2:06

Reach us through restaurantguysradio.com, and now you can download our podcast on iTunes

Speaker 4 2:12

As 30,000 of you do, and that's really great, and please continue to send us emails from around the world. We read them all, and we love them all, and it's great. Your, your comments are interesting, and they really do drive the show- They, they do the things that you like to hear about.

Speaker 3 2:23

And we truly ans- we truly answer as many of them as we can.

Speaker 4 2:25

Now, um, we're gonna be talking later in the show with Rick Moonen. Rick Moonen is one of the pre-eminent, fish chefs in the country. I would say he and Eric Ripert are the two top- Mm-hmm fish chefs. From...

Speaker 3 2:35

Eric Ripert is from Le Bernardin.

Speaker 4 2:37

In New York. Yeah, they're the the two top fish chefs in the country. Now, Rick, was at Oceana, or- Mm-hmm a Greek restaurant called Molyvos in New York City. He was at The Water Club, and he had his own restaurant called RM- Mm which was doing very well when he was approached to, uh, take his restaurant out- Yeah in Vegas, where he- Rick,

Speaker 3 2:55

Rick cooked me one of... or cooked you, I should say, 'cause it was your birthday, one of the top 10 meals of my life, he, he made for us at The Water Club.

Speaker 4 3:02

That was back in- It- when I was 29 years old.

Speaker 3 3:04

Really spectacular.

Speaker 4 3:05

And, uh, he's a great guy. We've known him for years. He's, he's been a friend. and he's out there in Las Vegas. He's gonna come talk to us about what he's doing out there and also an organization that he's involved in because being a fish- chef and being involved in fish today- Mm you need to be really conscious of what's going on in the environment and with the ecology because, well, I mean, the FDA is coming out with warnings now telling you what kind of fish you can and can't eat- Right and where we should source fish. So you really need to know what you're doing. Plus, being a fish chef is, I mean, it's, it's a very delicate, way of cooking because fish is very unforgiving when you cook

Speaker 3 3:36

it. Well, in, in every restaurant you put your most talented guy in the fish station.

Speaker 4 3:40

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:40

Yeah. You always do that. You-

Speaker 4 3:41

a lot of meat, can be a little bit forgiving- Mm-hmm but you're 30 seconds off in either direction with many fish and it's- And it's done and it's all over.

Speaker 3 3:48

Say goodbye.

Francis 3:50

I have a question. Doesn't make sense anymore to have those super, super high-end restaurants that garnet- garner the best stars. Th- they're very, very expensive. They cost a fortune to run. There's,

Speaker 3 4:00

there's usually two or three people in the kitchen as a ratio for people in the dining room.

Speaker 4 4:05

sometimes Mark and I will go to lunch, and, What have we spent, 1,000 bucks on lunch yeah, that's right, I said 1,000 bucks for lunch for me and Mark.

Speaker 3 4:11

You don't have to. If, if you're a normal human being, you'll only spend 5 or

Speaker 4 4:15

$600. Right, and but if you're really decadent, you can spend $5,000. these restaurants, are really challenged- Mm-hmm even though they charge that amount of money... you think, "Well, how could you not make money if you're even moderately busy and charging- Sure these prices?" Well, when you're there, you realize. Right. I mean, everything is gold and silver and fresh- Mm-hmm flowers and just the... Everything is beautiful. And there's a 25,

Speaker 3 4:35

there's a $25,000 ga- dollar Garridon for the rum.

Speaker 4 4:39

Right Right. You know? For the rum Garridon. Which, so the rum would you like? Um, can I ride the Garridon home? You know, I don't, uh... My God. But in any event, these restaurants are challenged because it's so expensive to run that no matter what they charge, it seems- Mm-hmm they're, they're not extraordinarily profitable. but it makes perfect sense to open a place like this in Las Vegas- In Vegas because the restaurant itself doesn't need to make money. Right. You're in a casino.

Speaker 3 5:05

the purpose of a restaurant in a Las Vegas casino is to, is to draw respect and, people to that casino.

Speaker 4 5:14

Right. If I can afford to spend $500 on lunch- Mm and I'm th- deciding which hotel to stay at in Vegas- Right if you can entice me to your hotel so, so that I have dinner at and then I go out and drop a half a million dollars at baccarat- well, you know, who cares if my dinner was at a break even? Yeah. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 5:29

Or, or worse, who cares if I lost money on my dinner? And, and, and again, that's how a lot of casino restaurants work. And, and I think that it's a, it's a, actually a very, very good plan of action for a casino to have a great restaurant in it. Again, like Francis said, if you wanna attract the, the wealthiest of the wealthiest, what do you do? You put the best restaurant in the country in your casino.

