the FEED: Travels
Chef She’s Adventures In NYC: Cooking Sustainable Seafood at the James Beard Foundation House
Last week, I had the very exciting opportunity to fly to New York City to cook at the James Beard Foundation house. This wasn’t my first time cooking at the James Beard House—that was way back in 2007 when I did a fall seafood dinner there with then-Jax Fish House chef Hosea Rosenberg. But cooking at the house is always an incredible experience. It’s an actual house in the city, with a teeny-tiny kitchen that’s incredible to cook in. The hoods to the oven are like six feet high, but it’s amazing in every way. I was there to cook […]
Sheila off the Hook
Earlier this month, I had an amazing opportunity to join the first ever Off the Hook dinner at the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky. This “celebration of animals, vegetables, and minerals from the pond to the sea” featured lots of local chefs, plus ten chefs (including yours truly) from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Blue Ribbon Task Force. I was joined by Chef Rob Monahan, chef de cuisine at Jax in Boulder, who helped me prep and prepare our course. Often times with out of state events like this, you don’t know what kind of setup you’ll be given to cook […]
A Salty Wave Shot To The Face
“He was a bold man who first ate an oyster” said Jonathon Swift. No shit on that one, right? Can you imagine what that moment was like. Busting open a rock, with another rock, and then making the commitment to slurp down that briny grey, medium sized mammal liver that was probably the size of your foot. Oysters back then would have been huge. Must have been the very happiest day of that early homo sapien’s life, to plunk that briny pillow of salty loveliness into his or her mouth. I wonder how many dozens they all ate that […]
Chef She’s Blue Ribbon Task Force Conference- Portland, OR
One of my favorite things about being a chef is the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world. Today’s complex network of farmers and fishermen, purveyors and producers, chefs and restaurateurs, means that what we eat and how we eat it connects us all in an intricate and fascinating way. Our tiny little restaurant in the middle of the country, hundreds of miles from any coast, has deep ties to auctioneers at the Honolulu Fish Market, family fishermen on the Taku River in Alaska, and third generation oyster farmers on the Chesapeake Bay. When we prepare […]
Chef She’s Coastal Culture Trippin’
Chef She’s Coastal Culture Trippin’ : Hawaii 2018 Our intrepid leader, Chef Sheila Lucero, is always seeking out fresh ideas for the table and diving into the local culture of coastal communities across the globe. From Japan to New England to the Great Northwest, her adventures have led her to some beautiful places. And while we can’t all go with her, lucky for us she always comes back with some inspired dishes to share. Her most recent sojourn was to Paradise of the Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands. Famous around the globe for its picturesque landscape, white sandy beaches, and […]
Jax Executive Chef Sheila Lucero Hits Washington D.C.
This summer Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar’s executive chef traveled to Capitol Hill to fight for our oceans. Jax Fish House’s very own Chef Sheila Lucero (center above) traveled to Capitol Hill this summer and tried her hand at politics. As a leading member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Blue Ribbon Task Force, she was invited to Washington, DC to meet with congressmen and policymakers to discuss sustainability and the health of our oceans. Several key policies are up for renewal this year, in particular the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which keeps coastal fishing practices at […]
Konnichiwa!
I am fortunate enough to have just returned from an unbelievable trip. As a chef I have dreamed about going to Japan for so many years. I have always been fascinated with Japanese cuisine and culture. The trip was designed with food and culture as the primary focus. I had the honor of traveling with Yasu Kizaki from Sushi Den, and I couldn’t of asked for a better line up of events for my first trip. Trying to distill two overwhelming weeks into a few paragraphs will be interesting. There was so much culturally, and culinarily that just blew […]
A Visit to the Motherland . . . Kentucky
The Bourbon Social in Lexington, Kentucky Day 1, October 7, 2016: Off to the Races The morning started with us driving through the lush fields outside of Lexington, Kentucky, on our way to the vast pastures of Keeneland Racetrack for opening day weekend. After years of hearing about the great horseraces in Boubon country from DQ (a.k.a. Dave Query, my boss) and watching the Kentucky Derby each May on the big screen arriving at Keenland Manor was enough to give me butterflies. It. Was. Awesome. And even better yet, we were there to hang-out with some folks from Kentucky, […]
