NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Tuesday, Dec. 29, Executive Chef Michael Nelson will receive a 35lb Ora King Tyee Salmon. There are just a handful of Tyee Salmon in the world, they are considered the Kobe Beef of seafood and only sent to a few prestigious restaurants across the globe. These fish are fed every 45 minutes for 5 years in the most pristine waters of New Zealand.
The result is an especially fatty fish with strikingly marbled meat and a sumptuous melt-in-your-mouth texture. Chefs compare it to the luxuriousness of raw fatty tuna. The cost is at least twice the price of commodity Atlantic farmed salmon.
Playing in to the breed’s richness and clean taste is the pristine water it’s raised in. Ōra King eggs are hatched in the South Island’s Takaka Valley in Golden Bay, refreshed with water from Te Waikoropupu Springs, some of the clearest in the world; an average of 14,000 liters of fresh water bubble to the surface every second.
Chef Michael will be serving half of this fish on Dec. 30 and dry aging the other half to create an even more luxurious, deep flavor. On the 30th, he will serve the fish pan-seared medium rare, with wilted arugula and tomato, soft polenta, (and possibly a Rockefeller cream) for $46.
