Found Treasure: Outgoing Chef Colin Moody Seafood Hacks

August 17, 2024 – Colin Moody is the guy who volunteers to drive deep into Big Sur Coast to lug burners and pots and cutting boards down a steep trail in order to stand on the beach and cook whatever the spear fishermen bring ashore. 

This is the homie who shows up at Pebble Beach Food & Wine and says, “How about vegan ‘bone marrow’ with a blowtorch?”

This is the chef who was the clear candidate to lead the kitchen at the thoughtful absurdity that was Big Sur Food & Wine’s Dalí SURrealistic Dinner.

“Colin is one of our OGs,” says BSFW chief financial officer Elsa Rivera. “He understands our wacky creative realm—and his talents feed an understanding of how to show up with his own creativity.” 

At the Dalí Dinner he was clearly in his element, making “eyeballs” out of salmon mousse, splattering sauces like paint, doing a bone-in Wellington inspired by “Celestial Elephant,” and keeping the prep and service team loose.

“People tend to do better when they’re not tense,” he says. “Besides, Dalí was nonlinear. We knew that was going to be quite a night.”

His community involvement provides one reason he’s a Found Treasure. (Which, for the record, are rarely human, though I can think of two examples: a Brooklyn pizzaiola and Meals on Wheels’ Woman of the Year.)

Moody also scores points for a quotable blend of both candid earnestness—“Not everyone is built for this; it’s like my longest standing sous chef Joe Martin says when a culinary student comes in with his knife bag, ‘What’s that? You’re doing dishes for the next two weeks’”—and irreverent humility.

“You’re not as important as you think,” he says. “We live on a very small atom, on my ballsack. We’re nothing.” 

All told, it’s enough to overcome the tease that he worked primarily at private clubs. 

I understand why he did, including access to toys (“Let’s get a barrel smoker for the tournament!”) and job security (“I figured food service and sewers would always be flush. COVID revealed otherwise, but clubs could stay open”).

His time at spots like Monterey Peninsula Country Club and most recently The Club at Pasadera does ramp up anticipation for his public appearances.

“All I hear when people call about a festival is, ‘You can do whatever you want,’ then the rest is blah blah blah,” he says. “And I think, ‘I’m gonna get weird!’”

The vegan bone marrow was made with parsnip he torched to order on the PBFW floor—“It’s fun to scare people with fire,” he said—topping the smoked “bone” with pickled candy cap mushrooms, crispy cordyceps and truffled carrot that many thought was meat. 

“So many people say, ‘I can’t have meat, or dairy,’” he says. “At first I was bitter, thinking, ‘You came to a food show, that’s on you!’ Then I decided to take it more as a challenge.”

He’s a reminder that many successful creatives make sure they entertain their first audience—themselves—before they worry about anyone else. 

And he clearly enjoys the endeavor. So the fact he has a fresh challenge on his hands makes me less salty he’s migrating from Pasadera to storied Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. Slightly.

“Food is more than sustenance—it’s a language of connection,” he wrote in a farewell note to members. “Please know that I will always feel connected to Pasadera and its amazing people.”

Longtime local hospitality sage Glen Hammer has studied the area’s dining landscape as closely as anyone, and has seen Moody honored by the Monterey chapter of the American Culinary Federation, the Les Toques Blanches Lyonnaises, and the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, the oldest and largest food and wine society in the world.

“He was asked to be part of all of those for his leadership, his creativity and over-the-top presentations in culinary arts,” Hammer says. “He’s just a world-class guy, and I’m going to miss his presence as a friend. It’s a loss for us, and a gain for Sherwood.”

Hammer and I agree on a couple other Moody measures: That we haven’t seen the last of him around these parts. (He and his wife are keeping their Monterey home, and he has an emeritus invite from the likes of BSFW and PBFW.) 

And that he’s not going to stop bringing the heat, blowtorch or no.

“He doesn’t want to rest,” Hammer says. “He wants to continue to expand his horizons.” 

In that spirit, Moody has broadened my own toolkit, in the kitchen and in looking ahead. 

For a Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust piece on local catch chef hacks—back in fairer times for salmon and crab availability—he was my first call. 

I’ll include his tips on halibut, rockfish and sand dabs—all fresh and available from local sources as this publishes—so we’re left with flavorful solace.

Way down in Big Sur, he turned the free divers’ catch into rock crab chowder, brown butter seared limpet filets and scallop-rockfish ceviche. (Full disclosure: My open sea kelp harvest really made the dish.)

He also weaved between cracking jokes at sommelier Toby Rowland Jones’ expense and riffing on confronting COVID uncertainties—thoughts that take on meaning as he gains self-determination with this move. 

“We know what we want to do and what we want to be a part of,” Moody said. “It’s about holding on to that and being ready with your skills and experience. The path ahead may not be clear, but our intentions can be.”

Rockfish

There are so many different types of rockfish along the West Coast that CSU Monterey Bay marine science professors use them to study how habitat affects evolution. No matter which type of rockfish, Moody says, “Local rockfish here are delicious fried whole!” He describes this preparation as “easy money.”  

Here’s the plan: Have the fishmonger gut, scale, and gill it, or do it yourself. Get your fryer up to 350 degrees—or fill a deep pan with enough oil to fry the whole fish at that same temperature.

With a sharp knife, cut vertically from the tail—and from the top (or back)—down to the belly, making sure to hit the vertebrae in the middle. (That’s where the sharp knife comes in.) Cutting about an inch and a half deep, move all the way from the tail to the head.  

Sprinkle sea salt and lemon zest all over and inside the fish. Mix some Old Bay seasoning and garlic salt with rice flour and lightly dredge the fish in it. Carefully drop the fish into the oil and fry until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees.

Then grab your favorite hot sauce, chili sauce, or teriyaki sauce and have at it. “It’s time for a good ol’ fashioned fish pickin,’” Moody says.

Halibut

A sneaky little secret about locally served halibut…many chefs opt to use Alaskan halibut, even if they can get fantastic—and fresher—local California halibut. (Reminder! It’s always good to ask where your seafood is coming from, and always ask for local!) That’s because it’s a bit trickier to prep thinner California halibut without drying it out. Here’s how Moody avoids that without stressing.

Prepare sea salt, white pepper, and rice flour, along with the following items:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Get a cast-iron or other oven-ready pan on the stove over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Lightly dust your halibut fillet with sea salt, white pepper, and rice flour. When oil is hot in the cast iron, gently place the fillet to sear. Throw in the thyme sprig and crushed garlic. Let it sear for 1 and 1/2 minutes. Turn over. Throw in butter, shallot, tomato, and capers. Stir. Pour in wine and squeeze of half lemon. Put in the oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven. Place the halibut on the plate and pour the rest of the ingredients in the pan over the top. A final key step, Moody hastens to include: “Enjoy with the remainder of the Chardonnay!”

Sand Dabs

Two words, according to chef: “Taco time!”

The approach here is almost as simple as that rallying cry: Do a light toss in panko and Mexican-style tajín spices. Sear your sand dabs in a sauté pan with rice bran oil or avocado oil, for 2 minutes per side. 

Warm some tortillas, prep some lime cabbage slaw, charred jalapeño, pico de gallo, and sliced avocado, and you’re in delicious territory.