In May, cooks trawling* San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmers Market are like 6-year-olds on Christmas morning. Fava beans, spring onions, green garlic, pea leaves, English and snap peas, artichokes, asparagus, field grown rhubarb, and (at long last) sweet-as-candy pixie tangerines. Soon we'll taste Ben Lucero's miraculous strawberries (this coming Saturday, perhaps?) and the first good cherries.
The absence of one of our region's most beloved harbingers of spring, however, has left a gash in every omni-locavore's heart. No locally caught wild king salmon for the entire 2008 season (typically May through October). The sudden, drastic, and thus far unexplained decline of the local salmon population is an immense tragedy.
Like other regulars of the Saturday market, when I heard the news my thoughts went immediately to Larry Miyamura, the local salmon fisherman who has pampered our palates with pristine fresh-out-of-the-Pacific Chinook for nearly a decade. Larry and his wife Roz of Shogun Fish are still attending the market, but this year the coolers of ice that used to hold salmon that Larry caught are now filled with the more expensive Alaskan counterpart (along with an enviable selection of other beautiful fish, some of it far more local and affordable). I urge all my Bay Area readers to please frequent the Miyamuras' stand. You won't find fresher fish anywhere else in San Francisco.
I challenge you to find a cook out there who adores the local king more than I do. The current situation breaks my heart, so much so that I woke up one night last week at 3 am pondering it. I knew then that I had to write my thoughts down on IPOS.
At Contigo I planned to feature the unctuous fish on my menu throughout the season. Granted, like other local chefs, I will fill the void by serving other wild and sustainably caught seafood. Expensive wild Alaskan salmon most likely won't be an option. Instead, my menu will focus on utilizing local goodies like petrale sole, sanddabs, sardines, anchovies, smelt, halibut, black cod, lingcod, California sea bass, squid, Hog Island clams, mussels, and oysters, and, on the off chance I get it at a great price, sea urchin and spiny lobster. You'll also find other Pacific fish, like the various tunas and Alaskan halibut and black cod. Occasionally, east coast treats will make an appearance, like skatewing, Sierra mackerel, wild black and striped bass, line-caught hake (and its roe) and cod (most likely salted), scallops, monkfish liver, maybe even Maine lobster. When you see octopus on my menu — and believe me, you will — it will likely be from Spain. Economics may even encourage me to consider some of the farmed fish endorsed by the Monterey Aquarium Seafood Watch. But none of these fish are as dear to my heart as wild local king salmon.
It will come as no surprise, then, that there is one fish I will not serve at Contigo: farmed salmon.** Not even Scotland's eco-friendly Marine Conservation Society-endorsed Loch Duart salmon.
My decision isn't based on holier-than-thou food snob bull shit. It comes from my heart. My decision is based on respect for and solidarity with people like Larry Miyamura, hardworking fishermen who depend on the salmon season for the majority of their income. It's a personal choice. It just wouldn't feel right to me to put farmed salmon on my restaurant's menu. Especially not this year.
Remember the name that you all helped me choose for my restaurant? Contigo. Spanish for "with you." The name places emphasis on the values of connection and community, that circle that includes people like Larry and all the other producers, artisans, and foragers who make a living by bringing us the best seasonal products our local ecosystem has to offer. You and I dwell in that circle too. What hurts Larry hurts all of us.
I'm aware there may be logical contradictions in my decision. There's a lot of gray area in the topic of sustainable fishery stewardship and I don't pretend to be an expert (but my future purveyors, Monterey Fish and Ports Seafood, are. In fact, Monterey Fish founder/owner Paul Johnson has just written the best book on the subject, "Fish Forever." I highly recommend his book and plan to make it required reading for all my cooks).
I also want to emphasize that I'm not judging any restaurant or chef or home cook who serves or eats farmed salmon. Heck, I admit I sometimes eat farmed salmon, particularly when I find myself in New York pondering what to put on my bagel.
But my restaurant is like this blog. It's my personal vision, my tiny attempt at making the world a saner place. And in my world, when the local wild salmon population has been decimated, people don't have the option of eating farmed salmon imported from halfway around the world. They try something else.
In my world, serving farmed salmon lands you on a slope as slippery as a shoal of sardines. Local king salmon is one of the iconic seasonal products of the Bay Area. If I decided to serve purportedly eco-friendly Scottish farmed salmon as a replacement for the unavailable local Chinook during our usual salmon season, what would stop me from serving conventional hot house peppers from Holland in August? What would stop me from serving ever available farmed salmon year round? By extension, what would stop me from serving tomatoes in January or asparagus in October? You have to draw a line somewhere. You have to do the right thing.
On the plus side, now maybe I'll have more success convincing Omega-3-deprived diners to eat sardines.
* Fishing metaphor intended. Word geeks: see discussion of trawling vs. trolling.
** For various reasons, you won't find Chilean sea bass, tilapia, or catfish on my menu either.
Note: photos of dishes I made with local king salmon are from 2005 through 2007 and can be found on my FlickR page under the tag "salmon."
Sigh, it's such a loss and a symbol isn't it? But it's so great to hear your thoughts on it, I always appreciate how you are able to connect both heart and mind in your stances on things. And I look forward to eating whatever you put on the plate this summer...