Speaker 4 5:52

You know what I just got a great idea, Mark? You know where I'm going, don't you?

Speaker 3 5:58

I think that I might.

Speaker 4 5:59

We own a bu- we own one of the best restaurants in the state of New Jersey, right?

Speaker 3 6:02

Yeah.

Speaker 4 6:03

If we put slot machines- downstairs-

Speaker 3 6:06

They'll arrest us.

Speaker 4 6:07

Oh, yeah. There is that whole arrest thing. The whole

Speaker 3 6:09

illegal gambling in New Brunswick. I,

Speaker 4 6:11

I, I still do like the idea, though.

Speaker 3 6:12

There's a river in New Brunswick, though. Maybe we could go out in the center of the river and-

Speaker 4 6:16

I think you have to be out in the ocean there. You're listening to The Restaurant Guys,

6:20

Back with the Restaurant Guys, Mark and Francis, and we are here with our guest today. Our guest is an old friend of ours. Um, he's not that old really, but he is a friend of ours for a long time, a guy named Rick Moonen

Speaker 4 6:29

who is chef of his own restaurant out in Las Vegas. He's originally from New York, where he sort of cut his teeth in a number of different restaurants. He's cooked some of the best meals that I've ever had. And we welcome to the show Chef Rick Moonen.

Speaker 3 6:40

Great. Welcome. Thanks very much. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 6:42

Thanks,

Speaker 3 6:42

guys.

Speaker 4 6:42

Thanks for taking the time, uh, out of your busy schedule to talk with us. Las Vegas, huh? You abandoned the Big Apple. Why?

Speaker 5 6:49

Oh, because the opportunity came my way. They came up to me. After I opened my own restaurant in New York called Restaurant RM.

Speaker 4 6:54

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 6:54

About a month and a half in, you know, we're getting all these reviews and everything. It's all going well. And, uh, somebody that I knew came walking up to me who was working with Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and said, "Would you be interested in opening up a seafood restaurant in Mandalay Bay?" And I took about one-fifth of a second to answer. Certainly. Absolutely. Uh-huh. about two years after that moment, uh, uh, I had my own, my name on a restaurant in Mandalay. It's awesome.

Speaker 3 7:15

How come you didn't decide to do the, uh, bicoastal thing that so many, uh, New York chefs have done? You, you actually closed your restaurant in New York City to- Yeah to open in Vegas.

Speaker 5 7:24

That's correct. Well- I got 16,000 square feet here in Las Vegas. It's two floors. It's two levels. It's also called a- That's huge. Oh, it's gigantic. It's, it's unbel- It's the biggest opportunity of my career. It's incredibly exciting. Um, it's two levels. You know, the, the overall, uh, restaurant is called RM Seafood.

Speaker 3 7:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 7:41

Uh, soon to be changed over to RM Seafood by Rick Moonen, because everybody's asking what's RM stand for. So we're cl- we're clarifying.

Speaker 3 7:47

I actually, I actually figured that out, Rick.

Speaker 5 7:49

Well, you're better than a lot. So, um, you know, actually in the beginning I was considering, doing both, to be honest with you. But then when I came out here and saw the space, realized the, the magnitude of it, I said, "You know what? Every restaurant needs the chef to be there."

Speaker 3 8:04

Mm-hmm. I mean,

Speaker 5 8:04

they of this magnitude, you know? Right. If, if I'm bringing you in and asking you to spend your hard-earned money-

Speaker 3 8:08

Mm-hmm

Speaker 5 8:09

you know, the prices I need to charge in the desert, then I'm, I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna greet you. I'm gonna make sure your experience is, is fantastic from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave.

Speaker 4 8:17

You know, you just bring up a good point, Rick. You are, you do happen to be serving seafood in the desert.

Speaker 5 8:22

That's correct.

Speaker 4 8:22

That's, uh- Well,

Speaker 5 8:23

here's, here's my answer to that.

Speaker 4 8:24

Uh-huh.

Speaker 5 8:25

Um, we're one hour away from LA, where I get an awful lot of my seafood from. You know, a lot of them I have direct sources. You know, Maine lobster, I don't, I don't ship it out. I

Speaker 3 8:33

Do, do they use parachutes on their way to California?

