Chefs Collaborative

Welcome to Chef v. Chef!

This is a new way for our members to share their techniques and see what others are doing, too.

Every couple months, a couple of chefs will challenge readers to raise the stakes on the sustainability-minded practices in their kitchens. Chefs Collaborative then wants you document and share your work: in a comment and on Twitter and Facebook. We even have a Twitter hashtag: #chefsskills.

So: August’s challenge: Pick one fish on your menu and bring it in whole.

When it comes to the fish he buys for his restaurant, 606 Congress, Chef Rich Garcia goes whole. He writes:

Chef Rich Garcia, 606 Congress

It amazes me that more and more chefs and restaurants with the capacity to process fish in house are deciding against it.From an economic standpoint, I find that the ability to use the whole animal is much more profitable despite the extra labor involved. And for me this is why I cook. I love to create and develop new dishes with what is made available to me. I take the time to research what I can do with the heads, bones, scales, tongues and gills. How he does it:

At 606 Congress, a striped bass is broken down into 3 separate groups:

Striped bass “head cheese” served in its spinal cord.

1) Fillets- 6oz portions for dinner service and any smaller pieces and trim go to lunch features, including fish cakes, fish sandwiches or tasting portions for VIP and amuse.
2) We then scrape all the remaining meat off the bones and use it for raw dinner features like striped bass tartare, ceviche or even a mousse for our charcuterie board.
3) Last pile consists of head and bones. We either make a flavorful fish fumet or my favorite thing we have done is make fish head cheese. We take the bones, split the head and place them in the CVAP oven with a standard mirepoix , fennel and white wine, and let it all cook for a couple of hours at a very low, controlled temperature. The result is a super flavorful, gelatinous meat that can be picked off the bones and head and transferred into a terrine mold to form into an amazing feature for the charcuterie board for the night. We’ve even taken the spines of larger striped bass and split them along the vertebrate to use as the serving dish for tartar or head cheese.

So try bringing in some of your fish whole, says Garcia. “You’ll be amazed at how your culinary team will immediately be more motivated and will want to educate themselves, especially if they have never had the chance to butcher whole fish. Your service team will be proud to go to a table and talk about the whole fish they saw you fabricating so carefully earlier in the day and then describe to the table the amazing features you have created.”

Chef Tenney Flynn, GW Fins

Likewise, New Orleans chef Tenney Flynn of GW Fins, a seafood restaurant in the French Quarter, brings almost all of his fish in whole, he says. “A recent list of whole local fish would include American red snapper, Mangrove snapper, gag grouper, pompano, tripletail, triggerfish, cobia, redfish, drum, sheepshead, yellowfin tuna, swordfish, triggerfish and escolar. I’m sure I’m missing a few,” says Flynn. How he does it:

1) We make a lot of fish stocks, primarily for gumbo, so lean fish like snapper and grouper carcasses end up there.

Potstickers with fish mousselline.

2) Trimmings go into mousseline for lobster dumplings and crab potstickers. We always remove the cheeks for special orders or tasting menus.

3) The oddest thing we’ve done lately was hot smoking the rib bones from a 100-pound local swordfish. I gave them away at the bar.

It’s relatively easy for Flynn to work with so much fresh whole fish, he says. “Restaurants talk about flying their fish in daily—we get to drive ours in because we are so close to the docks.”

Chef Nico Romo, Fish, Charleston

At Fish in Charleston, chef Nico Romo gets most of his fish fresh from the boat of local fisherman Mark Marhefka—and brings it all in whole, to be butchered in a special walk-in reserved for that purpose. Among the fish he works with: red grouper,  scamp grouper, hog  grouper, triggerfish, red porgy, vermillion snapper, tilefish, amberjack, wahoo, and pompano. How he does it:

1) The beauty of fish this fresh is we don’t have to do anything to it. Just salt, pepper, and right onto the plancha, then served.

Steamed fish potstickers w/ kaffir lime consomme

2) With the trimmings, we make brandade and steamed and fried dumpling. We also sometimes make fish burgers.

3) The best dish we’ve made with trim has been fish and kaffir lime consomme with spicy steamed dumpling and brunoise mirepoix. And all the bones always go to stock.