Posted by: rachelk | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 08:08 AM
It is a sad situation. I commend your integrity and I'm sure you will have plenty of other delicious choices to offer your clients. You are in a unique market. Much of your clientelle knows what's going on in the food world and may have the same philosophy as yourself.
Posted by: art | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 10:27 AM
It is a sad situation. I commend your integrity and I'm sure you will have plenty of other delicious choices to offer your clients. You are in a unique market. Much of your clientelle knows what's going on in the food world and may have the same philosophy as yourself.
Posted by: art | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Perfect post, thank you. Being from Seattle, we saw this coming for years but it's sad that the day has finally arrived. Dept. of Land and Natural Resources is directly responsable for sanctioning rampant, irresponsable logging on state land. Anyone over the last 100 years could see that silt run-off was disturbing the natural fisheries. What to do in the face of such highly-educated ignorance/arrogance?
I totally honor your choice to not use farmed fish, as many do, I'm sure. It's a beautiful choice that I hope brings you lots of business. The fish farmers still do not understand that you can't cut corners and still have a healthy product, though hopefully they want to learn. That's why it would have been best to just let mother nature do the job and support her in her work, by respecting gestation seasons, etc...all things we were taught by the Native Americans but chose to ignore. And now it's everyone's loss.
Interestingly, Hawaiians were masters of land-based fish farming until their fisheries were filled in ! and cities built right on top of them.
Posted by: elarael | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 11:09 AM
What's your justification for selling skate, monkfish, tuna, and sea scallops, given their predominantly "avoid" rating by seafood watch? I ask not to judge, but because I'm wrestling with the same thing: how to adjust when many of my favorite fish are now "forbidden." At least you can probably source your seafood more precisely than a consumer...
Posted by: Kenneth Berger | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 12:06 PM
this is such a beautiful post. As I wrote last night, food is truly a personal decision, deeply inflected by the politics of it all. Here in Seattle, Alaskan salmon isn't quite as expensive as it is in SF, so we eat it. Besides, I have a connected relationship with Alaskan fishing families, as you do the fishermen at the market there. It really is about connections, too.
My chef struggles with these decisions too. We have a fish purveyor we trust, who has decades of personal connections with local fishermen. But those of us at home are rarely so keyed in. Thanks for keeping everyone informed.
Posted by: shauna | Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 02:39 PM
Interesting post and your comments on farmed salmon from Scotland. Here in the UK salmon and smoked salmon has become very affordable over the past 10 years. Every supermarket it has it from "trimmings" to a whole fish. Of course, all the cheaper stuff is all farmed in Scotland. It doesn't have the taste of non-farmed but it is surprising how somethign can go from a luxury item to a daily treat if desired
Posted by: Leon Mills | Wednesday, May 07, 2008 at 02:48 PM
I respect your decision but don't agree with it. I believe sustainable and especially deep sea fish farming represent one of the best options for those of us who want to eat fish. We are depleting the oceans and while the ban on salmon fishing this year is a start, we need to look for other options. Loch Duart may not pass the test for you, but they are headed in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. From what I understand work is underway to develop organic guidelines for seafood and that should help make the decision to eat farmed fish much easier.
Posted by: Amy Sherman | Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 10:15 AM
I commend you for staying in season and being so broadminded in your choices! And I would especially like to see spiny lobster. :)
But I gotta say: Salmon is over-served. It's the easy way out to serve fish in a restaurant. I know it's part of our 'culture' here in the BA, but so what? EVERY restaurant serves salmon (and most of it bad).
So it's too bad it's not a good year, but as you've said it's a great opportunity to educate some palates.
Cheers!
Posted by: PN | Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Kenneth, sorry for the delayed response. It's true, as a restaurant I have the luxury of sourcing my seafood more precisely than most consumers. The owner of one of my future purveyors, Monterey Fish, wrote the book on environmentally sustainable seafood (Fish Forever) that I cited in my post. Here are summaries of Paul Johnson's take on the fish you mentioned:
Skate: populations of winter, or spotted, skate are moderately healthy, while thorny skates are considered overfished. Skate are often taken as a bycatch and discarded during other fishing operations.
Monkfish: a 10-year recovery plan was implemented in 1999, so monkfish are no longer overfished and populations from Cape Cod north are considered healthy. Best to specify gill net caught monkfish.
Tuna: yellowfin and bigeye tuna are abundant. Pacific Yellowfin populations in particular are stable and not considered overfished. Best to specify troll or hook-and-line caught.
Sea Scallops: improvements have been made and every ship is required to carry monitoring devices and an onboard observer to ensure regulations are followed. Populations are now healthy and management excellent.
These are not the final words on the topic. I provide the information to illustrate the complexity of the situation and to show that good choices can be made if one has reliable, trustworthy information. Best of luck in your efforts to source the best, most sustainably caught seafood.
Posted by: brett | Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 01:42 AM
I definitely respect your leadership as a chef to not serve farmed fish. That said, I must admit I love Loch Duart salmon, and do buy it from time to time. It's luscious, and seems a cut above other farmed salmon and even as good as wild perhaps. Mostly I try to buy local and in season, but I sneak in exceptions and LD salmon is one.
Posted by: Diane | Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 12:40 PM
I LOVE SAND DABS!! not enough places serve it; would run, not walk, to your place if you have them on the menu!
Posted by: a | Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 08:51 PM