Speaker 5 8:35

Exactly. Uh, the boxes are floating down, and we catch them good thing is there's a lot of sand. But the re- the reality of it is it takes two hours to get, you know, fresh seafood that just caught off of Montauk into New York City. So that, you know- Mm that's twice as long as it takes to get some of my seafood flown to me from LA.

Speaker 4 8:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 8:50

And, you know, planes are landing constantly at McCarran Airport here, and, uh, I get delivery seven days a week. And, um, I don't have any freshness problems here, so, we're the guys here to go to.

Speaker 4 8:59

not to stroke you, Rick, but you did cook, um, you did cook one of the best meals I ever had in my life. I don't know if you remember, but you were at the Water Club, and I, we stopped in with a bunch of friends from a, a club that we all belong to called The Red Meat Club, and it was my 29th birthday.

Speaker 3 9:12

Yeah, it was a, it I gotta tell you-

Speaker 4 9:14

And you cooked me a 10-course meal. Seven of the courses I actually remember, and they were amazing.

Speaker 3 9:19

That's awesome. Actually, actually, both, I and my, my wife Jennifer were, At that meal, and first of all, she said, "Say hello, Rick." And she said, and it really was a spectacular, spectacular meal.

Speaker 5 9:29

Those were my formative years. You should come out now and check out what we're doing. It's crazy, I swear.

Speaker 4 9:33

Don't invite me twice. And you sort of made your name as you're the fish guy.

Speaker 5 9:37

Yep,

Speaker 4 9:38

that's me. I mean, in the whole country, you and Eric Ripert are the fish guys.

Speaker 5 9:41

That's right. Yep, we were the, the two guys in town. We were the two fish in town. There's a lot more seafood restaurants that have opened up, uh, since those days, but, uh, I'm

Speaker 3 9:48

glad- Well, somebody had to fill the, somebody had to fill the void when you left, man.

Speaker 5 9:52

Yeah, big shoes I left somewhere in Manhattan.

Speaker 4 9:54

But fish, I mean, now f- now for those of you who aren't in the business, I mean, fish is a particularly difficult, uh, area and a very specific... You know, guys who cook fish, that's where you really show your, mastery of subtlety, and, and it's very difficult. I mean, you go wrong with fish by 30 seconds in either direction and you've really gone wrong.

Speaker 5 10:10

I mean- Some fish, yes. Yeah. Some fish, no. Yeah. You know, it all depends on their oil content, blah, blah, blah, you know? Actually, I'm in the mid- right now I'm writing a cookbook called Seafood Without a Doubt, should be out in 2007. And it, it addresses this. Now, I, I want everyone in America to feel comfortable going out, purchasing seafood, bringing it home, and cooking at home. almost fish that's consumed in the United States is consumed in food establishments- Mm-hmm not at home. And I hope to be able to change that.

Speaker 3 10:32

But, but Rick, the, the problem we have there, and I, and I deal with this problem in my home with, my family, I don't wanna buy seafood in a, the ShopRite and bring that home. The, it, it- Yeah doesn't smell fresh, it doesn't feel fresh, and it doesn't taste fresh.

Speaker 5 10:45

Yeah. Well, that is a problem in many areas, So, you know- Mm-hmm this is a book that's accessible to every single person. I mean, there's gonna be crab cakes in there, things that are gonna be more challenging, but it's not gonna be just made up of, you know, like those beautiful pictures that, that you wish you could make. The,

Speaker 3 10:58

the Dover sole that nobody ever sees except in a fancy restaurant. Yeah,

Speaker 5 11:01

exactly. Well- Exactly. I mean, you know, and people can get mussels and, and salmon and stuff, you know. I'm trying to target it to not one particular part of the United States but everybody.

Speaker 4 11:09

I also think there are, there are a lot of barriers to people at home, uh, actually cooking fish because, uh, you know, you need to have a certain understanding of different kinds of fish, and you can't think of, you know, fish like beef. There are so many different, uh, you know, ways to look at it and very different ways to to cook it based on what you have. And you know, it's funny, Rick, well, we source our fish directly at the fish market, and, you know, we'll be there at 2:00 in the morning on a, on a random Thursday AM, very early. And one of the things that is, is most interesting to us is to see all the different ethnic groups of people there buying all different sorts of fish, you know, the Koreans and, and all sorts of Asian people and Hispanic people and Italian people, all buying different fish and cooking it very differently. I think that's one of the barriers to entry. Um, you know, if you get the wrong fish and you don't know exactly what to do with it, you can really make a, a dog's bed of it, don't you think?

