Q&A with Chef Isaiah Cortright • Get Hooked! + Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust
Photo courtesy of MBARI
By Mark C Anderson, July 8, 2024
An interesting thing happened when Chef Isaiah Cortright left his career in fine dining spots like Michelin three-star Atelier in San Francisco to lead the kitchen at Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula.
He got back to why he is a chef in the first place.
“I spent many years putting my soul on a plate to be scrutinized by customers,” he says. “Now I get to rebuild my soul doing something that truly matters in the community.”
Chef Roberto Bonefont Jr. has known Cortright for more than a decade, in kitchens and out, since they met as cooks in Napa.
“When it comes to being a student, he has come a very long way, and it has everything to do with his humility,” Bonefont says. “I remember him texting and calling when he got his first sous chef position asking how to deal with people—always what he could do differently, never complaining about how he was treated. Even when he was frustrated, he was looking at what he could do better.”
Cortright merges the worlds of fine dining and deep service with soul to spare as he anchors the latest Get Hooked! Dinner to support both MOWMP and the Trust’s Community Seafood Program.
That happens on Friday, July 19, at Meals on Wheels local headquarters in Pacific Grove, where for the second year in a row, Cortright says, “We’ll transform the day-to-day lunch room into a high-end restaurant.
He and sous chef Chase Ewing are planning a five-course taste-scape that starts with mini fried boquerón tartines starring Monterey Bay anchovies cured in olive oil, vinegar and lemon zest with hard boiled egg and garlic; crescendos with local white seabass, spicy heirloom tomato relish and roasted root vegetables picked that day at Miramonte Farms; and closes with poached peach profiterole with strawberry foam.
“Simple and delicious,” Cortright says, “spotlighting some of the area’s freshest catch.”
Ahead of that dinner—the latest in the series currently scheduled through November— the Trust caught up with Cortright. Here’s what he had to say.
MBFT: You've come up with some dishes that really help locals who maybe aren't as into seafood get this great healthy protein in their rotation. How do you workshop recipes with those populations in mind?
Cortright: Some people eat to live, I live to eat.
I love taking my wife out and finding new-to-us restaurants and exploring the menu.
Sometimes going to these places once isn’t enough, so we go back and try different items. When we find something that we truly enjoy and makes us feel good, I try to recreate it at home.
If it works at home, I then start thinking about more mass-scale production utilizing the support Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula has given me, and drawing on my knowledge of different cuisines from the last 19 years of professional culinary exploration.
With few exceptions, I try not to focus on singular demographics and instead look at the population to determine the correct spice and flavor profile for the dish that will be nutritious and pleasing to the palate.
Once I have a model I think will work, my sous chef and I start testing the recipe. We go through a few renditions before it ever appears on a menu. Once there and in production, I look for feedback from my group diners at the community center because ultimately their pleasure is mine.
When do you feel most engaged in your work?
When I encounter the many challenges that arise throughout the day, and when I develop new menu items.
[And] feeding my creativity and seeing the joy that comes to my constituents’ faces when they get to enjoy my team’s hard work.
I observe a subtle modesty in the way you go about what you do. Where does that come from?
I grew up in “Old World” cheffing. It seemed like everyone I worked for came in with a massive ego.
It doesn’t serve anyone to make your cooks feel like shit because they burned a pan. That’s part of learning.
Making mistakes is a painful way to learn, but it’s also an effective way. If your reaction is to scream and yell rather than help them get better that undermines that. You want your team to move up and hopefully move past you.
That’s why I try to take my ego out of this. I don’t want to be that chef. It’s about who I’m serving.
What are some of your favorite atypical seafood passions? Under-appreciated fish to work with—beyond grenadier, which you’ve sourced through MBFT and turned into a hit with your clients?
I don’t know that these are under-appreciated, but some of my all-time favorite fishes are monkfish, snapper and mackerel.
What rank among some hacks and preparations to make home seafood chefs less intimidated by cooking fish? (I'll take as many as you want to share!)
1. I can’t stress this enough: Dry your fish (pat dry with paper towels to remove moisture—it really helps with the sear!). When you place it in your preheated pan you don’t need to move it; it will naturally unstick. And you get a nice even sear rather than the extra water steaming the fish and getting it stuck on your pan.
2. Any kind of bottom feeder—like monkfish, san dabs, squid steaks or tentacles—soak it in buttermilk 24 hours in advance. Treat them like livers that tenderize with the acidity of the buttermilk.
3. And if you’re having trouble with white fish drying out, poach it in oil or duck fat at 140 degrees, or steam it.
4. Fresh is better, fresh frozen is best.
5. When buying fish, look for clear, bright eyes, shiny skin, and bright gills.
You've worked at some outstanding seafood spots. What might surprise people about what you learned there?
As with most things in life, patience is key. You learn to cook fast slowly.
Some other interesting things I’ve picked up along the way: Lobster used to be served to inmates on death row, as it was considered low-class food. Seaweed is full of nutrients and very healthy for you. Crab meat is graded by which part of the animal it is from. Shrimp grading is backwards, the larger the count, the smaller the shrimp. Ahi can grow to be over 300 pounds.
What's your ideal last meal if…it's all seafood?
Oysters with mignonette, garlic-and-lemon crawfish, caviar bumps, limpets, red king crab, fresh tuna sashimi, John Dory. And finish it all off with a [Japanese steamed egg custard] chawanmushi.
There are only a few seats left for this special Get Hooked Event. Tickets to the Meals on Wheels Community Seafood Dinner can be purchased at https://www.mowmp.org/registration/?id=5-E4DA3B7FBBCE2345D7772B0674A318D5