morning chevy
so these are wild japanese thai from
toyatsu market which is going to be on
our sashimi fish for the next several
days
so if you look at the tail like the tail
is absolutely perfect on all sides
it hasn't been you know beaten up or
worn down and that's because this fish
is from the open sea
but farm-raised tie these things will be
worn down like bloody little nubs
because they're raised in a pen and
they're constantly you know swimming in
this this net
and their tail and their fins
get worn down from the friction of
rubbing against the net we'll scale all
these fish and gut them all today and
then these fish will go in the dry ager
these fish are forty dollars a pound so
each one of these fish is a couple
hundred bucks
yeah this is uh almost three thousand
dollars worth of thai sniper for the
next couple days it's crazy so this same
fish it was farm-raised uh or even if it
was wild caught but coming from new
zealand being nine or ten bucks so four
basically four times the price to come
from you know wild from japan chevy
ramirez uh who's been our fishmonger for
what four years now five years yeah four
years we're gonna scale them with a
japanese technique called tsukibiki
which is actually where you scale them
with a knife
this technique is better especially if
you're gonna serve the fish for sashimi
because it does less damage to the
actual fish
and then we're going to gut them
clean them out really really well and
then they'll go upstairs and dry the jar
there's process it to it just in the
same way there is when you go to a sushi
bar like you go to a sushi barn it looks
like nothing they got a bunch of raw
fish but there's so much that happened
before you ever got there yeah so we're
upstairs um where our dry ager is and
we're gonna
take the fish that's already been drying
over the weekend and then switch it out
with these test number that we received
today and then two three days from now
we're going to use these fish so we just
keep on rotating so yeah this is one of
the test number that we're going to use
today right here
you can see how much the difference just
the two days
on the skin is made there
[Music]
so now chevy's um we're gonna fillet
some of the thai that we just brought
from upstairs for tonight's sashimi you
can't really make nice sashimi with any
kind of fish if you don't filet it well
when you take the filet off the bone if
you in any way you know break up this
beautiful filet right here uh or this
one then when you go to cut sashimi
later it will be very obvious that the
fish was like was sort of
treated in a
less than gentle manner when it was
filleted next step you'll he'll remove
those bones then you cut the fish into
the different loins the belly line in
the back loin and then the fish will be
salted for about 10 to 12 minutes
and then
uh at that point it's ready for sashimi
every step is essential in its visa plus
so the first substantial bite the first
bite you really need like utensils for
is that oyster with caviar these are fat
bastards
from the hood canal up in washington
state it's actually a shigoku oyster
which a lot of people are probably
familiar with that has spent extra time
on the bed about an extra year on the
bed so that they come larger
so uh to watch these guys just throw a
bunch of ice in there and then i'm gonna
run a little cold water over them
just to it'll knock off some of the
barnacles and any you know any sand that
they might have come from the beds with
yeah so we rubber band them to keep all
the
the liquor inside the shell that'll end
up being used for the sauce later
tristan's been here uh for
almost 17 years the entire time we've
been open we started cooking together
when he was a very young man and i was a
much younger man
um but yeah it's been a long a long
strange trip but i'm glad that he's been
with us every step of the way
we let him steam for two and a half
minutes and then we let him rest for one
minute
they're not like fully cooked they're
just like oh it's getting warm in
here
because you can still you can still like
hold it in your hand but it does enough
to like set the flesh
so that it has like it has a nice mouth
feel and we try to keep them upright
also when we put them in the ice so that
we're keeping the liquor in the shell
opening up that caviar a couple times a
week and just looking at it and
marveling at it and tasting it it's
different every time it's a magical
thing those kind of traditions like food
traditions to me they're important kind
of deceiving how much work goes into a
single dish you know we have to steam it
and then we shuck them all then we cut
each oyster put it back in the its
original shell they weigh out all the
caviar that goes into each oyster
and then you know a sauce is made from
the liquid we make a
sauce with champagne and cultured butter
we finish that sauce with the extra
juice that comes out of those oysters
eight grams of caviar per serving and
some fiends herbs and it goes right on
top of the oyster and it's served warm
that oyster changes from time to time we
we need to have always have a nice deep
cup and to be really full in the shell
because otherwise it's kind of
insubstantial yeah so these are our um
scallops from from my friend nancy
nguyen up in um
up in maine nancy scallops are so fresh
that when you do that they move
yeah her her stuff is just the best like
they're they're just no no better
scallop that i've ever had really during
the season which is like december to
april this is almost always on the menu
it's just you know one of those things
with wild fish wild seafood you can
