Events. And as a Chef Member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, Blue Ribbon task force, Ned will be a keynote speaker at events in Portland later in this year. There’s nothing he loves more than uniting and collaborating with chefs, fishermen, farmers and influencers across the globe, demonstrated by the impact he’s already made throughout Canada and the USA, as well as China, Vietnam, Japan, Europe and South America.
For this work and more, Ned has earned honours that include Fellow of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2019), Honorary Doctorate in Technology from Vancouver Island University (2019), SeaWeb Seafood Summit Global Champion Award (2017), leading a multi-chef sustainable seafood celebration at James Beard House (2017), Food Service & Hospitality magazine’s Pinnacle Award for Chef of the Year (2015), and author of best-selling cookbook Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coast.
Follow along @nedbell on Instagram.