(gentle music) - What we have here
is yellowfin tuna from Mooloolaba in Queensland.
When we purchase something like this,
there's a plan the second it comes in.
This one single tuna
will go across the five venues that we have,
and at the end of it, there'll be nothing left
except for the gills and the gallbladder.
90% of our menu is just fish.
Very rarely that we have any shellfish on the menu
or any kind of cephalopods and all that sort of stuff.
It's mainly fish that we work with
just because one fish offers so many opportunities.
So from first course through to dessert,
we've got fish on every single course.
(gentle music)
(grill sizzling)
So we're gonna be cutting a few things out of a fish today.
The parts of the tuna
that are still considered to be beautiful, you know,
loin cut parts of the fish,
they've been cut away to generate this cut.
We're gonna set that aside
'cause we're going to grind it down,
and we're gonna produce a kofta.
So and then we're also gonna allocate some of that
to making our tuna patties.
- So here we've got the tuna trim
that we're gonna put through the mincer
on a 10 millimeter plate.
For the tuna burgers,
we're gonna add some cooked diced onion.
We've got some chopped parsley, bit of ground fennel,
bit of ground pepper, and some salt.
So these tuna burgers we use across both fish butcheries,
and we also use at our venue in Charcoal Fish.
So these get shaped into a double tuna patty
that gets cooked on the barbecue.
Cheese goes on top,
and then we serve it on a bun
just like a usual cheeseburger.
We do two small patties that are about 70 grams each.
These get a little bit of oil on them, a bit of salt,
and then they go straight onto the barbecue.
We use a grill,
and then we melt a cheese slice over it
and literally assemble exactly like a burger
from this point out.
- What we're doing is we're grilling it on a barbecue.
The barbecue,
as much as we'd love to have charcoal or wood grill,
we've got residents above, (laughs)
and we're in a building where we've got a lava rock grill.
So you still get a fantastic flavor,
and, on the top here,
we're just using a basic wire rack,
and I think this is a really, really handy
bit of kit to have.
It allows for easy, more efficient cooking.
And then this one on top here, this is the fish weight.
But for us,
this is a critical product that we use
to get crispy-skin fish, to cook fish on the grill.
I only have it on
for a moment, (knife banging)
and then it's all about trying to get a nice crust
on that side
because, at the end of the day,
like we already talked about, we're cooking fish.
It's not meat even though it looks a lot like it.
Some cheese. Patties come off.
Usual suspects: pickles, milk bun.
It's our barbecue sauce and our mustard.
If it's not falling out, there's not enough on there.
So this is our smoked kingfish bacon.
So this is our yellowfin tuna cheeseburger
with the addition of the smoked kingfish bacon.
I think the techniques that we've developed here
at Fish Butchery and Saint Peter
to utilize the whole fish
has all been born out of many years of training.
I was fortunate to work with a chef named Joe Pavlovich,
and he showed me how to break down a carcass of an animal,
and I found that fascinating.
Anatomically, to find out where primary cuts sit,
how to get the full return, how to age a piece of beef,
I found that fascinating
that I could start to interpret fish more as an animal.
It seems easy now,
but it's very much a collision of all the thoughts
and all the training that I've ever had
all focused in on fish.
To me, it's essential that we maximize the output
of one single fish in that Saint Peter menu.
Every single part represents a different texture,
a different taste, a different expression.
This section here, like perfectly wonderful piece of tuna,
but for the aesthetic of the Wellington that we're after,
we're looking for something that is quite cylindrical
just so that we can get a nice even cook,
and it's very central part of the fish.
So that's going to be
(fish slaps)
for the Wellington.
So the breakdown of this tuna, the idea is
is we make a mushroom paste
like a old-fashioned mushroom duxelles,
and then we spread it across a beer crepe.
So we add an ale to the crepe batter
just to give it a nice bit of savory flavor.
Then we put the tuna onto the mushroom,
and then we wrap the whole thing up.
