DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Thomas John, one of Food & Wine magazine's 2002 Best New Chefs, is chef at Mantra in Boston, where the cuisine merges French and Indian traditions. His Steamed Opah in Bamboo, prepared for the Hook 'N' Cook barbecue Nov. 3 at the Ohana Keauhou Beach Resort, incorporated Indian flavors of mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Chefs at a charity event
take a new look at fresh fish

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By Betty Shimabukuro
betty@starbulletin.com

KEAUHOU, Big Island >> Thomas John is expecting 250 dinner guests and right now the meal is inside a row of bamboo tubes, lined up over smoking chunks of mesquite.

He's not quite sure what he'll get when he unseals the bamboo and pokes around inside. He's never cooked this way before. "Hope it works," he says, flashing a "What, me worry?" kind of grin.

John is a young wizard of a chef from Mantra in Boston, invited to Hook 'N' Cook, a combination fishing tournament/barbecue organized by Kona chef Amy Ferguson Ota. The benefit for Read to Me International was staged Nov. 2 and 3 as part of the Big Island Festival.

A group of chefs took to sea on a Saturday, each at the head of a fishing team. What they came back with, they were to cook at a barbecue the next night.

John, on his first deep-sea fishing excursion, returned with two mahimahi and two ono, but he passed all that on to another team because he wanted opah. He was afraid a less oily fish might dry out in the bamboo cooking vessel that he was determined to use.

Otherwise, this was cooking without fear.

Inspiration struck during a tour of the volcano and the rain forest earlier in the week, John said. "We saw the bamboo. We saw the lava. We got the concept of flowing lava, and that's how we came up with this."

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Bradley Ogden grilled his swordfish over "soft heat" to keep it moist. The fish was served over a salad of shaved hearts of palm and snow peas, tossed with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Problem: where to find bamboo mature enough and big enough in diameter. Solution: trudge through wooded areas in Kona, find perfect bamboo, cut it down, haul it out, cut it up. "We spent half a day looking for it."

The bamboo was hollow and clean. Into each tube John put cubed opah, coconut milk, lemon juice, mustard seed and curry leaves. The tops were sealed with a bread dough, then the tubes were positioned upright in the grill.

The fish steamed inside the bamboo, emerging soft, infused with deep flavors -- including the mysterious taste of fresh bamboo.

John insisted he had never made anything like this before, although it did resemble a favorite childhood dish of fish wrapped in banana leaves and cooked with curry leaves, coconut milk and pepper.

OK, John's dish is not really something you can duplicate at home, unless you have bamboo growing wild. But there are six other chef stations here.

Alan Wong's fishing team came back with lots of ono -- in fact, that was the prime catch of that day at sea. He'd been hoping for mahimahi, a moister fish more adaptable to upscale presentations.

Ono is dry, Wong said, and doesn't cook up well over direct heat. "One of my favorite ways to eat it is tempura. With the batter, it steams the fish on the inside."

Good tip.

Wong wrapped each ono fillet around a filling of shredded short ribs, then wrapped the fish in nori, battered the nori and fried it all up. The result was like a tempura sushi roll, with fish standing in for the rice.

OK, so maybe that's a little complicated, too. Next station.

Bradley Ogden has built a reputation on clean, simple tastes at a series of California restaurants, beginning with the Lark Creek Inn in Marin County and One Market Restaurant in San Francisco.

He'd gone fishing with big dreams: "I caught a 20-pound ono, but my goal was to catch a 120-pound swordfish. I think that's the one that bit off the line and got away."

Ogden had his heart set on serving a grilled swordfish flavored with curry. So he gave his ono to a chef who was skunked at sea, and ordered in some swordfish.

This is a dish you can do at home, so long as you follow Ogden's precautions: Cut the fish thick and score the flesh lightly. Marinate in vibrant flavors, but not for very long. "It's easy to overpower and overcook," he said.

Get the grill nice and hot, but cook in the "soft heat" off to the sides, so the fish emerges with a caramelized crust, medium rare and moist inside. Serve with sparkling wine.

Curried Swordfish

1-1/2 pounds swordfish, about 2 inches thick
>> Marinade:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Thai curry paste
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lime
Pinch kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Whisk marinade ingredients together. Marinate fish 30 minutes to an hour.

Prepare a hot grill using mesquite wood. Grill fish over indirect heat, to the side of the fire. Fish should be slightly crisp and light brown on the outside, medium rare on the inside. To serve, slice crosswise.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 270 calories, 14 g total fat, 3 g saturated fat, 70 mg cholesterol, 300 mg sodium, less than 1 g carbohydrate, 34 g protein.*

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