Speaker 5 11:57

Absolutely. You know, there's That's the whole thing. Even myself, who's been in the industry for a very long period of time, you know, x- years, you know. You know, I, I'm really a young guy.

Speaker 4 12:07

Um- We'll put that on our website. Yeah. Uh, how many years.

Speaker 5 12:10

I'm a young guy. But the, the real- reality of it is, you know, people have to be comfortable with what they're, they're, they're bringing home, especially when it comes to seafood. So, you know, I go to the market and, and I, I learn every single time I go there. Yeah. You know, there, there's always a species of fish that I'm like, "What's that?"

Speaker 2 12:24

Yeah. You

Speaker 5 12:25

know? And, and, and, you know, people look at me like, "You're supposed to know this." You know, there's, there's so many different unexplored species out there as far as, uh, cuisine is concerned, to me. And so I, if it, if it's, if it's strange to me, I can only imagine someone- Yeah that, you know-

Speaker 3 12:37

There-

Speaker 5 12:38

a little bit more timid about it cooking at home.

Speaker 3 12:39

There are a lot of fish in the sea, as it were. Oh. So- Oh.

Speaker 5 12:43

So- I hate that.

Speaker 3 12:43

Oh, my. So Rick, as a home cook, what are the fish that you think are easier to cook and to

Speaker 5 12:49

cook- Well, I think, I think people are very comfortable with broiling fish. I know that just because of the, what I grew up with. I grew up in a large family, seven people. We were Ca- we were Catholic. You know, we'd eat fish every Friday. That was mandatory.

Speaker 14:25

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 14:26

So my mom would just, like, stick fish on a, on a, you know, like a, a cookie sheet, let, you know, lather it up with butter and salt and pepper and throw it under the broiler. Mm.

Speaker 14:34

So,

Speaker 5 14:34

you know, so flat fish are very good that way, you go to the, the market and you, you, you try to get to know the fishmonger if there's a fishmonger. Mm. If there's somebody standing behind there, you can start, c- have a conversation with them, you know. And, uh, you just try to find out what's freshest, what they're recommending. And a lot of times they'll even tell you, they'll even give you cooking suggestions. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 14:49

Yeah. When we come back we're gonna be talking with Rick Moonen about, how to source fish responsibly as well as fish that's tasty. it's quite an, an interesting and difficult thing to do. Y- you're listening to The Restaurant Guys.

Speaker 3 15:01

We were just talking ear- to Rick Moonen about, buying fish and how we buy fish. what I was about to say is how I buy my fish when I go to the store, when I'm going to my fishmonger, is not so much by what fish I'm looking for. I go to the fish store or my fishmonger or even, any place where, where I purchase fish, and I look to talk to somebody, and I look to buy the freshest fish, the best fish, the most interesting fish that, that'll fit my evening, rather than necessarily go there with a preconception.

Speaker 4 15:29

What do you think about that strategy of buying fish, Rick?

Speaker 5 15:31

That's exactly how I do it. Actually, that's how I'm building my book. You know, I go to the market and I just see what they have at the time. Mm-hmm. You know, and I'll... We'll, we'll grab a bunch of those, you know? if you, if you're actually at a market-market and they have whole fish, you know, you look for the... You look into the eyes, you look at the gills, you know. And if they let you touch it, you can see how firm the flesh feels, you know.

Speaker 3 15:47

And

Speaker 5 15:47

what

Speaker 3 15:47

should, what should we see in the eyes when we're buying a whole

Speaker 5 15:49

fish? It should be clear. they shouldn't be sunken into the head.

Speaker 3 15:52

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 15:52

They should be like, some of them have more buggy eyes than others, but if you look at them, it looks like they're looking right back at you. They should be clear.

Speaker 3 15:58

And- And if we can look at the gills, what are we looking for?

Speaker 5 16:00

Gills, generally speaking, should be non-slimy sticky. Okay, I hate to use the word- Mm-hmm but that's the reality, you know. And, uh, they should be br- you know, bright red. If they're bright red and look like a comb, you know, you can see individual parts of it, that's pretty darn fresh, because that's the first part to start to deteriorate on a fish.

