By Flavor & The Menu
April 19, 2019

Olivier Desaintmartin

Olivier Desaintmartin, Chef/Owner of French bistro Caribou Café, wants more chefs to menu skate. “After having skate fish on my menus for 35 years, guests still come to me saying, ‘I didn’t know that you could eat this fish!’ and ‘What does it taste like?’,” he says. “They also end up saying, ‘I have never tasted anything that good.’”

Originally from France, where skate is a delicacy, Desaintmartin currently menus it as a pan-fried entrée. He seasons and flours the skate wing, then pan fries in butter and finishes it with capers and more butter. He serves it with sautéed green cabbage studded with smoked bacon.

“I love it, and I love to introduce guests to it,” says Desaintmartin. “Because of its texture, taste and handsome appearance, you can’t go wrong with any accompaniments and/or sauce to match with the fish. Its flaky, crabmeat-like texture tastes like a succulent white fish with a nutty flavor like crab. It’s very smooth and needs to be accentuated with acid like lemon, capers and white wine.”