Flavor Trends, Strategies and Solutions for Menu Development

Mixed Seafood Stew from Prawn Coastal Casual From Seafood & The Menu’s collection of best-selling seafood menu items of 2018

Prawn’s seafood stew spins bouillabaisse into a fast-casual bowl presentation, with rice, lobster broth, shrimp, clams, mussels and salmon, finished with a bacon rouille.
PHOTO CREDIT: Prawn
Mark Peel, Chef/Owner, Prawn Coastal Casual | Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif.

Mark Peel created this fast-casual concept to make sustainable seafood more accessible. His menu centers on flavorful broths made in tilting steam kettles, a cooking process that expedites simmering and renders a richer taste with more complex flavors. His menu includes everything from Thai lobster rolls to Scottish salmon grain bowls, but his best seller is the Seattle Stew.

“It really was conceived as a bouillabaisse, but I did not want to give it that name because there are so many different versions that I knew that, whatever I did, I would be terribly wrong in the eyes of many,” says Peel. The base is a lobster broth, with shrimp, squid, clams, mussels and salmon. The stew is served over rice with a bacon rouille. “I decided I would rather give people delicious food quickly rather than follow tradition,” says Peel.

Prawn Coastal Casual.

From the special Sept/Oct 2018 Seafood issue of Flavor & the Menu magazine. Read this issue online or check if you qualify for a free print subscription.

 

About The Author

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Christine Burns Rudalevige is a seasoned food writer and classically trained cook living in Brunswick, Maine. She has worked as a chef, a farmers’ market manager, and a boutique caterer. Christine founded the Family Fish Project (a website dedicated to eating seafood at home) and later worked as a lead culinary instructor at Stonewall Kitchen. The dedicated home cook and food writer has lent her voice to regional and national media outlets, from NPR to Cooking Light.