So, chefs—you’ve seen how Rich, Tenney, and Nico handle whole fish in their restaurants. What about you? What’s your technique?

As you might imagine, this is an issue that fires up our members. In a recent survey we conducted among our membership on sustainable meat issues, chefs ranked antibiotics and hormone use high on their list of concerns. Two members, Mary Sue Miliken of the Border Grill and Suzanne Goin of Lucques, recently traveled with the Pew Health Group to Capitol Hill to urge legislators to take action on this issue. Check out the video of their visit below.

As interest in our Locals increases around the country, we’ve heard from a handful of people who want to get more involved in their area. One is farmer/chef/entrepreneur Dave Thomasson down in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Dave has been hard at work pulling together area talent and organizing a new Local to further the Chefs Collaborative mission. It’s with this in mind that the Local held it’s first event, a Save Bristol Bay Dinneraround our work with Trout Unlimited and efforts to preserve some world’s most pristine wild salmon habitat. Dave reports: 

Wild Alaskan Sockeye

On July 7, 2012, the Chefs Collaborative Knoxville Local held its first public event at the Plaid Apron Café’ in Knoxville, hosted by Drew McDonald, chef/owner of the Café’ and Dave Thomasson, chef/owner of Farm-to-Griddle Crepes and the Knoxville Local Leader.

Dave and Drew built the inaugural event around the effort to save Bristol Bay sockeye salmon, with a meal lovingly prepared by Drew. With the two men sharing hosting duties, Drew introducing his all-locally-sourced meal right before dropping the last of the well marbled, vibrant orange-red, salmon on the grill, and Dave talking about some of the history and driving principles and mission behind Chefs Collaborative. Dave expressed what he envisioned the new Local hosting in the community over the next couple of years, and what he hoped it could eventually accomplish… an East Tennessee or Regional Sustainable Food Summit.

The 55 seat Southern-style BBQ meal sold out well in advance and the house was abuzz by dinnertime, with all enjoying the community company, not to mention the BYOB option.  It certainly helped that Drew encouraged everyone to be fun and casual—to make this a real “get-up-and-meet-your-neighbor” type of event. Name tags made life a little easier. Dave’s wife Helen handled the front door greetings and corkscrew, while Drew’s wife Bonni, the Plaid Apron’s day-to-day manager, handled the rest of the front of the house.

The craft brewers and their wives

Attendees included several artisan producers including craft brewers Ben Seamons and Jason Shoemaker, Trout Unlimited members, Chefs Collaborative Knoxville leadership committee members, including the head of Slow Food Knoxville, Christopher Moore, executive chef of the Knoxville Convention Center, and Dr. Lydia Pulsipher. While Lydia may be the honorary consulate to Slovenia, her most important role this night was bringing her tree-ripened figs for the meal. Drew proclaimed figs to be his all-time, number one culinary passion.

Fun was absolutely had by all; Chefs Collaborative Knoxville has taken hold; Save Bristol Bay brochures flew out the door, and the meal was described by all as divine.

Drew McDonald’s Save Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon BBQ Menu

July 7, 2012

Grilled Wild Sockeye Salmon and Honey Peppered Figs

Peach Tea Brined Smoked Sockeye

Poached Salmon Rillette – Bronze Fennel, Pickled Snap Pea, Ciabatta

Basil Marinated Roasted Ambrosia Sweet Corn on the Cob

Roasted Market Vegetable Pasta Salad – Summer Squash, Eggplant, Sweet Onions, and Sorghum Herb Vinaigrette

Marinated Tomato, Cucumber, Onion Salad – Honey and Apple Cider

New Potato Salad – Roasted Sweet Pepper, Celery, and Boiled Eggs

Sorghum and Mustard Baked Beans

Sliced Abundant Acres Watermelon

Scratch-Made Banana Pudding

This post comes to us compliments of Beau Vestal. Beau, the chef/owner of New Rivers in Providence, Rhode Island, is a long time Chefs Collaborative member and a recipient of one of this year’s scholarships to our National Summit in Seattle. Thanks Beau for your thoughtful contribution, both here and over the many years you’ve been involved with Chefs Collaborative. 