Around the outside then,
we've got that pastry there that we make here,
which is a sour cream pastry.
It's not exactly a puff pastry,
but it's a type of rough puff
that's got a good solid amount of sour cream through it
which gives a really good flavor.
Whether a tuna Wellington's better than a beef Wellington,
I'd say they're both equally as magical.
We've got a nice brown exterior.
Pastry's nice and golden.
You know, as a kid,
that was what I wanted for my birthday dinner.
For my dad, that was maybe what he would want
for his birthday dinner.
It's just one of those iconic dishes
that we know takes a whole lot of work and effort
and premium ingredients
to then package up and roast and hope
which is a lot of the times what happens.
So it is that real celebratory type of dish
and a nod back to the days
when I suppose kings and queens and people would eat it.
So I think it's a really nice gesture
to bring back something
a little bit maybe old-fashioned, daggy,
and then give it a bit of a spruce up with fish.
- So for the kofta, we've got the tuna mince.
We've got some Murray cod fat,
which helps give it a little bit of moisture.
Like we base the recipe off of a traditional kofta recipe,
and we just replace where you would use beef or lamb mince
or some other kind of protein.
We just replace it with the tuna mince.
We do ours on little wooden skewers,
little portion-sized pieces,
and, yes, barbecued as well.
So now we're gonna do the kofta.
So the yellowfin tuna kofta.
Brush with a little bit of oil
and, again, a generous amount of salt.
And the same thing.
you're cooking mince that's on a skewer
directly on a hot barbecue.
Yeah, really hot grill.
Like, looking for brown. Like, you're browning.
You're trying to create that caramelization on the outside
which is very easy to achieve
with the addition of that cod fat
that we've added to the mince.
Once you've got a nice crust on all the sides,
then it's a matter of frequent turning,
so that you're not leaving it
just to take on so much color just on one side.
And I do paint it with oil whilst it cooks
just to keep the meat hydrated with oil,
and it keeps taking on new color.
So, flatbread.
This chickpea puree with some of the tuna sobrassada.
Kofta. Down.
And then this mix.
Generous with the olive oil and the lemon juice
and then a beautiful tuna kofta.
It's easy to slide out,
and then get stuck in.
When the guests arrive here at Saint Peter,
we're very one-on-one.
We're literally an arm's reach away
from everybody that comes in,
which gives us the freedom
and I suppose the confidence
to stand behind all of this work that we're doing
and really articulate what it is we're trying to do.
We're at the stage now
where I'm gonna take this top section out.
Very neat, beautiful rib bones from the tuna,
and this is something that we will roast as a whole piece.
So this one here is our dry-aged yellowfin tuna rib eye
that we've prepared this morning at butchery,
and this bone here is the extension of the rib bone
that would sit over the offal.
And, basically, what I've done
is seasoned it with juniper, black pepper, and coriander.
All equal parts.
Reason why I do that,
long time ago working for another chef,
he would use that for the seasoning on his venison,
and whenever I smell it, I just think of red meat.
The grill's just burning charcoal,
and then basically we just go straight on.
It's basically constant flipping
just so that we don't get too much of a dry finish
on one side.
Being on the bone, you get a significantly better flavor
as opposed to just aging loins.
It is a very quick method of cookery.
We're looking at applying a severe amount of heat
to the outside
just so that you do get that browning,
and you get the caramelization.
The spice really aids in giving it that savoriness
that you want,
and also the exterior finishes somewhat more burnished
than what it would be if it was just straight, you know,
tuna loin on the grill.
I think, as well, the perception of the eye,
the value proposition comes in the form
of the fish being cooked on the bone,
the love and attention that's gone into Frenching the bone,
and then the method in which we cook it
and then carve it and fan it out.
So just like a steak, medium rare.
What keeps me going is the fact that we can turn up,
we can write a new menu each day,
we can keep learning
all these really unique fascinating things.
And I want every guest to leave there thinking,
"The only way that we're ever gonna have that again
is if we go back there."
(gentle upbeat music)