Last week, King’s Seafood restaurants in Southern California became the world’s first chain to feature farmed cobia from Vietnam.
The cobia, produced by Norway-based Marine Farms, is sold under the akvacobia brand and will be featured on menus as part of the Farm to Table promotion at 12 King’s Seafood locations through the remainder of the year.
The idea for the promotion originated three years ago when King’s CEO Sam King and Marine Farms CEO Bjorn Myrseth met at an investment conference. In July, King’s launched the product at one location, and customer feedback was positive.
According to Harvey Lipman, director of new business development for Nordic Group, which markets the Vietnam product for Marine Farms, King was eager to feature the farmed cobia, calling it the most innovative new product he’d seen in months.
“[King’s] is a very innovative chain, very consumer oriented and a leading-edge operation,” said Lipman. “There’s no spontaneous demand [for cobia] other than when people try it they’re delighted by it. King’s followed careful product development to understand cooking times and cooking platforms.”
King’s is now serving akvacobia both grilled and blackened and, according to King, the response has been good so far.
“It’s a very fatty whitefish; it’s a really interesting product,” said King, who likened the fish to Chilean sea bass and black cod. “It’s like eating four or five different fish in one.”
Marine Farms Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of farmed cobia and expects 2010 output to exceed 1,500 metric tons.
