Chefs create new ways to upscale fish dishes

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 23, 1991 by Florence Fabricant

Today, when it comes to fish, the rules dictating what may or may not be acceptable in upscale dining rooms have changed dramatically, as they have for other foods. Chefs continue to search for fish to use in dishes that offer manageable food costs yet can suggest luxury and creativity. Heretofore-underutilized varieties are showing up in the better operations, and methods of preparation have changed dramatically.

New stylish treatments depart from the traditional. Fish are cooked in red wine sauce, paired with lentils and foie gras and substituted for meat in dishes like pot au feu. Roasting, a cooking method not usually associated with fish, has become enormously popular.

No longer is the dish of rice or steamed potatoes obligatory on the side. White tablecloth operations still doing that are hopelessly out of date. At A Mano, Norman Van Aken's operation in Miami Beach, Fla., rum and spice painted grouper with a papaya-Scotch bonnet mojo sauce comes with caramelized plantains en relleno.

At Le Bernardin in New York, until recently cod was served paved with sevruga caviar, in recognition of the fact that with some of these fish, luxurious touches like caviar, foie gras, truffles or a lobster sauce can help justify the tariff. Aqua in San Francisco enhances tuna medallions with foie gras.

Another technique is to treat the fish as if it were meat. Serve it in a red wine sauce, for example. Tom Valenti at Alison on Dominick Street in New York sautees skate to serve with cabbage and smoked bacon butter. At Le Cirque in New York, Daniel Boulud prepares sea bass in a Barolo wine sauce. At Julien in the Meridien in Boston sturgeon is given the choucroute garni treatment.

At the Cypress Club in San Francisco fresh sturgeon is seared and then served in a red wine sauce with lentils. Serving fish with lentils in a red wine sauce has become the rage. Salmon done that way has become a signature dish of Debra Ponzek at Montrachet in New York.

Fresh sturgeon, now being raised in California, may be one of the newest fish to join a list that now includes black sea bass, halibut, cod, skate, grouper, monkfish, farmed striped bass, catfish, tilapia, orange roughy, Atlantic blackfish, pomfret, cobia, shark, sturgeon, triggerfish and monkfish. Hawaiian varieties have made inroads, especially on the West Coast. The popularity of grilling put tuna and swordfish on most menus. And improved grilling equipment has banished the once ubiquitous dusting of paprika on top.

Two decades ago fresh Dover sole flown across the Atlantic was becoming the fish with cachet in upscale white-tablecloth operations. Then, about 10 years ago, farmed Norwegian, salmon appeared on the scene, challenging Dover sole's position.

And now, Norwegian or Atlantic salmon, while still popular, has become commonplace. It needs more cachet, like the "white" salmon (a variety of king salmon) served by Charlie Trotter in Chicago. Chefs now emphasize "wild" salmon, invariably Pacific king or silver. At Aqua it's baked in filo with savoy cabbage and onion juice.

Fresh Dover sole, struggling from an association with old-fashioned French operations and suffering from the weak dollar, has declined in popularity. It is more in evidence in Florida, especially in the Miami area, than anywhere else, perhaps because of the number of French tourists who visit Florida.

Some other fish, like red snapper, popular a decade ago, are served much less frequently now because of limits on fishing for conservation purposes. For that reason and because of a possible toxic contamination, Atlantic striped bass has become a rarity. It has become available on a limited basis in the fall in New York, and as a result, Karen Lee's in Bridgehampton, N.Y., was able to take advantage of it, serving it as a special.

Chefs discovered black sea bass, long a staple in Chinese operations, and began using it in a variety of preparations often as a substitute for wild striped bass or for the newer farm-raised variety, which tends to lack flavor.

Some preparations for sea bass are decidedly Pacific Rim, as at the Fountain in Philadelphia's Four Seasons Hotel, where it comes with ginger, soy and sesame oil. Sea bass with truffles is even being served as a second curse for the Christmas dinner at no less than the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

At Les Celebrites in New York, Christian Delouvrier bakes bass and serves it on a bed of earthy boulangere potatoes, for a fine, typically rule-breaking yet utterly contemporary dish. It's bistro-style in elegant surroundings, using a kind of fish not commonplace in traditional French cooking, made in a fashion more commonly associated with meats and not served with steamed new potatoes or rice, a dusting of paprika and a wedge of lemon.