As a Rhode Islander, and more importantly, a Rhode Islander that makes his living cheffing and owning a restaurant, early June brings one of the most special and important times in our gastronomic and cultural calender: striped bass season.

While the recreational season runs year round in Rhode Island, true fish-o-philes know that the big boys make their way up the Atlantic coast in late spring and early summer, landing right off our shores in droves come June, a pit stop to gorge on our squid, menhaden, and alewives before heading up to Maine and Nova Scotia. The appearance of stripers along our rocky coasts have so much become a symbol of the Rhode Island that, in 2000, our little state officially paid the striper its due and officially made it the state fish.

Fishermen obsess over the morone saxatilis, and its signature 7-8 longitudinal stripes set against shimmering silver skin, in large part to the guile they display in the wild, eluding and frustrating even the most experienced anglers with their aversion to light, love of rocky nooks and crannies, and their almost supernatural sense of vibration, movement, and sound.

Striped bass are also known for their legendary fight, making the relationship between the hunter and the hunted that much more intimate and engaging. I still remember surfcasting for striper off Hazard Rock in Narragansett, at dusk, in mid June, back when I first arrived in Rhode Island, in ‘98. The thrill of the fight and the delicious reward are indelible  in my memory as my single best fishing experience.

In the end, it’s more the fish itself, not the fishing that I so love. The firm, white flesh that seems to taste better with all things summer: corn, tomato, sugar snap peas, zucchini, basil—It’s the versatility of the animal, its ability to fit into any number of cooking applications whether it be lightly charred on the grill, sliced thin for crudo, or pan roasted with crispy skin, or even the trim made into fritters or boudin, the precious cheeks lightly sauteed in brown butter, or the tail sections tossed into a summer chowder. It’s the kitchen workhorse, able to be white tablecloth or clam-shack all at once, and equally as well.

It’s an exciting day at the restaurant when that first of the season striper is on order from one of our local fishermen. The young cooks wait in anticipation for the first big fish they’ve ever seen, let alone worked with. The veterans sharpen and hone their knives, tell tall tales of last year’s biggest fish, and voice plans for this year’s first precious gift.

Waste nothing. It’s about respect. No part unused. This living creature died for our plates. A mentality that also makes good business sense for us. By using the whole fish we can afford to pay the extra cost to the fisherman that fish more responsibly but land fewer fish. It also fosters learning in our kitchen, encouraging our cooks to be clever and creative, to find new ways to use all the parts of the animal and add to our menu. In many ways we see the striper as the ocean equivalent of the pig; so many parts to use with so many different potential applications.

Sure, maybe the same can be said for other fish as well, but none, in this chef’s opinion, reach the delicious heights of the striped bass.

Some Details via Janet L. Coit Director, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management:

• The early summer commercial season runs (in 2012) from June 6th thru August 31st. Careful record keeping is enforced by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and when quota estimates are reached, the season is closed down. 75% of the estimated yearly quota is filled in this early summer season and the remaining 25% in the ‘second season’ (September 11-December 31)
• Commercial catch length: 34 inches
• Commercial catch length for floating traps: 26 inches
• Commercial catch limits: 5 fish per vessel, per day

Last Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft Watershed Assessment for Bristol Bay in light of the proposed Pebble Mine, an open-pit copper and gold mine with the potential to wreak some serious havoc on the Bristol Bay ecosystem and the region’s fishing economy. The draft assessment concluded that large-scale mining is not compatible with productive salmon habitat. Here are some of the specific findings of the EPA:

• Bristol Bay’s wild salmon fishery and other natural resources provide at least 14,000 full and part-time jobs and is valued at about $480 million annually.
• The average annual run of sockeye salmon is about 37.5 million fish.
• Even at its minimum size, mining the Pebble deposit would eliminate or block 55 to 87 miles of salmon streams and at least 2500 acres of wetlands – key habitat for sockeye and other fishes.
• EPA evaluated four types of large-scale mine failures, and found that even though precise estimates of failure probabilities cannot be made, evidence from other large mines suggest. 
  