Speaker 4 16:14

both Rick and Mark were talking about before is, you know, you he- we hear the term often, we say restaurants and at home, people are looking to be more market-driven. And that's exactly what, what they were talking about, is exactly what we're talking about. It's going to the fish market and seeing what's fresh and deciding what you'll have for dinner that night- Mm-hmm or what you'll cook in your restaurant that night based on what's in the market. That's market-driven.

Speaker 3 16:33

Frequently, we'll have someone come into our restaurant, and Rick, I'm sure this is the case for you as well, somebody will come into the restaurant and they'll say, "Well, I'm planning a party in three weeks, and, uh, I wanna have sea bass on the menu." And my, and my response to them always is, "Well, yes, Perhaps we'll have sea bass for you that evening. But if I go to the market and the sea bass doesn't look good, I'm not getting you sea bass just because- You know, that's what we preconceived of. If the sea bass doesn't look good, we'll find a comparable fish that is good.

Speaker 5 16:58

Exactly. Well, that's the thing. You know, we're still working with wild products, you know? Yeah. If you were getting your seafood from the Gulf and you had, you had your, your menu printed in gold, guess what? You're in trouble. Yeah, yeah. You know? There's a hurricane. Yeah.

Speaker 4 17:08

And I also think, I also think that, the beef tenderloin you're gonna be able to get. You know? Oh, yeah. That's the point. I think, I think with fish, we need to be a little more market-driven.

Speaker 5 17:15

Absolutely, and not all fish are created equal, you know? I mean, there's a lot of fish that I do not serve on my menu, um, here in Las Vegas because it's just not sustainable.

Speaker 4 17:24

Mm-hmm. I was gonna ask you about sustainability. You're very active, and, and we talk a lot about, shopping sustainably, about- Mm-hmm sourcing product sustainably because, you, you know, I mean, and, and, and with, with seafood, it's, it's very difficult for people to keep track of what exactly is a way to buy responsibly, what fish we should avoid, and you, you're very involved in, keeping the oceans alive for our children. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

Speaker 5 17:47

Certainly. First of all, people can find out. They can, they can log on to a website called The the Seafood Choices. and they'll, they'll be happy to give you, like, a little pocket card that'll tell you what you can enjoy and what you should avoid. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 17:56

I actually got their newsletter today.

Speaker 5 17:58

Oh, okay. So yeah, I've been in- actively involved with Seafood Choices. Actually, I was one of the founding chef members of Seafood Choices. And, uh, and they, they're really, they're kind of a clearing house for a lot of environmental groups, you know, today it might be cool to be eating this fish, and then, uh, you know, next year it's not, you know? For instance, so we just had a big breakthrough with caviar, you know, Caspian caviar- Mm-hmm beluga sturgeon. You know, it's been so, so overfished for so many years. You know, I think it, depleted 90% its population in the last 20 years. That, that's, that's just the beluga sturgeon. You know, there's also sevruga and ossetra.

Speaker 2 18:28

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 18:28

But we continued to be the number one importer of, beluga caviar in the United States, and just recently there's been a, a ban placed on beluga caviar, which is a big triumph. Um-

Speaker 3 18:38

It, it is. I mean, the, the Caspian caviar has been so overfished.

Speaker 5 18:43

And th- here's a fish that's been around since dinosaurs were roaming the Earth.

Speaker 3 18:45

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 18:46

And now we're on the brink of, of, of br- of pushing it over to, till it's commercially extinct, which is just insane, unre- and irresponsible, you know?

Speaker 4 18:54

Well, one, one of the things that people don't realize, I think, is that w- because of advances in technology and our ability to efficiently fish out, literally fish out entire schools of fish and entire species of fish- Right and because of advancements in shipping, you know, it used to be that the fish, because it spoiled r- relatively quickly, you would only, you know, the, the w- the area where you could sell it had to be close to where you fished it. Well, now you can send anything across the world in 24 hours. Yeah. And that's a good thing in a way, but there's also a responsibility that comes with that as a consumer, and especially as a chef. Because we have a lot of chefs and restaurateurs who listen to the show. We're not talking about some pie-in-the-sky, maybe one day- Mm-hmm things will go extinct. We're talking about pushing things to the very brink of extinction where they're- The, the stur- five years away. So what do you do as a chef, Rick? I mean, when people say, "Oh, we want caviar," how do you deal with that as a chef and a, and owner of a, of a restaurant?

