Japanese chef Norihito Endo slices tuna during an 18-course omakase dinner takeover at Mr. Tuna on Wednesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer



On Monday afternoon, Norihito Endo, a highly regarded sushi chef from Tokyo, walked into Mr. Tuna’s commissary kitchen in South Portland on Ocean Avenue with a bag of live Maine eel.


The chef was about to get ready for the special 18-course omakase (chef’s choice) pop-up dinners he was hosting at Mr. Tuna would love. Endo is a second-generation sushi chef – trained under renowned three-Michelin-star sushi master Takashi Saito – and owner of Ebisu Endo, one of Japan’s best sushi restaurants. To say he is a seafood lover is putting it mildly.


Endo was on a three-part US tour, with high-end omakase pop-ups in Omaha, Nebraska; Brooklyn, New York; and Portland. For his dinners in Nebraska and Brooklyn, he worked with Japanese seafood sent for the events. But for his dinners in Portland, Endo used only Maine seafood, a dazzling array of brand new produce, including scallops, lobster, small mussels, whelk, jona crab, mackerel, tailfish, swordfish, bluefin tuna, black bass, sea urchin, cod spleen. (sperm sac), oysters and eel.


Mr. Tuna chef-owner Jordan Rubin had taken Endo on the rounds that day to gather and inspect his raw ingredients for dinner. “He was impressed with the quality of the fish here,” Rubin said.



Endo spreads a little wasabi on a thin slice of tuna with his index finger. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer



“Some of the seafood here is even better than in Japan,” Endo said, noting that he was particularly impressed with Maine’s uni, bluefin tuna, oysters and lobster. “I have to be honest. The quality of the product is great.”


Endo is one of several high-profile chefs who visited Maine this fall and immediately fell in love with the local seafood. In late October, a group of American chefs, including Alex Kemp of My Loup in Philadelphia (named among Bon Appetit magazine’s 20 Best Restaurants of 2024) and Nicole Cabrera Mills of Pêche in New Orleans (one of the best new Chefs of Food & Wine of 2024) visited seafood restaurants including Bangs Island Mussels on Commercial Street and Atlantic Sea Farms in Biddeford, and enjoyed some of the state’s best fresh-caught produce at SoPo Seafood.


Around the same time, tickets went on sale for a celebrity chef culinary cruise departing from Boston next October – featuring food luminaries such as Alton Brown, Anne Burrell, Rocco DiSpirito, Alex Guarnaschelli and Andrew Zimmern – which will make a stop in Portland so passengers can enjoy the local bounty and renowned restaurants.


“Portland was selected as one of our port stops because it offers such a diverse culinary adventure where we can guide our guests through oyster farms, breweries, famous eateries and more,” said Jeff Cuellar, CEO of Sixthman, who organized the themed event. cruise.


“Portland gained national attention 15 years ago for its food scene,” said Kathleen Pierce, director of membership and communications for HospitalityMaine, referring to a 2009 New York Times article that called the city “one of the best places to eat in the Northeast.” ” was mentioned. That same year, Portland was named “America’s Foodiest Small Town” by Bon Appetit.


“And that shine has never diminished,” Pierce said.



Ana Castro, a chef from New Orleans, photographs mussels during a recent tour of the working waterfront at Bangs Island Mussels. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer



MAINE ADD SEAFOOD TO THEIR MENUS


But for the chefs visiting this fall, the spotlight was on Maine seafood. To one person, the chefs said they were incredibly impressed with the quality of the Gulf harvest.


For Kemp, who already has plenty of Maine seafood on his menu at My Loup, the trip — organized by the Maine Seafood Promotional Council and funded by a state and federal grant — was a chance to meet fishermen, producers and suppliers meet, and deepen his understanding of the local product.


“I find the best produce you can get in peak season always comes from Maine,” Kemp said. “The sea urchin, scallops, oysters, mussels, tuna, lobster – they are just beautiful. The suppliers seem to place such a strong emphasis on quality. Everything is always very fresh and perfect, and I am so happy with it.”


Others, like Mills and chef Ana Castro of Acamaya, a Mexican seafood restaurant in New Orleans, said they planned to have seafood shipped from Maine to the Crescent City so they can add it to their own menus.


Castro said she wants to order eel from American Unagi in Waldoboro to make barbecue unagi tacos. She also wants Bangs Island Mussels shipped to use in her arroz negro, replacing the Prince Edward Island Mussels she used before her trip to Maine.


