In May, students in Bonney Lake High School’s culinary program will take some very special sablefish to a national culinary competition in Baltimore. They plan to serve it with a miso glaze they developed to complement the rich, buttery flavor of sablefish.
They will also tell the story behind it, which helps diners appreciate the meal even more.
The story begins at NOAA’s Manchester Research Station, where NOAA Fisheries researchers are working with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and the University of Washington. They are raising sablefish in small-scale net pens and land-based tanks to supply to specialty markets. Aquaculture could help improve the availability of sablefish, which are native to deep ocean waters off the Northwest.
In 2024, Mark and Lisa Tagal of IBSS Corp. received an eeBLUE aquaculture grant through a joint program of NOAA and the North American Association for Environmental Education. The grant was used to promote public education and awareness of locally farmed seafood. With the grant funding matched by IBSS, they developed a presentation on “merroir,” the marine equivalent of terroir, which is the signature taste of wines from different regions.
Flavors Reflect Environment
They explain how the flavors of farmed seafood—from oysters to sablefish—reflect their local environment. Oysters in less salty estuaries may taste more succulent, for example, while those from brackish or salt water may be more tart or briny. They have taken the presentation to high schools and colleges with culinary programs, and meetings of the Washington State Chef’s Association.
Kahale Ahina, the instructor of the culinary program at Bonney Lake High School, knew Tagal and invited him to speak to the school’s culinary students. Many had never heard of sablefish before but took a liking to its flavor and began considering recipes to show it off. Tagal then asked Jamestown Seafood, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s sablefish enterprise, to provide the culinary team with sablefish raised at Manchester.
Students Win State Competition
The Bonney Lake team soon turned the high quality seafood into a meal of miso-glazed sablefish with citrus-apple-fennel slaw and pickled carrots. It won first place at a state competition in March at Renton Technical College in Renton, Washington. Next they will take the recipe to the national ProStart Culinary Invitational competition in Baltimore, organized by the National Restaurant Association.
The students developed the concept, and an accompanying analysis of costs and prices, as if they were serving it at a professional restaurant.
“We wanted to create a meal that highlighted the rich taste of the sablefish and contrasted it at the same time,” said student Bria Washburn. Some people have a poor impression of farmed seafood because they think first of salmon farming which has been criticized for its perceived environmental impacts, the students said.
Some of the students have visited Manchester to see how the farmed sablefish are raised. They now dispel the criticism by explaining that sablefish are sustainably harvested to benefit the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and the regional economy. Sablefish are native to the Northwest, like steelhead, which is also farmed in the region.
“Often people want to understand the story of where their food comes from, and in this case it’s sustainable aquaculture,” said student Killian Gitchel.
Educating Chefs and the Public
Tagal has partnered with NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region, Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Jamestown Seafood. They have developed a curriculum exploring how farmed seafood takes on the taste and texture of its surroundings. He also wants to explore the use of environmental DNA to help explain the taste of different seafood. The technique examines fragments of DNA in the environment to tell what species of kelp and algae may contribute to the flavor of seafood from the area.
He also speaks at grocery stores, demonstrating with oysters from different environments how each carries its own distinctive flavor. Some shellfish growers have shown an interest in supporting the work. He wants to educate the restaurant industry and the public on the variety of seafood grown on farms, from mussels, clams, and oysters to starry flounder.
“So many of them had never heard of or tried sablefish before,” he said.
The Bonney Lake culinary team first competed at the Washington State Culinary Association competition, “Bite of Apprentice.” They set up stations for attendees to sample their dishes, which included coconut rice, and to hear about where the seafood comes from. “We had by far the longest lines there,” he said. “People were waiting 30 minutes to try it.”
They refined the recipes for the state ProStart competition organized by the Washington Hospitality Association Education Foundation. It’s a National Restaurant Association program to prepare high school students for culinary careers. That’s where the miso-glazed sablefish took first place and won them entry to the national competition in Baltimore in May. “When we were going to nationals, we wanted to create a menu around the flavors of the Northwest,” said Wyatt Miller, one of the students on the team. “We built our menu off sablefish and tried to create flavors that tied back to the fish.”
Whatever happens in Baltimore, Tagal says the competition will introduce more restaurant leaders and others to farm-raised fish such as sablefish, leading them to add it to their menus. “We put a lot into learning how to grow these fish and now we can see the benefits,” he said.
Ken Cain, who manages the sablefish aquaculture program at Manchester for NOAA Fisheries, praised the Bonney Lake team for creating a winning recipe for the species. “People get to see that not only is it sustainable and affordable, but it also tastes very good,” he said.
