Dovetail Chef John Fraser Makes 'Sepia'

Introducing Sound Bites, an Eater original video feature in which footage of the city's most badass chefs crafting their signature dishes is paired with tunes from up-and-coming independent musicians. Regarding the volume: turn it up.

John Fraser, "Sepia" from Eater NY on Vimeo.

For this week's edition of Sound Bites, the Eater Video squad headed to the Upper West Side to catch chef John Fraser making a relatively new dish he's working on for his Dovetail menu, sepia. Watch him above, see his explanation of the dish below. Musical thanks this time around to Levek.

I was at a holiday party last December and met a guy who told me about a shipment of sepia he was getting in from the Canary Islands. I had to duck out early to go back to the restaurant—just as the hash cookies were being served—but I knew we had to get that on the menu at Dovetail.

The challenge and beauty of sepia is working its toughness. What I decided to do was a slow sous vide at 72 C, in a package that includes garlic, thyme, lemon zest, olive oil, and salt. This breaks it down nicely, not too much, and is followed by a quick pass a la plancha.

The rest of the dish is just a matter of texture plays: the fat element of the two aiolis (squid ink and classic), the crunchy pine nuts, the juicy, acidic tangerines, and the different preparations of Satur Farms watermelon radish.