Do The Research

We had a guest speaker today: Mitch Gronner from Royal Hawaiian Seafood, one of the CCA's vendors. He brought some samples, all farmed: a striped bass from a place near Palm Springs, an arctic char, like the one I butchered earlier this week, from Washington State, and a kampachi, a sushi-grade fish from a deep-ocean farm off the coast of Hawaii. According to Mitch, we are very nearly at the tipping point where more of the world's food fish will be grown as aquaculture, instead of caught from the open water. (David's comment: "Don't tell Tammy!" Her dad's a commercial deep-sea fisherman.) Mitch and his company seem to be very well informed on environment issues: well, their reputation and livelihood depend on the survival of all the species.

He talked about his reasons for coming to visit, to educate and "frankly, to introduce the company, so that when you are working in the real world, you think of us." He said that the CCA is "by far" their biggest customer, but he was proud to drop a couple of other names: Thomas Keller, Gary Danko (I first wrote Rick Danko, but he's a fish of a different stripe). He talked a bit about quality, price, service: the old adage that you can only have two of the three; they consider themselves a top-of-the-line purveyor.

He was generous at answering questions. Andy tried to get him to talk about incentives and "tricks of the trade," and he admitted that they have quotas on different products, but usually only because the quantity is up (which usually means that the price is relatively low). "For example, I tell all my customers now, 'Clams and oysters should be on your menu!' This is a great time of year for shellfish."

Before leaving, he gave the class a great piece of advice: "Do your own research. Don't just believe what you read. Explore both sides of the issue." He used as an example the concerns about high levels of mercury in some types of fish, which has lead to widespread warnings against overconsumption, especially for pregnant women. However, there is a relationship between the chemical selenium (found, he said, in "virtually every type of fish") and mercury which effectively negates the potential harmful effects. "But how come the papers aren't reporting those studies?"

Mitch also described the marketing ploys widely used by the wild fishing and farm fishing communities against one another. In numerous instances, he said, both industries have publicized incomplete truths about the other, in order to increase the sales of their "safer" product. "Don't give in to fear-mongerers." It's all about being an informed consumer.

Before Mitch, it was pork loin fabrication. Afterwards, mahi-mahi, a very satisfying fish to cut: challenging, not too messy, no bothersome oversided scales or tiny bones to remove: just two big three to four pound fillets per fish.

So, as Chef explained it, if you've attended class every single day and completed your eight competencies, you've achieved 66%, or a D+. "That's a Pass!!" he said, to general grumbling. "Maybe to you," Derrick said, under his breath.

It's all hinging on tomorrow's written final, and we never did get to hear the lectures on Veal, Seafood, or Charcuterie. I won't complain that we missed offal, though.