never really count on it and you got to
be flexible
so we always give just a quick rinse
just to make sure that any you know
loose sand or whatever is rinsed away so
this side it the scallop slopes away
from you if you were to put it on the
plate like this but if you put it on the
plate like that the scallop slopes up
sort of in a much more eye pleasing way
and so when we arrange our scalps on the
tray we always arrange them in the same
way which is to say that the flat side
because all all scalps will have one
flat side like that
is on the left every time you add a new
scallop you find which side is flat and
then put it up and put it right up
against the last scallop like that you
know making sure that scalps are stored
this way may sound goofy but it has you
know many practical purposes because
it's it's silly to also like spend all
that money and buy you know buy the very
best product that you can and not really
and not really care for it
[Music]
so from here we can prepare the truffles
and then we can start barting the
scallops we're in the truffle brothers
truck right now twice a week they come
they bring us truffles i'm looking for
aroma i'm looking for
shape
obviously you look for color so they
always have a little knife on
on the truck and i like to take a little
piece off so i can look inside the
truffle and make sure that it's as
mature as i want it to be so if the
trouble is black all the way through
like that and you have
um you know great aroma you know the
trouble truffle's mature and it's gonna
have you know it's gonna be what you're
looking for when it when it comes to
black truffles so yeah i'm taking them
all
thank you
yeah getting in and out of this truck it
gets harder i swear he keeps buying
trucks that are higher because every
year it gets harder to get in and out of
this stupid thing but
they don't like to leave it out here on
the street in los angeles which is
probably a good idea thank you guys
take care
so stephanie is going to take us through
the next step of our scallop dish so now
i'm just going to make some planks
and i always find the best way is to
find the flattest side
from the very first time i stepped a
foot in the kitchen
i knew that one day i'd wind up in a
restaurant like this like i've been
mentored with these ingredients as part
of the repertoire yes they are
ingredients that you would always find
in a fine dining restaurant but at the
same time they're much deeper than that
all these ingredients have a history and
past they're part of a larger culture i
don't know i couldn't imagine working
not working with them
i find that if i kind of put a little
pressure on the top it helps to
put the truffle in without
snapping it
and i'm going to start with a little bit
of a crisscross shape
as you may be able to see from the other
side
it is a little time consuming as i'm
sure you can imagine but when it's all
said and done
you essentially have a little bit of
trouble in every single bite so
[Laughter]
it's a worthy cause to give your life
for right
to be stuffed with trough
and also like i really like like cutting
the truffle like this because so often
like you know with black truffle
you can cook them you know white trouble
you don't cook but with black truffle
you can actually you know when you're
eating this scallop you actually have a
nice big piece of truffle in your mouth
you're actually getting the sensation of
chewing it and it's releasing all that
all that flavor is released into the
scallop but the truffle still has a
lovely texture that is a really a part
of the experience of eating the dish
which i think is really nice
so first they'll get barter with truffle
then they'll be sauteed um just until
they're just barely done we glaze them
with a little uh with brown butter and a
scallop broth
just to make them really beautiful and
shiny
and then it's served with a puree of
honey nut squash and um and a scallop
sort of butter that's made with the
scallop broth from you know the
dehydrated scallops and cultured butter
that's that
one egg has been around here
at providence for maybe 15 years this is
our uni for
the next at least day or two harvested
from uni in santa barbara we go through
i don't know six or eight trays a day
but the idea is we buy as much as we can
sea urchin is a tricky thing it's a very
important part of our menu it's very
like wind and weather dependent up in
santa barbara you know the wind could be
howling at 30 knots and if it is then
the fishermen can't get out and if the
fishermen can't get out then there's no
sea urchin to be had for the next couple
days so when you know really good uni is
available we buy a lot of it and we hold
on to it a lot of the suny is going to
go into our uni egg you know step one
empty out the eggs you know we top them
then we empty out the eggs and separate
the yolk from the white
and then the yolk goes back down into
the egg when service happens we season
the egg lightly
so these are uh borage blossoms that we
use on the
on the uni egg
we can just pick what we need you know
it's it's as you know as fresh as can be
with this stuff obviously like unlike
the fish it's got to be like picked like
as close to the time you're going to
need it as possible we'll warm up the
sea urchin in a very light sauce with
some fiends herbs and then they get
spooned into the egg definitely a
signature
you know it's delicious it's very also
very comforting sea urchin a nice rich
like champagne butter sauce what else do
you need well one thing i'll say about
that just there's plenty of people are