Speaker 5 19:43

Well, I mean, there's good news for people that love caviar, because, uh, there's a growing selection of American caviars, things produced here, from, relatives of, of sturgeon or sturgeon themselves- Mm-hmm on the East Coast, in the Pacific. There's a white sturgeon that's being farmed and has been farmed for a long time now, and the, and the quality of the, the roe, the caviar that comes out of it is, is, is fantastic. y- there's no need to like say, "Oh my God, I can't. I'm, I'm addicted." Mm-hmm. Well, you know what? Try these or

Speaker 3 20:06

We're using a company that, we found for some, American sturgeon called Tsar Nicoulai

Speaker 5 20:11

Yeah, they're fantastic

Speaker 3 20:12

really spectacular, spectacular fish eggs. Really,

Speaker 5 20:13

I mean, you called it, you're, you're eating, you're eating at least Ossetra caviar. Its flavor palette profile, everything, it's all there. Mm-hmm. You know, so.

Speaker 4 20:19

I, I, I agree completely. Well, talk to us about, I mean, a, a fish that was very popular around here that a lot of restaurateurs took off their menus was, um, the Patagonian toothfish or

Speaker 5 20:29

Chilean sea bass. Right, Chilean

Speaker 4 20:30

sea bass. Talk to us about that.

Speaker 5 20:31

Oh, well, here's another fish. It's gone through, a, a certain cycle where it's, it's so good, it's so easy to cook. Mm-hmm. Anybody can cook it. You could overcook this fish by a half an hour- That's it it's still gonna be good because it's got so much of those omega-3 fatty acids- Mm-hmm in, in its flesh. I mean, it's- Such,

Speaker 3 20:44

such

Speaker 5 20:45

a moist fish mouth-lasting. Yeah, I mean, and you can, you can fry it, broil it, saute it. You can, any, any style of cooking can be applied to Chilean sea bass. But unfortunately, that popularity brought it to, uh, you know, a, a situation where it's really heavily overfished. A lot of it is being illegally traded. A lot of what comes in this country has not been properly, you know, landed, you know, through, through the regulations that are, that are in place upon it. I mean, we're talking about the Antarctic.

Speaker 3 21:09

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 21:09

It's not, it's not just the, the co- the coast of Chile, which is, like, almost an entire continent anyway.

Speaker 3 21:14

Right.

Speaker 5 21:14

But you just keep going south, and that's where, that's where these, these fish, you know, live and breathe, you know, or whatever. unfortunately, it's such a, it's bringing such a great price because of its popularity-

Speaker 3 21:23

Mm-hmm

Speaker 5 21:24

that, uh, we're basically loving it so much we're fishing it to death.

Speaker 3 21:27

Are you surprised when you see it on a, on a high-end menu for somebody who, who should know better?

Speaker 5 21:33

Listen, man, I'm talking to you live from Sin City here. All right? It's el- it's still all over the menus here.

Speaker 3 21:38

Right.

Speaker 5 21:39

You know, that, it's just, it's just wrong. But, you know me, I got a big mouth, I'm gonna make a difference. I mean, this is my goal in life is to make a difference out here in Las Vegas. Because, okay, people leave, uh, landing here, you know, to have a good time. They've got the hedonistic attitude. Good for that. You know, I, I- Mm-hmm and I'm all for it. Go for it. Have a great time. But we, me, you know, chefs who are living here, who are food professionals, we need to be responsible because our choices make a huge difference. And to anybody listening to this program right now, don't fool yourself into thinking you're just one person. Every decision you make has an impact on the ocean. Yep. So, you know, y- just be responsible and, and talk about it. And ask questions, you know, when you go into a, uh, a fish store or something. You know, ask them where this is from. How is it caught, you know? Make them think, because, you know, they need to know the answers to those questions. And if they don't, and if everybody starts asking, they're gonna have to find out. And

Speaker 4 22:25

you know, that, that's a very good point because, you know, I, I mean, sometimes you feel stupid as a customer. You go in and you say, "Oh, where is this from? Why do you have Ch- Chilean sea bass on your menu? You know, I, I would prefer to go to a restaurant that doesn't have that." And the waiter may not know the answer, and the owner may not know the answer. But if they hear the question enough times, they're going to find out the answer.

Speaker 3 22:43

Exactly.

Speaker 4 22:43

You know?

Speaker 3 22:44

Absolutely. And if you're one of those restaurant owners that's listening to this program or these chefs that listen to this program, you, you've gotta change the way you buy. You have to change the way you buy so that our kids can, can try Chilean sea bass.