The draft assessment is open for public comments until the middle of July, and then there will be a push to get the EPA to release the final assessment in the fall. The EPA could play a powerful role in stopping the mine’s development, as writer Paul Greenberg points out, by enforcing a section of the Clean Water Act. We’ll keep you posted as efforts to build on this momentum continue.

In the meantime, for more details on the results of the assessment, here are some good related news items from the Washington Post, the LA Times, and the Cordova Times (in Alaska). On the EPA’s Bristol Bay page, you’ll find the full Draft Assessment document, links and instructions for leaving public comments, and further resources to learn about the issue. At Save Bristol Bay, our partners are keeping visitors to the site informed on next steps and how to get involved with the work to protect this great resource.

What (if any) responsibility do chefs have to the greater community with regard to a sustainable food system? That’s the question at the center of  the recent New York Times article, For Them, a Great Meal Tops Good Intentions, featuring chefs Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz of Spain.

The article has stimulated an intense conversation among chefs and other stakeholders in our community about what role chef’s ought to play in influencing our food system.  We’d like to hear from you.  Are flavor and sustainability compatible?  What does sustainability mean to you – is it the same as “local?”  What enters into your decision-making when sourcing ingredients from far away? Do you think chefs have a responsibility to be role models when it comes to sustainable cooking?

Photo: Jenny Downing, flickr

Two Sundays ago, I attended a great seafood-focused forum (a collaboration between Let’s Talk About Food, the Museum of Science, New England Aquarium, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, Chefs Collaborative, and the Cambridge Science Festival). Often, when I refer to the subject of sustainable seafood, I jokingly throw in the description word “murky” as a way to let the person I’m talking to know that there are a multitude of factors involved in choosing which seafood to put on the menu. Chefs Collaborative members Barton Seaver, chef/author of For Cod and Country, and Gordon Hamersley, chef/owner of Hamersley’s Bistro in Boston, along with Paul Greenberg (author of Four Fish) and others from the New England seafood community came together and described their own frameworks for doing the right thing. If one thing was clear, it was the fact that we all need to be more conscientious about what we put into our mouths, because, as Barton said, the guiding hand of natural selection is holding a fork.

Read on for an account of the afternoon by Sue McCrory, the host/editor of Public Radio Kitchen.

- Jen Ede, Development and Marketing Associate

If there was a single message that attendees walked away with on Sunday at the New England Seafood Teach-In, it was this: eat responsibly.

A familiar call. We know, we know — we should all eat responsibly. But what does this actually mean in the context of fish?

When it comes to sustainable seafood, the waters are muddied by myriad factors, not the least of which is the chain of decisions you make (or don’t) when you elect to eat fish. Here’s a sampling: ‘where will I buy it…which fish will I choose…how does that taste…was it farmed or wild caught…was the way it was caught hurt the sea floor, the future of the fishery, other marine wildlife…how much of all this matters to me?’ And don’t forget your wallet.

Sunday’s Teach-In taught us, in essence, that eating fish responsibly means setting priorities and deciding whom to trust. But the two are wedded. And here’s the kicker, repeated more than once by different participants at the Teach-In: any fish you see in the case is a priori “sustainable” because the government regulates it, heavily, to be such.

Taken in combination, all this is enough to make you throw up your hands in despair were it not for seafood’s being so darn tasty, so darn healthy and so utterly important a protein for a majority of the world’s population.

Attendees got an introduction to the science and numbers behind the fishing industry in the first half of the Teach-In, followed by a sense of what factors drive those who purchase or present fish for our consumption.

In Panel 1 “Counting the Fish,” John Williamson, President of Stellwagon Alive!, observed that here in the Northeast we’ve got some of the best science in the world as it relates to determining catch levels and sustainable yields. Yet in his view we need to remain cognizant of what science cannot tell us and manage the uncertainties.

Vito Giacalone, himself a fisherman and the Chair for Governmental Affairs for the Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC), argued similarly, but more passionately. Due to heavy regulations which fluctuate often, fishermen bear the economic burden when science does not (or cannot) answer all the questions about the present and future health of a fishery. While we wait for banks to ‘heal’ and stocks to increase, create a legal system, Giacalone argues, that doesn’t destroy the fishing industry in the meantime. Fishermen are a local resource. They and their fleets are aging in an industry notoriously hard to break into.

