Le ‘Iron Chef’ dans la maison

Trung learns to cook from watching TV. Which is pretty legit considering how much he knows about haute cuisine. Without having any proper training in the realm, Trung was met with dubiety against virtually every food stunts he delivers. But from time to time, he would attempt to recreate world-renown recipes from master chefs and come up with surprisingly palate-pleasing versions of his own. Among which, is his signature dish Olive-oil-poached Chilean Sea Bass in Mango sauce.

Sea bass is perhaps one of my favorite white fish closely after Misoyaki (grilled miso in sake) Butterfish (commonly known as black cod) and Mom’s crunchy pan-fried snapper. It is quite impossible to ruin a piece of seabass because the fish doesn’t get dry when overcooked like halibut, or has a funky flavor when undercooked like baramundi. The beautiful texture of Chilean Seabass is especially smooth and velvety due to its high oil content locked deep inside the flesh, which makes savouring the fish, flake after flake, an unbelievably indulging act.

In his quest to secure that priceless texture and flavor, Trung implemented a technique from Aaron Sanchez where he ovens a glass baking pan filled with a whole bottle of pure olive oil (Ouch!). When dropped into the pool of olive oil, the marinated flank of fish starts to heat up as the oil does, then it sizzles, oozing in a precious flavor blend of olive and bass. After 2-3 minutes, the fish is ready to be plated.


It was quite extraordinary. Soaked immediately in high heat, the seabass was thoroughly cooked without a slight chance for flavor to escape. The inner texture of the fish was preserved and not dehydrated by the heat. The sauce, well, balances well with the marinate.

*Note: I did the plating and photography but those irrelevant cilantro leaves were his idea. Food styling failed. At least the fish tasted good.