Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Why would anyone in Washington, DC show up at a party that starts at midnight in a city where residents are home bound by ten, get up at five AM – step & repeat? LOBSTAH! “Maine After Midnight” was an Industry Event at the Loft on F Street celebrating Maine New Shell Lobster season – the sweetest, most tender and sustainable harvested lobster to the docks of Maine and menus worldwide. Step & repeat: LOBSTAH. We showed up.
“It’s a long story,” event organizer Matt Jacobson told Hollywood on the Potomac. “What we’ve found as we’ve started this marketing effort for Maine lobster was that we are not on a lot of menus in upscale casual restaurants. We did a study between Baltimore and Maine, surveyed about 2000. We found that we are only on about 4% of the menus for Maine lobster which was interesting to us and a huge opportunity. The second piece of data that we noticed was that about 85% of all seafood consumed in North America is consumed in a restaurant. If we wanted to increase our market share, we had to get it on the menu. It was really important to get to chefs, get to the food media to talk about our story in a way that is meaningful and actually get some audience. We have a great sustainability story as well as culinary versatility. We started telling our story of new shell Maine lobster that we catch in the summertime. It’s a whole different product, not necessarily better, just different – a seasonal play. Then there is the story about the lobster men: It works. The question was how could we have more lobster men meet more chefs. The reality was that chefs work hard hours. They don’t get off work until 10 or 11. We came up with this notion of Maine After Midnight.”
Chef Cedric Maupillier, Lobsterman Dustin Delano Photo credit: Courtesy of Maine After Midnight
“Believe me, our fishermen get up at 3 in the morning,” Jacobson added. “For them it’s a big ask. I don’t stay up late anymore. The point is it’s convenient for the chefs. This night was more or less specifically designed for chefs. It’s an opportunity to meet with lobster men. Chef Kwame Onwuachi has made some great dishes to introduce to them to spark some ideas, some creative ways you can use lobster, not just center of the plate with butter anymore. We can do a lot of things with it. We have about 70 chefs that have RVSP’d. It’s just an opportunity to tell our story. We find that if we do that and the lobster men are here and teach about Maine lobster that they will want a lobster menu to tell the story. That’s what we’re doing. It’s really exciting because we’re seeing all kinds of different flavor pairings with cilantro and wasabi and ginger and honey, lots of Asian influence. We’re seeing it in risottos and pastas as ingredients. People are making bloody Marys with lobster claws on top. It’s pretty fun. A lot of different things happening. We’re pretty fortunate.”
Guests ravished lobster rolls, caviar & lobster, soft & hard shell lobster……..
Wendy Gordon of Flash Communications and Michael Greene of The Watergate Florist
“This is inspired by Chef Onwuachi who wanted to make lobster pot pie,” David Paz told Hollywood on the Potomac. “He had some lobsters and decided he really wanted pot pie and thought ‘How can we make this completely over the top?’ He went out, found some truffle oil, found some caviar and tried it. It blew his mind how good it was, so we decided to do it. We’re going to be offering it to some people over at the restaurant (forthcoming restaurant The Shaw Bijou). It’s just one of those very organic creations of something that just came out of nowhere. It’s a hit. Everyone loves it.”
David Paz
“We’re here ’til 2 AM,” said Jacobson, “so we hope you’ll stay. Everybody in a red shirt with this logo on it is a lobster man. You’re our heroes here tonight. They can tell you more about lobster than you ever wanted to know – they’re filled with a tremendous amount of information. We’re thrilled that they’re here. We hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to meet with them. Without any further ado, I’d like to introduce our host for the evening TV star, rock star, Chef Kwame Onwuachi.“
“I had a really good time in Maine,” said Kwame, “learning about the difference between the new shell and the hard shell lobster. If you’re not familiar with it – the hard shell, or the new shell – it is pretty much a lobster that just molted. In between the shell and the meat there’s a gap left so a lot of that ocean water gets in and it starts to pretty much brine the lobster before you even cook it. It’s really delicious – it’s sweeter, it’s saltier, and it’s just a softer and a better product. Tonight I’ve done an array of hors d’oeuvres utilizing the new shell. We’ve got over 200 lobsters over there cut up. Give it up for the lobster girls. So you’re able to taste test the difference, we have a little melted butter.”
Rock star chef #2 was introduced. Barton Seaver is a reformed Chef who used to have restaurants here in DC. He’s also a author of seven cookbooks and teaches a sustainability program at Harvard University. Sustainability: “Food impacts almost every component of our lives. The production, processing, packaging, and transportation of the majority of our food are highly dependent on the use of fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers. These can greatly harm our health and the health of the environment. In response, a move towards sustainable food has become an important component of public and environment health.” Courtesy of CDC.
“It’s so great to see so many of you here,” said Seaver. “coming back to my home city of DC where I was born and raised in Mount Pleasant. My first job in DC was cooking Satan burgers for punk rockers up at the 9:30 club. DC has come a long way. You all deserve a lot of congratulations for that. DC has a culinary story that’s also the story of what lobster is. I live on the coast of Maine, I get to work on a lobster boat now and then, it’s more than just a product. So often when we talk about sustainability it’s only about good versus bad, serve this or don’t serve that. What we often leave out in this biological metric is the biographical aspect of it. For everyone of the 5500 lobster men working on those boats, for every dollar that they make, three dollars are earned in that community, my community. Three dollars for ice, nets, transport, you name it. Maine is lobster. There’s not a single person in that state not touched by this industry.”
Barton Seaver Photo courtesy of Coastal Living
“When we talk about sustaining lobster we’re talking about sustaining culture,” he added “We’re talking about sustaining heritage, we’re talking about sustaining one of the most charismatic and most important ingredients in our culinary endeavors. Furthermore, now we have that opportunity through sustainable management. Thirty years ago we caught 30 million metric pounds, 20 years ago we caught 60 million metric pounds, last year we caught 120 million metric pounds; not because we’re fishing harder, but because the lobster man themselves wrote sustainability rules that allowed the ecosystem itself to be resilient and to give us more. We’re not taking more, it is giving us more. We are offering you now the opportunity to try new shell lobster, which before really wasn’t available outside of Maine. It’s this opportunity to not only sell a story of sustainability, but to tell a story of the values that we believe in as chefs supporting producers that ultimately we couldn’t do anything without. Also, nor only just tasting a new ingredient that we thought we were so familiar with, but finding nuance, finding passion in creativity in something we know so well in a story we know we can sell and something we’re proud and honored to offer to our guests. With that, thank you all for being here tonight. Enjoy the rest of the night, eat all the lobster, and congrats on all you’re doing.”
The Future of Food with local Chef Jose Andres & Barton Seaver:
