How the Best Anchovies Make It to SF Restaurants

Eater

In San Francisco, Kenny Belov is the owner of TwoXSea and is working on building the city’s anchovy market. Through his process, restaurants are able to get fresh anchovies two hours after they’re caught and on the menu that day.

Transcript

00:00- [Stuart] Anchovies have

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undefined:undefinedFranciscans don't realize

00:14that we have a local anchovy scene.

00:16(upbeat music)

00:22- So right now we are in the middle

00:23of California anchovy season.

00:25The anchovy is part of the

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undefined:undefinedmajority of the anchovies

00:46that are caught are salt-cured.

00:48The fat content and the oil content

00:50in these anchovies is

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undefined:undefinedFrancisco bait receiver

01:14and is also a commercial

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00 this morning. :undefined

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undefined:undefinedimperative with these.

01:34So the way we unload

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undefined:undefinedon a timeline with these fish.

01:50We have this net here

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undefined:undefinedthat will have this

02:08on their lunch menu today by 11:30, 12:00.

02:12- When I opened State Bird,

02:13Kenny was the fish purveyor

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undefined:undefinedevery corner of the globe.

02:47Fish is constantly mislabeled

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undefined:undefinedis gonna be super happy.

03:04The type of fish I work with has to start

03:07with I know the captain, I know the boat,

03:11I know the gear method that

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undefined:undefinedgoal is to get the anchovies

03:29into the restaurant before

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undefined:undefinedcoming to the restaurants.

03:50One day they arrived in the

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undefined:undefined- Good morning, chef.

04:19- [Stuart] How are you?

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undefined:undefinedobviously get a bad rap

04:26for being an oily and kind of salty fish.

04:29And as you can see here, I

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undefined:undefinedwe call "baby anchovies."

04:47And so we'll use these anchovies

04:49for dishes like purgatory

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undefined:undefined- I appreciate it.

05:14I'm gonna keep driving.

05:15Friends, good to see everybody.

05:16I'll see you guys soon.

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undefined:undefinedthat the fish are gonna arrive

05:33in our kitchen two hours out of water.

05:37It's happening.

05:38So that transformation,

05:40and this is kind of one

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undefined:undefinedarrive in the restaurant,

05:56the entire team kind of

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undefined:undefinedfor fries with eyes, right?

06:10So we'll do like a little

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undefined:undefinedanchovy is hand-processed.

06:41The next step is that

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undefined:undefinedsummer more than basil.

06:56Mm. Perfect.

06:58Perfect.

06:59(lively music)

07:00The next stage is that

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undefined:undefinedtransformation of all the work.

07:13So we take the anchovies,

07:15and these have been scaled, gutted,

07:17and you can see how clean they are.

07:19And what we do is we

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undefined:undefinedis keeping the temperature

07:34of the anchovies really cold.

07:37Shake that out, and you can really see

07:39how glowing these anchovies are now.

07:42They're not slimy, we've

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undefined:undefinedin the brine for 48 hours.

08:09And what happens is that

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undefined:undefinedwe start to remove the spines.

08:29Very simply, we just

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undefined:undefinedthe jalapeno, all the garlic,

08:59and we'll take this

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undefined:undefinedanchovy salt, bone salt.

09:13So I'll take some spines, grind them up,

09:16and I'm gonna add to that

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undefined:undefinedI've never done this before.

09:43Mm.

09:44We figured it out.

09:45We just cracked the code on camera here.

09:47(Stuart laughing)

09:48We take the fish and we

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undefined:undefinedthe flavor just comes out

10:04after they've kind of blended

10:06and really allowed to sit in the fat.

10:09The fat is key.

10:10We noticed that there was

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undefined:undefinedto sell quality fish,

10:29who stand by that.

10:31Here are the boquerones.

10:33The inspirational dish is kind

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undefined:undefineddrops of sherry vinegar,

10:54a little Tabasco hot

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undefined:undefinedcourse, are these anchovies.

11:23This is my favorite dish in the world.

11:26(bright music)

11:28- It's such an honor when

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undefined:undefinedto go to Anchovy Bar

11:41and see his product on the menu.

11:44- There's not a day that

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undefined:undefinedwould turn their nose up

12:14to an anchovy.

12:15And now he's built an

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undefined:undefinedwhich is just 10 to 15 grams,

12:39and how important and how many lessons

12:41that little fish has to teach us as chefs.

12:43(bright music)

Transcript

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