like oh i don't i don't like sea or
chicken but that dish converts so it's
about two o'clock right now and chevy's
uh this is like kind of the last big
fish that he has to do for the day if i
were to ask you what's your favorite
fish to cut what is which one is it this
fish
king salmon you know chevy's like a
chevy's a master at this point so you
better live up to that chevy
no
no no
flavor bears no resemblance to a fish
like this that's lived its entire life
cycle wild at sea on it on its normal
diet there's no way to replicate the
flavor of fish like that with a fish
that's raised in a pen
all of the fish that we want for the
menu came actually we got today for the
menu we can't always find wild salmon we
can't always find
you know the scabs don't always come in
and weather dictates so much of the fish
you know we kind of have to just play it
by ear uh on a day-to-day basis to
figure out exactly what is going to go
where and if you commit to using wild
fish as we have
you kind of have to be flexible in that
way there's all sorts of factors that
contribute to what might wind up on the
menu from day to day so basically we cut
them about
yay big
like so
and then gina
the chef to party on the fish station
will put the sunchoke scales
on the fish we will always use wild
caught fish we just have certain
principles that we don't compromise
period so i think the thing that i've
dedicated my you know myself to in this
restaurant is working with american fish
and presenting it in a modern and
seasonal way
[Music]
if the message that we can get across
with the menu and by fielding a menu
that's comprised solely of wild fish is
the idea that you can it is possible
it's 3 15. uh and um yeah they just
walked through walked in with a king
crab
better late than never never for sure
but normally we hope that you know these
big guys will walk through the door uh
you know two o'clock at the latest the
vendor that we get these from they do
lots and lots of deliveries on tuesdays
and fridays specifically so we go
through like you know
one and a half of these guys a day we
usually what we do is we we take a look
through them and like figure out which
is the one that looks most lively which
you can kind of tell by the way they
hold their antenna like this guys his
antenna are like all over the place so
he's the one that we're gonna put the
tank
[Music]
here's the finished product of the
the body meat from all the crab with the
peas and the chanterelles and then they
roll it up in this thin
flour crepe and that's going to be
gently just pan seared and clarified
butter so there's going to be a little
texture on the outside and they serve it
just with a piece of the leg of the king
crab and a tongue of uni it's almost 5
15
that's the time that we start our
pre-service meeting every day
we got nancy scallops today which is
good news so that's on the menu uh and
then for maine's troll caught king
salmon liberty farm stuck and wagyu
other than that i don't anticipate any
changes to the menu throughout the
course of service all right everybody
have a good service thank you
so these are wild japanese type i cut
all the sashimi every night it's like a
little bit of a a moment to like unwind
i usually put on some music and come in
here and i slice the fish and there's
all this activity buzzing around in the
kitchen and usually by the time i go out
there like tristan has already tasted
through all of the miso plots that the
cooks have made and we're you know ready
to go yeah if you look behind us
you see the wild michael bobbing his
head in the window over there
probably listening to uh
reggae or the grateful dead it's great
for that grateful dead yeah they had a
50 50 chance
so yeah they basically like make me one
of the completed amuse and then on all
these spoons is like the different
purees individually so that i can kind
of tell
bite the whole thing together i'm like
oh it's salty but then i can taste all
the individual components then i'll know
what you know they can adjust
so yeah this is the oyster mayo
it's a little spicy they try and season
it to where they they think it should be
and then obviously i try all the sausage
the next level of
checking and then chef will come by and
he might think
it needs a complete change so it really
does hit quite a few levels
usually like since we open in five
minutes we'll try and get the amuses
kind of rolling over here and make sure
that they're all set up
good you should start building
charts right now
you already poked all your crackers
service comes down to timing execution
and presentation
[Music]
so king crab
it's a sea urchin sauce made with aged
ham crushed peas a pureed peas a piece
of uni on the dish there's a piece of
king crab on the dish
the first several tables have have been
through the majority of their amuses the
very first table is ready for main
course now ordering two menus adding one
uni egg it's gonna be one wagyu one
salmon
it's gonna be two salmon both no pork in
a wagyu
[Music]
i've definitely learned uh work with
those seasons and i think you know we've
definitely gotten better at running the
restaurant just physically running the
restaurant we've gotten better at taking
care of our guests you know everything
it's just always an evolution because if
it's not like if you ever just sit there
and go oh we really did it that's
like the day you start to slowly die
yeah i think as a chef like you have to
believe like your best work is in front
of you because if you don't if you
believe anything other than that i don't
know why you get out of bed i really
don't
[Music]