Speaker 4 22:54

and it is somewhat complicated to figure out what is, you know, between farm-raised and wild, what is a responsible thing to buy and not, but there's plenty of great seafood out there. And very often, the best-tasting seafood is the seafood that is responsible to buy. Our guest today is Rick Moonen. He's one of the top fish chefs in America, and he is also, um, championing responsible, harvesting of our oceans, and we'll be talking with him more in just a moment. You're listening to The Restaurant Guys, Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, we should let people know that we've known each other for, for many years. Yeah. And we were once in a lunch club that had nothing to do with fish whatsoever.

Speaker 5 23:27

No, it wasn't. Y-

Speaker 4 23:27

you're not averse to meat, are you?

Speaker 5 23:30

No, meat is good.

Speaker 4 23:31

Yeah.

Speaker 5 23:31

All food is good. You know, I got, I got, I got flung into being a seafood chef. You know, I was at the Water Club, okay, and that, there was a lot of, there was a lot of seafood being served there, for sure. Mm-hmm. But there was quite a bit of meat as well. And then I went to Oceana, where I was, uh, the partner for eight years, you know. Now, that was exclusively seafood, and that's really where I kind of made my name.

Speaker 2 23:47

Uh-huh.

Speaker 5 23:47

So everybody sees me as, uh, you know, as the seafood guru guy, you know, savior of, the poor, overexploited fish out of the ocean. But the reality is I love meat, too. You know, let's not kid ourselves. the Red Meat Club was a blast.

Speaker 3 24:00

A- at the Red Meat Club picnic, Rick, I have seen you cooking steaks. So I, I know for a fact that, you, uh, are a meat lover.

Speaker 4 24:07

That you've been cheating on fish. Yeah. You know, I, I, I want to ask you, um, o- one, one of the things we talk about on this show, and one of the things we work on in our restaurant all the time, is to try and buy, not just seafood, but to buy sustainably and, and to buy locally and, and to buy from small farmers and keep them on the farm. I mean, do you think that's, important in all areas of food, vegetables, meat, fish in cuisine today, especially in restaurant cuisine today?

Speaker 5 24:29

Um, absolutely. I mean, there's, there's better and worse ways of farming. There's, you know, there's, and as far as, uh, you know, meat and, and vegetables, you know, there, the produce, I mean, uh, you, you get some pretty nasty stuff. I always try to avoid genetically engineered foods- Mm-hmm 'cause I just don't believe in it. That scares me. But, but again, when it comes to seafood, it's ex- it's ex- so crucial, it's so critical because, you know, the, it, you know, it, people think that, you know, "That ocean's beautiful. Look at it." You're only looking at the surface. What's down below and what we've been doing, we as a population, you is an atrocity, you know? And all the problems in the ocean started on the land. Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:02

We

Speaker 5 25:02

did it.

Speaker 2 25:02

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 25:02

You know, everybody seems to blame, you know, the tuna because of, uh, methyl mercury, but guess how that tuna got methyl mercury in it.

Speaker 2 25:08

Right.

Speaker 5 25:08

and there are solutions, you know? Our government just doesn't do anything about it.

Speaker 4 25:12

Because you're looking at the surface- Mm and it's very deceptive and we need to be smart. Don't you find that there's a difference there 'cause you can't see it?

Speaker 5 25:19

Absolutely. Yeah, th- then that's the scary part. You know, everybody just feels as though things are cool because of the, of the way it appears. And, and another problem is that in, in our country, you know, you don't, you don't have people that live in any one area for extended periods of times, like hundreds of years, like Native Americans.

Speaker 2 25:34

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 25:35

You know? I, I talk to people up in British Columbia, the First Nations. population. And I sat down and I spoke with them, and, you know, they've been there forever. They've been living off of the, the water, you know? And then I was talking to them about farmed salmon, you know, the salmon farms And the damage that they've done, the amount of, uh, effluent that comes from these farms that it blankets the base of the ocean floor, you know what, it brings tears to your eyes.

Speaker 3 25:55

You know, there, there's a reason that the, the great chefs of the country, and Rick, I'll in- I'll include you in that list, that the great chefs of the country are leading this charge to, clean up our oceans and to, and to clean up our farms. And the reason is that's how we get the best product, and that's how we get the best product forever. Mm-hmm. The great chefs know this, and they know that, that it's all about that the products that they start with. If you start with, crap, you're gonna end up with crap. Yeah. If you start with great product, you're probably gonna end up with a great product. You get

Speaker 5 26:22

a better chance. Mm-hmm,

Speaker 3 26:23

exactly.

