Though he has competed with Bobby Flay on The Food Network’s “Iron Chef America,” chef Jason Koppinger is now focusing his culinary skills on The Reefs, a top resort in Bermuda with three distinct restaurants. Koppinger, who started working at The Reefs about a month ago, will bring an unique flair to the restaurants, with a background in French, Asian and Caribbean cuisine. He also plans to teach guests how to cook seafood and understand its health benefits. He is certainly qualified to do so — at 30 years old, Koppinger was the youngest Certified Master Chef in the United States.
Contributing Editor Christine Blank recently talked to Koppinger about his plans for seafood, as he revamps the menus of The Reefs’ three restaurants.
Blank: What do you have planned for Coconuts, The Reefs’ casual, ocean-side restaurant?
Koppinger: We are going to focus on fresh seafood and try to get more of a local following. We will be bringing in seasonal seafood from all over the world, not just local seafood. The Coconuts menu is going to be probably 85 percent seafood-themed. We will also have fun with the food. Instead of a shrimp cocktail, for example, we will do a “Shrimp Rice Krispie.”
What do you have planned for The Reefs’ other two restaurants?
For Royston’s, our fine-dining restaurant, we are going to turn the restaurant into small plates. Guests can have six to eight dishes and pair those with beer or wine. For fine-dining, it is not just your filet mignon anymore. Instead, it is “sample a couple of things and have fun that way.” For example, we have a Louisiana Crawfish Hush Puppy, made with jasmine rice and roasted corn.
At Ocean Echo, our three-meal restaurant, there will be a different menu every night. There will be four main courses and a selection of salads and soups, so the guests don’t get bored while they are here.
From where are you sourcing seafood?
A lot of the restaurants buy frozen seafood from Thailand and other countries. If we can get it in fresh every day, why not? The other day, a fisherman called me with a 275-pound ahi tuna. People on the island are very used to certain types of tuna, as well as the rockfish or grouper that are here. We try to show them different ways to prepare it.
One of my big proponent issues is what happened with the BP oil spill in the Gulf. The Gulf is so close to us, it doesn’t make sense to import seafood when you can get it in from the Gulf. We are going to do oysters from all over the Gulf, and we are definitely going to do Gulf shrimp in some dishes.
How do you plan to educate guests about preparing seafood?
We would like to start cooking classes in the next month. We pair with the food vendors that supply our restaurants and the local grocery stores. We can teach people, for example, three different ways to prepare red snapper. I hand out recipes and cards that show the nutritional information on fish. We are going to start a wine dinner series pretty soon. We will feature three different wines from a region, paired with my interpretation of dishes that pair with the wines.