During Panel 2, “The Business of Seafood,” the conversation turned relatively lighter in tone, and the information more accessible. All participants agreed they currently look to farm-raised fish more often. Skip Bennett of Island Creek Oysters actually runs a fish farm. He believes strongly in the moral need to create food in an environmentally sound way. Oyster farms do this in spades.

But Gordon Hamersley, chef/owner of Hamersley’s Bistro in the South End, allowed that he “has issues” with some farmed fish. Respect for the savory magnificence of salmon, for instance, keeps him from serving it farm-raised over wild-caught to his customers. But other farmed species got the proverbial ‘thumbs up.’ From Elizabeth Fitzsimons of the New England Aquarium we learned that Arctic char is a delicious, sustainable choice for a farm-raised fish. ICO’s Bennett recommended barramundi. (Self-professed “insane fisherman” Paul Greenberg, who delivered a superb opening address, predicts that farm-raised fish will eventually outnumber wild-caught during this century.)

Hamersley and Roger Berkowitz of Legal Sea Foods agreed on the deleterious effect of the “noise” generated by the media over the issue of sustainable seafood. Whole Foods’ recent decision to discontinue carrying some Atlantic cod is a case in point: neither Berkowitz nor Hamersley places credence in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program recommendations that- Whole Foods followed in their new policy regarding cod. Most fishermen by definition are “conservationists,” Berkowitz offered, because they must look ahead. Their livelihood depends on it. (Giacalone said the same during his talk.) Carl Salamone of Wegman’s observed that the local fishermen he’s been working with have proven wholly amenable to bringing in fish ‘on spec’ under agreed-upon, sustainable methods.

In a nutshell, then, how does one eat fish responsibly? Be a “conservationist at the plate” was Hamersley’s pearl of wisdom. Inform yourself over your fish choice, and eat six ounces of it, not eight, with generous sides of fresh vegetables.

Train yourself to be less “protein-centric,” echoed chef Barton Seaver, a National Geographic fellow, who gave a rousing closing address on the moral responsibility of each us to be “sustainable eaters.” We can impact the health of our oceans, the fate of our planet, if we each cut back our consumption of environmentally costly foods (e.g., meat, bluefin tuna) and bring our love of food home to our dinner tables. Food is, at its essence, a social endeavor, and one that unites us all.

If you have been anywhere near our website, Facebook, or Twitter within the past month, you know that we have just finished our Earth Dinner series! In case you haven’t, here’s a brief overview: for the past 9 years, we have been teaming up with Organic Valley for their Earth Dinner series, an event where restaurants and chefs across the country highlight their use of local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients by hosting their own Earth Dinner. While a few restaurants have yet to host their events, most were held on Earth Day, April 22, and the preceding week. We have been receiving great feedback regarding turnout, donations, and interest from customers.

With over 100 participants in every region across the country, there was quite an array of hosts, events, and recipes. Some restaurants, such as Border Grill, created a $30 prix-fixe vegetarian menu at all of their locations (Las Vegas, NV and Los Angeles and Santa Monica, CA). Artisan Baking Co. in Fort Worth, TX hosted a cooking class where the students made their own pizzas topped with locally sourced ingredients. Some restaurants, such as Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar in Charlottesville, VA simply held their regular dinner service and donated a percentage of their proceeds from that week to Chefs Collaborative.You can read more detailed profiles of a few of our Earth Dinners by visiting our blog.

We would like to thank the Earth Dinner veterans such as Armsby Abbey in Worcester, MA, Grand Central Bakery in Portland, OR, and Hukilau Lanai in Kapaa, HI, for joining in another year of this celebration, and welcome those who participated for the first time, such as The Green Table in New York City and Flora Restaurant in Arlington, MA, among others! We truly appreciate those who participated and hope to see even more next year!

Earth Dinner dessert: Honey Gelato

As most Earth Dinner series come to an end, some restaurants are sharing their experiences, their recipes, and their examples of what an Earth Dinner is all about. Chef Ron Miller at Hukilau Lanai in Kaua’i, Hawaii, told us about how their partnership with Real Time Farms and their Earth Dinner on April 23rd helped highlight their use of local and sustainable ingredients as well as their relationship with the farmers who provide them. 

