(gentle music)
- What we have here is yellowfin tuna from
Mooloolaba in Queensland. When we purchase something like this, there's a plan the second it comes in. This one single tuna will go across the five
venues that we have, and at the end of it,
there'll be nothing left except for the gills and the gallbladder. 90% of our menu is just fish. Very rarely that we have
any shellfish on the menu or any kind of cephalopods
and all that sort of stuff. It's mainly fish that we work with just because one fish offers
so many opportunities. So from first course through to dessert, we've got fish on every single course. (gentle music) (grill sizzling) So we're gonna be cutting a
few things out of a fish today. The parts of the tuna that are still considered
to be beautiful, you know, loin cut parts of the fish, they've been cut away
to generate this cut. We're gonna set that aside 'cause we're going to grind it down, and we're gonna produce a kofta. So and then we're also
gonna allocate some of that to making our tuna patties. - So here we've got the tuna trim that we're gonna put through the mincer on a 10 millimeter plate. For the tuna burgers, we're gonna add some cooked diced onion. We've got some chopped
parsley, bit of ground fennel, bit of ground pepper, and some salt. So these tuna burgers we use
across both fish butcheries, and we also use at our
venue in Charcoal Fish. So these get shaped
into a double tuna patty that gets cooked on the barbecue. Cheese goes on top, and then we serve it on a bun just like a usual cheeseburger. We do two small patties that
are about 70 grams each. These get a little bit of
oil on them, a bit of salt, and then they go straight
onto the barbecue. We use a grill, and then we melt a cheese slice over it and literally assemble
exactly like a burger from this point out. - What we're doing is we're
grilling it on a barbecue. The barbecue, as much as we'd love to
have charcoal or wood grill, we've got residents above, (laughs) and we're in a building where
we've got a lava rock grill. So you still get a fantastic flavor, and, on the top here, we're just using a basic wire rack, and I think this is a really, really handy bit of kit to have. It allows for easy,
more efficient cooking. And then this one on top
here, this is the fish weight. But for us, this is a critical product that we use to get crispy-skin fish,
to cook fish on the grill. I only have it on for a moment,
(knife banging) and then it's all about
trying to get a nice crust on that side because, at the end of the day, like we already talked
about, we're cooking fish. It's not meat even though
it looks a lot like it. Some cheese. Patties come off. Usual suspects: pickles, milk bun. It's our barbecue sauce and our mustard. If it's not falling out,
there's not enough on there. So this is our smoked kingfish bacon. So this is our yellowfin tuna cheeseburger with the addition of the
smoked kingfish bacon. I think the techniques
that we've developed here at Fish Butchery and Saint Peter to utilize the whole fish has all been born out of
many years of training. I was fortunate to work with
a chef named Joe Pavlovich, and he showed me how to break
down a carcass of an animal, and I found that fascinating. Anatomically, to find out
where primary cuts sit, how to get the full return,
how to age a piece of beef, I found that fascinating that I could start to interpret
fish more as an animal. It seems easy now, but it's very much a
collision of all the thoughts and all the training that I've ever had all focused in on fish. To me, it's essential that
we maximize the output of one single fish in
that Saint Peter menu. Every single part represents
a different texture, a different taste, a different expression. This section here, like perfectly
wonderful piece of tuna, but for the aesthetic of the
Wellington that we're after, we're looking for something
that is quite cylindrical just so that we can get a nice even cook, and it's very central part of the fish. So that's going to be (fish slaps) for the Wellington. So the breakdown of this tuna, the idea is is we make a mushroom paste like a old-fashioned mushroom duxelles, and then we spread it across a beer crepe. So we add an ale to the crepe batter just to give it a nice
bit of savory flavor. Then we put the tuna onto the mushroom, and then we wrap the whole thing up. Around the outside then, we've got that pastry
there that we make here, which is a sour cream pastry. It's not exactly a puff pastry, but it's a type of rough puff that's got a good solid amount
of sour cream through it which gives a really good flavor. Whether a tuna Wellington's
better than a beef Wellington, I'd say they're both equally as magical. We've got a nice brown exterior. Pastry's nice and golden. You know, as a kid, that was what I wanted
for my birthday dinner. For my dad, that was
maybe what he would want for his birthday dinner. It's just one of those iconic dishes that we know takes a whole
lot of work and effort and premium ingredients to then package up and roast and hope which is a lot of the times what happens. So it is that real
celebratory type of dish and a nod back to the days when I suppose kings and
queens and people would eat it. So I think it's a really nice gesture to bring back something a little bit maybe old-fashioned, daggy, and then give it a bit
of a spruce up with fish. - So for the kofta,
we've got the tuna mince. We've got some Murray cod fat, which helps give it a
little bit of moisture. Like we base the recipe off
of a traditional kofta recipe, and we just replace where you
would use beef or lamb mince or some other kind of protein. We just replace it with the tuna mince. We do ours on little wooden skewers, little portion-sized pieces, and, yes, barbecued as well. So now we're gonna do the kofta. So the yellowfin tuna kofta. Brush with a little bit of oil and, again, a generous amount of salt. And the same thing. you're cooking mince that's on a skewer directly on a hot barbecue. Yeah, really hot grill. Like, looking for brown.
Like, you're browning. You're trying to create that
caramelization on the outside which is very easy to achieve with the addition of that cod fat that we've added to the mince. Once you've got a nice
crust on all the sides, then it's a matter of frequent turning, so that you're not leaving it just to take on so much
color just on one side. And I do paint it with oil whilst it cooks just to keep the meat hydrated with oil, and it keeps taking on new color. So, flatbread. This chickpea puree with
some of the tuna sobrassada. Kofta. Down. And then this mix. Generous with the olive
oil and the lemon juice and then a beautiful tuna kofta. It's easy to slide out, and then get stuck in. When the guests arrive
here at Saint Peter, we're very one-on-one. We're literally an arm's reach away from everybody that comes in, which gives us the freedom and I suppose the confidence to stand behind all of
this work that we're doing and really articulate what
it is we're trying to do. We're at the stage now where I'm gonna take this top section out. Very neat, beautiful
rib bones from the tuna, and this is something that we
will roast as a whole piece. So this one here is our
dry-aged yellowfin tuna rib eye that we've prepared this
morning at butchery, and this bone here is the
extension of the rib bone that would sit over the offal. And, basically, what I've done is seasoned it with juniper,
black pepper, and coriander. All equal parts. Reason why I do that, long time ago working for another chef, he would use that for the
seasoning on his venison, and whenever I smell it,
I just think of red meat. The grill's just burning charcoal, and then basically we just go straight on. It's basically constant flipping just so that we don't get
too much of a dry finish on one side. Being on the bone, you get a
significantly better flavor as opposed to just aging loins. It is a very quick method of cookery. We're looking at applying
a severe amount of heat to the outside just so that you do get that browning, and you get the caramelization. The spice really aids in
giving it that savoriness that you want, and also the exterior finishes
somewhat more burnished than what it would be if it
was just straight, you know, tuna loin on the grill. I think, as well, the
perception of the eye, the value proposition comes in the form of the fish being cooked on the bone, the love and attention that's
gone into Frenching the bone, and then the method in which we cook it and then carve it and fan it out. So just like a steak, medium rare. What keeps me going is the
fact that we can turn up, we can write a new menu each day, we can keep learning all these really unique
fascinating things. And I want every guest
to leave there thinking, "The only way that we're
ever gonna have that again is if we go back there." (gentle upbeat music)
