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8. I wish that customers would order off of the menu. The items were
prepared for a certain reason being that they compliment each
other. Each ingredient plays a roll. If the guest interferes
with its arrangement, then they will not get the overall experience
intended, which is to stimulate your senses, perhaps remind you
of something, intrigue you and yes to nourish. Certainly allergies,
medical conditions, along with diets are always taken seriously.
If you are someone who feels that you must “create” your
own dish due to this please, tell the server. The chef does want
to make you happy, that is why we cook. I would rather create
a special dish for you if you are on the Atkins diet, than for
you to order things not on the menu.
7. Ordering a dish is a commitment. If you don’t understand a
dish, ask. You can’t send back a fish because you didn’t
know what halibut “tasted” like. Strictly speaking, we killed
a living thing for your pleasure. When ordering you expect your dish
to be fresh and prepared well, as it is in my restaurant. If you don’t
have to send it back because of something we did - fine. But expect
not to have to pay for a dish that you ordered, was prepared exquisitely
and is being sent back just because you didn’t know what you were
ordering; well that sucks and why should we pay for something that
is not our fault. Seriously, we killed a living thing.
6. For the world (mine at last) to understand that fish, ideally, is
not to be cooked well done. Without getting into the science of it,
over cooking makes it dry. However, it is your taste and if you want
your fish well done I would love to do it with all the same attention
that a medium rare piece of fish gets, just tell the server, on a side
note: there are three temperatures for most fish, under done, perfect
and cooked through.
5. Knowing fish means that you know that fish is always subject to
quality and seasonality. At times we might not offer you a certain
fish, even if it is on our menu. Why? Because maybe the weather in
Canada is horrible, the European fisherman are on holiday or maybe
we just didn’t think the quality was good enough for you. So for
those of you who get upset because an item may not be available please
remember that we spend a lot of money and time to assure that you are
getting primo seafood, there’s no other way to do it and hey,
you deserve it.
4. Everyone should know that seafood is expensive. The better the quality,
the more money. A sweater is not just a sweater if it is made of Irish
wool and was handmade from a woman in Ireland. The same goes for tuna.
The pricing reflects the quality, I have never gauged a guest but we
are a business and we don’t serve clothes out of the back our
trunk, no designer knock-offs and no tilapia or catfish.
3. Please, in this New Year, can everybody taste your food before raining
salt and pepper on it. I think this is a reflex reaction caused by
Waffle House and Piccadilly. Taste it first! We have seasoned it aggressively.
We taste everything. I mean, look at my picture!! Trust me, I just
tasted it and probably just sprinkled some fleur de sel on it.
2. For those who this applies – do not ever tell the server your
fish isn’t fresh and that you know because you are from Boston
or Maryland. I don’t care where you’re from, I’m from
Long Island and that’s not why I know it’s fresh. I know
because I have been cooking for years. (I am older than I look.) I
know because I was an assistant instructor in the CIA fish kitchen.
I know because I have cooked in the best restaurants in the world.
I know because I taught over 300 students how to receive, cut and cook
seafood. I know because I spent half a year working on a fish farm,
literally up to my waist in fish; well, poop. I know because I have
cut more salmon and cooked more lobster than Wilt Chamberlain and Gene
Simmons have been promiscuous. Please, trust me on this, if I won’t
eat it I feed it to my servers and that means it’s fresh, just
not pristine. I won’t sell bad fish, it’s not my thing, I’d
rather loose the money than your respect or my standards. If you don’t
like it, fine. That’s honest! I tend to get out there sometimes
but do not say it isn’t fresh.
1. Please Atlanta, realize WE are not the old Fishbone! We do not have
any piranha! If you have visited this web site then you probably know
that we do not serve hush puppies. Honestly, I don’t even know
what one is. We do not blacken fish, serve the admiral platter or conch
fritters. Sorry, but we can’t honor your request for coconut fried
shrimp or bbq popcorn shrimp. We don’t serve pink lemonade or
use Cajun spices. You didn’t see us on a commercial. We are not
affiliated with any other restaurants that are named Fishbone. We are
a modern American seafood restaurant! We are one thing without question,
unique! We are different than any other restaurant in our city. We
do not compete with the Fish Market or Goldfish. We are our own thing
and that’s fine with me.
Well, I’m glad to get this off of my chest, Happy New Year everyone.
I look forward to cooking for you soon!
Recipe: Perfect Lobster
Ingredients:
1. As many lobsters as you wish
2. boiling water
3. Hot grill or sautee pan
4. Emulsified butter (cover any sauce pan, barely in water, boil, then
wisk in cold cubed butter. You can add as much butter as you wish.
Be careful to turn the heat to low while encorporating the cold butter
and make sure to add additional butter, only when the previous amount
is almost melted. You can hold this butter, it will look like whole
butter, not separated, in a warm spot between you burners or on top
of an oven will work. As long as you monitor the temperature you can
hold it for hours. If you are a bit more daring you can also use a
flavored compound butter to your taste.)
5. 1 tablespoon of vinegar
Method:
1. Make sure the lobsters are alive and kicking with nice long
antanae. This will assure freshness. Purchase lobsters no bigger than
1.75#. Kill the lobsters as soon as you get home piercing them through
the head right between the eyes. Some chefs ignore this, as well killing
them immediately but it is crucial for tenderness. Why? Well for stress.
Lobsters aren't so smart, but they know when they are not on the bottom
of the sea. They are dying as soon as they are caught so don't delay
the process. Physically, they are stressed and their system is trying
to survive, altering itself from a natural state. Have you ever cooked
a lobster and cracked the shell to find it mushy? Well, thats the affect
of stress. So kill them quickly because your iceberg lettuce in the
fridge is going to freak them out!
2. Cook the lobsters in boiling water with the vinegar added. I cook
the claws and tail separate and save the body for stock. If you do
this just rip the extremities off and the tails as well. No, there
is no other way to do it. You are the executioner! Boil the tail for
2 minutes, the claws for 3.5 minutes. If you cook it whole, call it
3 minutes.
3. Shock in ice water as soon as your timer goes off and then deshell.
There is a technique involved in deshelling, but scissors or a mallet,
if necessary will do at home. Try to deshell the meat as soon as it
stops cooking. The meat will be easier to get out, by the way, that's
what the vinegar does. Makes it easier to get the meat out. If you
let the lobster chill it will be more difficult to release the meat.
4. Let the shelled meat relax, maybe for twenty minutes. Season with
salt and pepper and place on the oiled hot grill. Cook just so there
is a little translucency left or cook it through if that's not your
taste. But it will effect the tenderness. Lobster as you can tell leaves
no room for error: it's raw, perfect or rubber.
5. After grilling place the lobster in the butter. Let it hang out,
we call it the lobster jacuzzi, as it relaxes it picks up the flavor
of the butter and lobster loves butter like tomatoes loves basil, it
is a culinary marriage.
6. After 5 minutes or so, pull the tail out and gently score the flesh.
I picked up this technique by watching sushi chefs score raw squid
to tenderize.
7. Serve with whatever you like and drink a serious French chardonnay
if you want to compliment or a sauvignon blanc to cut the sweet buttery
taste.
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