Quick Bites: The Ora King Race To New Zealand Finalist Jonathan Granada

Ora King is a sustainably raised salmon from New Zealand, whose story is almost as delicious as the fish itself. Back in early 1900, two avid fishermen somehow managed to bring live King salmon home to New Zealand from a fishing trip to California. The salmon thrived there and the rest is Ora King history. Ora King is only available to the restaurant trade, where it’s developed a cult following with top chefs like Thomas Keller and Emeril Lagasse, because of it’s pristine quality and flavor. Host, Poppy Tooker served as the judge for this year’s Ora King competition traveling to Austin, Texas; Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California to taste the Ora King creations of the three top finalists, Mia Li of Lenoir, Yael Peet of Karasu and Jonathan Granada of Otium. On this podcast, we travel to Los Angeles, California to meet finalist number three – Jonathan Granada. After beginning his career at the French Laundry, where he worked his way up from commis to line cook, Jonathan was selected by Chef Timothy Hollingsworth as chef de cuisine at Otium. Just adjacent to the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, Otium’s airy, light filled space offers fine dining with a casual LA vibe. Inspired by the lives of Anthony Bourdain and Paul Bocuse, Jonathan created five individual salmon dishes as a food collage to pair with a photomontage of the famous chefs he had created specially for the contest. Do you know what a vessi is? Listen to this Quick Bite podcast and learn all about it! To learn more about Ora King salmon, visit their website orakingsalmon.co.nz.