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Chef Brandon Boudet and fisherman Ben Hyman have teamed up to bring the freshest catch to restaurant plates.
After 20 years of cheffing in the urban heart of Los Angeles, New Orleans–raised Brandon Boudet returned to his coastal roots by opening Little Dom’s Seafood in Carpinteria five years ago.
He’s been on a mission to showcase seasonal, sustainable, and, most of all, locally sourced seafood ever since. Dishes like his fish-of-the-day piccata, fried oyster po’boy, and albacore pastrami are coveted fare at the Linden Avenue hotspot.
His campaign now extends to Coast Village Road in Montecito, where Brandon and his business partner Warner Ebbink recently opened Bar Lou. Inspired by cuisine from the South of France, but featuring regional ingredients, the new restaurant’s menu features sea urchin spaghettini and halibut almondine.
Not surprisingly, Brandon spends a lot of time communicating directly with fishermen, especially Ben Hyman of Wild Local Seafood, who’s always been surprised at how few restaurants in Santa Barbara buy from local boats.
We provide the opportunity for people to do something good for the planet that supports our fishery’s heritage and a food system where the money stays in the local community.
– Ben Hyman of Wild Local Seafood
“There are very few restaurants that really use local seafood in our community,” says Ben, who regularly sells his lobster, vermillion, ling cod, black cod, and other catches to Brandon, as well as Convivo, The Dutchess, and Rori’s in Ojai. He notes that Barbareño, The Lark, and S.B. Shellfish Company frequently buy direct from other fishermen.
“Ninety percent of the seafood that you’re eating even when adjacent to the ocean is going to be imported,” he explains, noting that one popular seaside seafood restaurant actually uses basa, a catfish from Vietnam, in its fish and chips.
Ben admits that it’s easier and cheaper for restaurants to just order the same fish from the same distributor all year long, no matter where it’s imported from, rather than deal with the higher costs and logistics of the changing sea. “But anything in life that’s easy and cheap isn’t necessarily good,” says Ben, who’s been fishing commercially since 1998 and sells at nine different farmers/fishermen markets each week, in addition to his store in the Ventura Harbor.
“We provide the opportunity for people to do something good for the planet that supports our fishery’s heritage and a food system where the money stays in the local community,” he says. “It’s a win-win-win when you do it one way, and it’s bad when you support the homogenized-food-systems way.”
Brandon doesn’t find it that much more challenging to do the right thing. “You can make it work,” he says. “You just have to do your math and figure it out.”
There are benefits too. “It just lasts a lot longer,” Brandon explains. “You’re getting fish that’s right off the boat.”
A prime example is oysters, often shipped across the country or world to reach your Santa Barbara plate. “I don’t deal with East Coast oysters anymore,” Brandon says. “The furthest away I get oysters is from Mark Reynolds at Jolly Oyster in Baja California.” Orders are placed Sunday, the oysters are harvested Monday, and they’re at Little Dom’s by Tuesday.
East Coast oysters, meanwhile, often take about a week to show up. “I have an easy two-week window,” Brandon says about the length of time his delivery stays fresh. “I never come close to that.”
Brandon explains that using regionally sourced seafood is just smart business. “It makes the most sense,” he says. He admits, however, that “we’re not the cheapest place in town.” But when quality, community, and environmental impact are considered, local seafood is a bargain.
Visit wildlocalseafood.com to see where to buy local catch, and find more info on Brandon’s restaurants at barloumontecito.com and ldseafood.com.
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RECIPE: Little Dom’s Seafood Local Fish Piccata
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 6-oz thin boneless, skin-on or skinless white-fleshed fish fillets, about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick (I prefer skin on if the fish has a thin skin, which will crisp nicely)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsps clarified butter
- 3 oz white wine
- 1 1/2 Tbsps large salted capers, rinsed several times in fresh water
- 1 1/2 Tbsps minced flat-leaf parsley leaves and roughly chopped tender stems
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 5 Tbsps unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Dust fish fillets in flour. Season with salt and black pepper.
- Add clarified butter to a sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add fish fillets, and sauté 3 to 5 minutes on one side only.
- Remove fish from sauté pan, place cooked-side down on an oven-proof pan or plate, and cook in the oven for 3 to 5 more minutes while you make the sauce.
- With a hot pan on the stovetop, add wine, and reduce to half. Add capers, parsley, and lemon juice. Turn off heat. Slowly whisk in cold butter cubes. Salt to taste if you want, but it probably doesn’t need it!
- Pour the sauce over the plated fish, and serve right away.
RECIPE: Bar Lou’s Santa Barbara Sea Urchin Spaghettini
- Yield: Serves 4
Description
This represents one of the best products in the world. We don’t even put butter on our spaghettini. We add some crème fraîche, and then let the sea urchin do all the work.
Ingredients
- 8 oz fresh sea urchin (uni)
- 1/2 cup crème fraîche
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 leek, white part only, finely minced
- 1 tsp Tutto Calabria Hot Spread Sauce
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 12 oz spaghettini
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Small handful finely minced fresh chives
Instructions
- Set aside 4 tongues of sea urchin to use as garnish. Combine remaining sea urchin and crème fraîche using a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add garlic and leeks and cook, stirring constantly, until softened but not browned (lower heat if the aromatics threaten to brown), about 2 minutes. Add Tutto Calabria Hot Spread Sauce and stir until homogeneous. Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced down to less than 2 tablespoons, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and set aside until pasta is cooked.
- Boil pasta until al dente in a large pot of boiling water. Keep pasta water.
- When pasta is cooked, use tongs to transfer the spaghettini directly from the boiling water to the pan with the garlic/oil mixture. Scrape uni purée into the pan and add a few ounces of starchy pasta-cooking water.
- Set the pan over high heat and cook, stirring and swirling constantly, until the sauce comes together and develops a creamy consistency and the pasta is fully cooked, about 1 minute. Add more pasta water as necessary to thin the sauce if it over-thickens. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Divide pasta between warmed serving bowls, drizzle each portion with more extra-virgin olive oil, garnish each with a whole sea urchin tongue, sprinkle with minced chives, and serve.