“Prince Edward Island mussels can be small and inconsistent,” Castro said as he toured the Bangs Island mussel production facility on the Commercial Street waterfront, which produces more than 600,000 pounds of mussels per year. “The Bangs Island mussels are so beautiful, plump and clean. The meat has a firm but velvety texture. They just taste better, sweeter.”



A tour group, including esteemed chefs from around the country, heads towards Bangs Island Mussels in Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer



Another chef on the tour, Katarina Petonito, executive chef at Eastern Point Collective restaurants in Washington, D.C., said she has been on a mission to find the highest quality, most natural and sustainable products possible.


“I felt like my last piece of the puzzle was finding a source for sustainable seafood,” Petonito said. “I looked at this trip as an opportunity to learn more about the seafood industry in general, but it’s actually starting to turn into, ‘Oh, I just have to get my seafood from here.’ There is a unique taste, very pure in taste. There isn’t that processed taste you would get from a regular fishing boat.”


“In Maine, we have a small boat fleet that prides itself on having really great seafood,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. The local seafood industry is able to transport top quality products across the country, he noted, aided by cutting-edge technology that can quickly freeze seafood while retaining its fresh taste and texture.


“We can move products very quickly throughout the country,” says Martens. “You could get a frozen Maine scallop in Omaha, Nebraska and thaw it, but you would have a hard time telling the difference between fresh and frozen because if you have a fresh product that has been properly frozen, the quality is on the other side. is pretty amazing.”


“The quality of the seafood here in Maine is unparalleled in the United States,” says Rubin, who praises both the Gulf’s cold water – even though the temperature rising rapidly – and the state’s “seafood culture.”


“Seafood is so important to so many people here. It’s their life,” Rubin said. “Just like the oyster people, the uni-man (Atchan Tamaki of ISF Trading on Commercial Street), they are specialists in their field. The combination of all these different specialists makes Maine so unique. These people care so much about the ocean and what we get out of it.”



Matt Moretti, co-owner and CEO of Bangs Island Mussels, left, talks mussels with Chef Katarina Petonito of Washington DC, center, and Chef Nicole Cabrera Mills, of New Orleans. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer



A SUSTAINABLE ROLE MODEL


The visiting chefs also said they were struck by Maine’s efforts to ensure the state’s fisheries and aquaculture are as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. While there may be local debate over the details of certain fishing and aquaculture regulations, the chefs said the system Maine has in place appears far superior to the sustainability codes in their home regions of the Mid-Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico, or others coastal areas. US regions they visited.


“In New Orleans we have a huge fishing industry, but it’s not as regulated as here,” Castro said. “I wish people in New Orleans and Louisiana would pay more attention to sustainability the way it is being paid here. It’s very inspiring to see people doing things this way so that we can bring this knowledge back.”


“All the rules seem so organized and it seems like everyone is following them,” Mills said. “It’s very different from the Gulf of Mexico, where the system is kind of a mess. It should help the fishermen and farmers, but in practice that is not the case.”


“What people are doing here in terms of sustainability and maritime management should be a role model for our country in general,” Petonito said.


Their glowing reviews come as no surprise to Maine fishing professionals.


“We have a fleet of small boats that care about the future,” says Martens, noting that his association works with many multi-generational fishermen. “They are in it for the long term because they are in it for the long term. If you’re not thinking about regulation in terms of how you can pay shareholders more this quarter, but instead you’re thinking, “How can we make sure that my children and grandchildren have the same opportunities that I have,” then that’s a different type. of comparison.”


“I think here in Maine we are certainly at the forefront, and certainly leaders in the sustainability movement,” Rubin said. “And as more chefs and people from around the country see what we’re doing here, they may want to bring those techniques and systems to where they are today.”


Just as Chef Endo’s dinners in Portland showcased the amazing variety of seafood available in the Gulf of Maine, Martens said the potential to broaden the state’s wealth will benefit Maine’s fishing and aquaculture industries in the years to come can strengthen.


“We can talk about haddock, lobsters and scallops forever, but there are so many other things coming out of our waters that we are just exploring the possibilities for,” Martens said.


“It’s not like Maryland, where you show up and have crabs,” he added. “You come to Maine and you can eat the lobster – and you should – but you can also have all these groundfish and all these oysters and mussels and kelp and crab, tuna, swordfish. It’s really quite amazing what the Gulf of Maine ecosystem has to offer our fishermen and our state, and it’s really rewarding to see that chefs and others can witness it, embrace it and bring it back can bring to their communities.




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