Aloha,

At Hukilau Lanai we love our local farmers & fisherman! We strive to use ingredients and products from Kaua’i and the neighbor islands. Our handcrafted cuisine is made from scratch in our kitchen. We are forever looking to stay fresh and innovative in greening our business while continuing to serve up our guests’ favorites.

Chef Ron Miller in the herb garden

Recently, we signed on with REAL TIME FARMS. It’s a fantastic way for our guests to connect through our website menu to the farmers and food artisans that contribute to their dinner! Because our restaurant is on an island, 2,500 miles from the mainland, we enjoy a community that is uber-conscious of using local products and produce Kaua’i has to offer. In addition, our visitor clientele is always wanting to know: “What is this vegetable? Where can I buy it? Does it grow here?” With Real Time Farms, they can easily get those answers.

In addition to the benefit for our guests, we ourselves appreciate the role Real Time Farms plays in helping us develop our relationships with our farmers and food artisans. Most importantly, they get the recognition they so richly deserve.

This year we put on our third annual EARTH DINNER, partnering with Chefs Collaborative in the nationwide dinners surrounding Earth Day. For our 2012 dinner we included a tour of our herb garden, accompanied by a refreshing “Garden in a Glass” cocktail. As in years past, we focused the dinner on the ingredients that our regular farmers bring us, and many of the farmers themselves attended.

We also featured an informational table showing Real Time Farms and what it’s all about.

We hope to see more Hawaii restaurants participate in Earth Dinners in the future, and would love for the word of Real Time Farms to spread across the islands as well.

Bartender John Scott with featured Garden in a Glass

GARDEN IN A GLASS

 1.25 oz Koloa spiced rum

 1 oz McPhee’s Bees honey  syrup

 1 oz fresh Kaua’i lime juice 

 3 oz Kaffir Lime-lemongrass tea

Garnish: Kaffir lime & lemon balm leaf

Serve over ice

A Hul Ho,

Ron, Krissi, & the Gang at Hukulau Lanai, Kaua’i, Hawaii

Believe it or not, Earth Day is right around the corner and the week is almost through! For the past 8 years, we have been teaming up with Organic Valley for their Earth Dinner series, an event where restaurants and chefs across the country highlight their use of local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients by hosting their own Earth Dinner. Certified as one of “Greenest Restaurant in America”, it isn’t uncommon to find Chef Justin Martin using fresh and organic ingredients at both locations of Uncommon Ground in Chicago. Check out what owner Helen Cameron had to say about their “uncommon” philosophy and upcoming Earth Dinner Event on April 22nd!

Is this your first year participating in the Earth Dinner Series? Why did you decide to host an Earth dinner?

This is our first year participating in the Earth Dinner Series. Our uncommon vision is to “Nourish Community & Nurture Environment” and we decided to get involved because this event aligns with our desire to educate our guests and staff about sustainable food systems and the importance of knowing where your food comes from. We choose to support the farmers, producers, and organizations who work hard to provide us with good, clean, & fair food.

What will be the format of your Earth Dinner? What will you be cooking?

We will be offering a 3-course Locavore prix-fixe menu that will include a $5 donation to Chefs Collaborative. I would love you tell you that we will be offering something extra-special, but the truth is this is what we do every day at Uncommon Ground. We focus our purchasing on local farmers who produce high-quality proteins, vegetables, and fruits, while also supporting local artisans who make amazing breads, cheese, beer, liquor, etc. Highlights would be our local greens salad with fresh Klug Farm strawberries, Gunthorp Farm bacon-crusted chicken breast, and warm Klug Farm blueberry bread pudding.

Sourcing local products has been amazingly easy this year!  Due to unseasonably warm weather, I have local asparagus, ramps, spring onions, and strawberries already on our menu.  We usually don’t get these treats until May at the earliest. Our rooftop farm hasalready been providing us an array of lettuce, kale, spinach, parsley, chives, mint, sorrel, mustard greens since mid march, and much more is on the way–radishes, beets, peas, carrots.  We also grow our own sunflower sprouts and micro-greens.