Last week we brought in 30 whole salmon, 4 halibut (40 lbs each), and 6 albacore that myself and my lead cooks broke down.
Most of the salmon came from the Oregon coast around Coos Bay. It is wild chinook caught by our esteemed fisherman. He is a wonderful guy who really cares about the species. He participates in a salmon preservation program with Oregon State University. Every fish he catches gets a tag with a bar code and number. You can look up the number to find the exact location of the catch, how deep the water is, and the health of the fish by the scale samples our fisherman sends OSU after each day on the water. Our fisherman also caught us the albacore, first of the season.
30 fucking salmon. It was pretty fucking awesome. We took off the sides. We saved the collars and bellies for the smoked salmon rillette on our menu. Pin boning 30 salmon takes some time. It can become very zen.
We used 28 sides yesterday for a BBQ event for our wine club. We had 200 each dinner portions and lunch portions for our restaurant menu. They are almost all gone. Just a few frozen back stock portions. 30 fucking salmon, gone.
The flesh on a lot of them was such a gorgeous red. You can't beat wild fish. Hatchery is gross. I have little doubt our salmon is some of the best you could possibly get in the whole country. We get it 12 hours out of the water. It goes on plates 16 hours after being out of the water.
I really enjoyed hanging out in the charcuterie kitchen with my favorite cooks showing off our skills in breaking down these majestic fish. It took us 7 hours to do all that fish from whole to vac pack. This is the kind of activity that makes working in such a busy place totally worth it. It is an experience I wouldn't get at another restaurant.
I'm looking forward to this weeks catch.
1 comments:
We only go through 2 whole salmon, on a busy week. I can't imagine doing the covers you do.
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