Get Hooked! At Big Sur Bakery, a Review and Beyond
Big Sur Bakery before the Get Hooked! event - Photo courtesy of Mark Anderson
Seafood boudin - photo courtesy of Mark Anderson
The seafood proved flat-out spectacular, a rich and complex spread. There was smoked king salmon collar and black cod beneath a tangle of greens and homemade croutons, tender abalone served on the shell with bright edible flowers, and an uncommon—and uncommonly good—seafood boudin, a French-style sausage packed with Dungeness crab, rock crab, and rockfish.
The show at hand was the second installment of the new Get Hooked! Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust dinner series. (The first came in partnership with Wild Fish, and a number of promising future dinners await—more on those in a minute.)
Many seafood enthusiasts would trade their favorite pet for a taste of Monterey Bay wild king salmon on the very first day of the season—especially when it’s roasted gently by Executive Chef Tim Eelman over oak wood at the center of the storybook patio at Big Sur Bakery.
But seafood was not the only star of the show.
Note the attention to detail in the supporting elements: the spicy creamed nasturtium greens beneath the abalone, the potatoes whipped with Douglas fir and green garlic oils next to the salmon, the strawberries covered with white-hot oak embers and then washed with jasmine tea and bedded in a burnt honey yogurt custard for dessert.
Chef Eelman roasting King salmon - photo courtesy of Mark Anderson
Eelman treasures the opportunity to spotlight special catches like those brought to the table that evening by Real Good Fish and Monterey Abalone Company.
“When you’re looking at this level of raw product and this quality of ingredients, it gets your brain firing on how well you can treat it and how far you can push yourself to let that ingredient shine,” he says. “It’s so prime; it’s so perfect. These people dedicate their lives to sustainably farming their abalone, to catching this fish—the least we can do as chefs is give it our all.”
Going all in fits with the theme at Real Good Fish, which took the occasion of the start of salmon season to track down local fisherman Tuk Su Yi for the king salmon.
Real Good Fish (RGF) founder and CEO Alan Lovewell attended the dinner and spoke to the larger context of what RGF aspires to accomplish.
“As a country, we’re exporting so much seafood and importing so much that consumers are disconnected with the men and women working day and night to catch it,” he said. “We end up sitting down to dinner and not connecting with where it came from.”
He noted how up to 90 percent of domestic seafood continues to be shipped abroad.
Monterey Abalone Company abalone - Photo courtesy of Mark Anderson
“This is not a super-patriotic statement,” he added. “It’s about shipping fish for five days when this [salmon] came off the boat hours ago…which leads to what a truly authentic seafood experience should be—this meal is an example of how incredible things can happen if we remember we're capable of getting back to the roots of what a fishing community can be.”
He elaborated from there. “We’re able to do things so fresh seafood is not a Hallmarkian Steinbeck memory. We’re fighting this fight—and it is a fight—to get access to truly amazing local seafood.”
He noted that local networks and fish subscriptions like Real Good Fish’s gained traction amid COVID when longer supply channels fractured. Fittingly, the Get Hooked! series supports another positive change to emerge from the pandemic: The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust’s Community Seafood Program. This program was developed to replace some of the local seafood markets lost due to the pandemic, while meeting skyrocketing demand at food banks and community distribution hubs like Meals on Wheels.
The next Get Hooked! event happens at Colectivo Felix in Santa Cruz Wednesday, May 18 from 6-8pm.
Argentinian transplant Diego Felix will dish a Peruvian dish called arroz con mariscos.
The seafood for the dish will be provided by Ocean2Table, Del Mar Seafood and H&H Fresh. Meanwhile local fisherman will be on hand to speak on the issues and adventures surrounding sustainable fishing along the California coast.
Buenos Aires area native Felix is eager to support something like MBFT’s Community Seafood Program for reasons both predictable—building community, boosting local fishermen—and personal.
“I’m an Argentinian chef, from a culture where the cuisine is known for beef, but I grew up vegetarian, and I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” he says. “Eating so much meat, which is not such a good idea for our diets and the planet, is not going to accomplish that.”
Tickets are priced at $45 a person because Felix wants as many people to take part as possible (beer and wine extra); $15 from every meal purchased will be donated to the Community Seafood Program. (Donations can also be made online if guests would like to contribute more to the program.)
Next month Get Hooked! will head to HOME in Soquel on Monday, June 6th.
Chef-owner Brad Briske knows his way around seafood, whether that’s a whole-fried fish or dry-aged salmon filet.
Photo courtesy of HOME restaurant
He doesn’t know what he’s going to make, but he does know what he’ll be working with, namely super-fresh salmon, cod, abalone and seaweed.
“That’s our thing: simple, few ingredients, let them speak for themselves, and that extends to seafood,” he says. “We want to do a little bit really well.”
And he knows why he’s participating.
“We want to support the local community and pay the local community—to give top dollar—so I get the best, freshest thing that way, not ‘first in, first out,’” he says. “Plus, I like the personal relationships, knowing who I’m getting it from, who shows up and stands behind it.”
Still more inspiring partner restaurants are assembling to participate behind those dates. Keep an eye out for more enticing dinners to come! So if you’re not already hooked, some delicious opportunities to get there await.
Article written by Mark C. Anderson