Speaker 4 26:24

Well, and, and the other thing is, I mean, when you, when you're talking about what we talk about on this show all the time, and you eat well, and you do, and so you do well by eating well, but you also do good by eating well. And having good taste is really politically important. And having good taste and not accepting mediocre food and agribusiness food and terrible food is really a revolutionary concept. I mean, and, and it can help you to make a stand to make the world a better place. No question. Hey, Rick. Put it that way. Thank- thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Uh, it's really been- Rick, you've been great swell to have you. Uh, it's a pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 3 26:52

Hey, Rick. Thank you, guys. You bet. I'm coming, I'm coming out there soon. I look

Speaker 2 26:55

forward to

Speaker 4 26:56

And you know, Mark, when we go out there, we have to have dinner before we go to the- c- to the gaming tables.

Speaker 3 27:01

Exactly.

Speaker 4 27:01

Because I've seen you. Yeah. And we could, and we could lose our money. Yeah. All of it. I know. You could lose mine.

Speaker 3 27:06

I don't even care about food when I'm at a gambling table.

Speaker 4 27:08

I will always remember my, the favorite thing that Mark, the only time Mark ever said this to me was at a gaming table, when he said, "Give me 50 bucks." "Right now." Anyway,

Speaker 3 27:16

you know, early in the show, we were talking about, uh, that Red Meat Club that we belong to with a lot of great chefs, a lot of- 10 years. Lunch club

Speaker 4 27:22

that met

Speaker 3 27:23

for 10 years a lot of, a lot of great restaurant professionals, and y- you've heard s- many of them on the show, since we've been doing the show. And one of the things I remember is that there was a Red Meat Club where David Page and Rick Moonen cooked all the food for- Two great chefs for the whole picnic, and they made, a couple of really spectacular things. One of them, home fries sautéed in foie gras fat.

Speaker 4 27:44

That's right. Home fries... That's home fries in, basically, duck fat. Duck liver fat. Amazing.

Speaker 3 27:48

Oh, my goodness. I can't begin to tell you how good it is. First of all, duck fat is a great way to sauté potatoes as far as flavor, flavorwise, And then to, one-up that by using melted foie gras to, to cook home fries, you've never had anything better in your life.

Speaker 4 28:02

If you ever cook duck at home, and duck is not the easiest thing in the world to cook- Mm-hmm but it can be very rewarding, save the fat.

Speaker 3 28:08

Save... And, and it w- should render a lot of fat. If, if you're roasting a duck

Speaker 4 28:11

or- You can pull it out with one of those syringe kind of things or, or let it settle to the top- boy, it's delicious. Mm-hmm. To sauté up some vegetables in that- Yeah to cook anything in that- It's just a great meal to fry anything in that. It's absolutely amazing. Remember, remember

Speaker 3 28:21

one of the other great things we had there? The carpetbaggers. You wanna tell everybody about

Speaker 4 28:24

carpetbaggers? Oh, yeah. Carpetbaggers, when you have a nice big thick steak, and you basically cut the steak in half, and you put some raw oysters inside the steak, and then you seal up the steak again, and you grill it, and you have the oysters inside the steak.

Speaker 3 28:35

You let the oysters kind of cook inside that steak.

Speaker 4 28:37

Not for the faint of heart. You have to sort of be one of those guys who likes raw oysters as well as a steak. Absolutely delicious, though. Absolutely

Speaker 3 28:44

delicious. A, a very interesting and delicious combination that you would think, you know, oysters and steak, what are you thinking about? if you like oysters and you like steak, it's a really interesting way to prepare them.

Speaker 4 28:53

And so there you have your casual barbecue Restaurant Guys

Speaker 10 28:58

How to turn up the volume on your casual barbecue. Little foie gras butter for your potatoes, some oysters to stuff into your steaks, and there you go. You're flying first class now.

Speaker 9 29:07

But they have to be fresh oysters. Oh, yeah. They can't be, they can't be anything but- Not from a can fresh oysters. You gotta shell them yourself.

Speaker 10 29:11

That's it. You gotta shuck them yourself.

Speaker 9 29:12

Yeah, nobody's doing this, Mark. you're listening to The Restaurant Guys. I'm Francis Shaw.

Speaker 10 29:16

And I'm Mark Pascal.

Speaker 9 29:17

We are The Restaurant Guys,