Seafood & the Menu Sept-Oct 2018

A list of aquaculture terms to help you and your staff to better understand the industry.

There is a wealth of online resources that can help guide chefs through the process of finding the sustainable seafood they want to serve. Here are a baker’s dozen - most of these look at sustainable seafood through a national or even international lens.

At Modern Market - a fast casual based in Denver that serves farm-fresh, artisan food, including wholesome grain bowls, modern salads and toasted sandwiches - director of culinary operations Nate Weir talks about how he worked to source exactly the right salmon, then showcased it in a Curried Salmon Bowl LTO, before developing a Salmon Caesar Salad that quickly became the No. 2 seller in the overall menu mix.

Seafood represents a major opportunity to move menus into the future, according to Datassential. Here are highlights from its Foodbytes Seafood Keynote Report issued in late 2017.

Putting more seafood on your menu will help your customers reach the dietary goal of eating seafood twice a week. Customers will feel good knowing that restaurants care about their well-being and offer healthy and delicious seafood as a key menu choice.

Serving more seafood will help customers improve their overall quality of life. Here are 8 seafood nutrition facts curated by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership servers can use to seal the seafood sale.

Cathy Holley welcomes you to this special issue, invites you to engage with us as a menu-development resource, diving further into the vast opportunities with seafood, and introduces you to Barton Seaver.

Barton Seaver explains why his mission is to get more Americans eating more seafood more often across all demographics, and how this new Seafood & the Menu issue aims to help that mission.

We asked two dozen chefs who serve an abundance of seafood to pinpoint the questions their customers most often ask their servers. Barton Seaver, chef, author and seafood evangelist, provides the optimal answers for a restaurant that has already defined its sustainable seafood policies.

When dispelling myths about seafood, it’s crucial to acknowledge those slivers of truth in order to separate fact from fiction, and explore the nuanced answers to the tough questions about sourcing, preparing and serving wholesome, responsibly-sourced seafood

One of the best places chefs can now look to for the highest quality seafood ingredients is the very place we’ve shunned for so long: the freezer.

Pristine seafood doesn’t necessarily require a sauce. But having one can help accentuate the personality of the fish or shellfish on the plate and add color and texture to the overall dish.

Fish by José Andrés creates a summery Idaho farmed trout with a 'peachy' air, using heirloom tomatoes and peaches, then cooking in a charcoal oven for a crispy skin and smoky flavor.

At Ocean Prime the recently added Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl with avocado and Sriracha vinaigrette sells exceptionally well.

Sunda New Asian's best-selling seafood entrée is a Chilean sea bass dish that chef Mike Morales first made on a whim.

Centrolina serves its branzino whole, head to tail, boneless so that it can be stuffed with lemons, rosemary and thyme.

At Cindy’s in Chicago guests often ask about the seafood's sustainability - keeping the restaurant searching for the best producers of sustainably raised seafood it can locate.

Granville, Los Angeles, features a rainbow trout with an amandine crust that uses pepitas and housemade preserved lemon, with grass-fed butter, giving it both familiarity and subtle unique touches.

At Coasterra two of the best-selling seafood entrées are head-to-tail options - a whole-roasted local fish of the day, and the Puerto Nuevo-Style Maine Lobster.

Pisco Rotisserie & Cevicheria's top-selling ceviche is the Ceviche Martini de Tigre, which he blends the traditional flavors of Peruvian ceviche with Southern California ingredients.

At Sur Lie, Portland, Maine the pan-seared scallops has developed an almost cult-like following. The scallops are sourced, processed and repacked meticulously to ensure this popularity is maintained.

The Salt Line in Washington, D.C. creates a New England take on a Southern U.S. classic, utilizing Mid-Atlantic ingredients.

Nico Osteria in Chicago uses a deeply flavored glaze on its collar, then finishes with a spice mix, and grills until crispy.

Prawn Coastal Casual in California centers on flavorful broths made in tilting steam kettles, creating a rich taste with complex flavors.

When Pacific halibut is in season, Travelle Kitchen + Bar sells three times as much of it as the next best-selling seafood items on his menu.

Oysters are the best-selling seafood item at gastropub Publican Anker, served on the half shell with just a slice of lemon, or roasted, with yuzu butter.

Tavernonna in Kansas City, Mo., has found success in selling both scallops and halibut by pairing them with produce brought in from local farms.

Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar, in Louisiana, takes jumbo Gulf shrimp and stuffs them with cream cheese and pickled jalapeños, wraps them in smoked bacon, char-grilled, serves them on sweet-corn grits and and tops them with a chile glaze.

The highlights of the menus at Aqua by El Gaucho in Seattle and The Lakehouse in Bellevue, Wash., are Maine scallops and wild Alaska king salmon, respectively.

Buffalo Ranch Octopus is one of the top-selling menu items at Herringbone Waikiki, Honolulu, offering an unexpected take on how octopus is traditionally served.

At seafood-centric Oceana in Manhattan, mild fish like the top-selling halibut is prepared using more pronounced ingredients, varying with seasons.

At farm-to-table Canoe in Atlanta, Matthew Basford keeps the flavors complementary with the strength of the fish flavors.