Seattle restaurateur puts trust in salmon
By Lauren Kramer, SeafoodSource contributing editor, reporting from Vancouver, British Columbia
30 May, 2012
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A seafood restaurant in the Pacific Northwest that doesn’t feature salmon is an anomaly. So in June 2011, when Zach Chambers came on board as executive chef at Anchovies & Olives in Seattle, salmon was a top priority. Up until then, the Italian-inspired seafood and pasta restaurant, one of four restaurants owned by Chef Ethan Stowell, had featured a menu sans salmon and with small portion sizes and little local seafood fare.
Salmon-less in Seattle wasn’t an option for Chambers, 31, who came to the restaurant with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, as well as experience working in the kitchen at The American Academy in Rome, New York’s Gramercy Tavern and Seattle’s Spinasse and Olivar.
Determined to give the Anchovies & Olives menu a Pacific Northwest slant, he now features 13 seafood species, 70 percent from the Northwest. There’s geoducks, four varieties of oysters and Dungeness crab, as well as seafood from further afield, such as octopus for the grilled octopus salad, Pacific sardines, branzino, tilefish, daurade and Atlantic cod sourced by Corfini Gourmet, the company’s Seattle distributor.
Chambers buys from Corfini using the company’s sustainability color rating, which is based on information derived from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Watch program. He’s grateful to have this resource and the knowledge that Corfini cares to educate buyers on sustainability. “I’m very conscious of what I’m buying,” he says.
Click here to read the full story from the May issue of SeaFood Business >
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30 May, 2012