Black sea bass

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Black sea bass

In the Northeast, this small fish is a big hit with white-tablecloth chefs

By Peter Redmayne

For a small fish from a small fishery, black sea bass certainly gets some big play on some of the fanciest menus around. Daniel Boulud, arguably New York's most famous French chef, touts "Le Black Bass Et La Syrah" (paupiette of black sea bass in a crisp potato shell with tender leeks and a syrah sauce) at his eponymous, elegant, four-star restaurant in midtown Manhattan.

Fourteen blocks downtown from Daniel's, guests at Le Bernardin, which readers of the "Zagat Survey" have voted best New York restaurant for six years in a row, can eat their black sea bass cold (as a ceviche topped with mint, coriander and chiles) or hot (pan roasted or in a pot-au-feu).

But it's not only French chefs who go overboard for black sea bass. So do Asian chefs, who almost always buy and serve the small black sea bass whole. At Donald Trump's Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., the Dynasty Chinese restaurant serves fresh whole black sea bass steamed with ginger and scallions or deep-fried and served with oyster sauce or Szechuan sauce for $28 a pop.

Although 99 percent of the black sea bass caught off the Mid-Atlantic Coast is consumed in restaurants from Boston to Washington, the occasional fish will make it out to the West Coast. At HamaSuku, L.A.'s newest trendy Japanese eatery (one of the owners is super-agent Michael Ovitz), chef Hiro Fujita sautés whole black sea bass and serves it over a mashed potato tempura.

Black sea bass is also a favorite in Greek and Italian restaurants, because it tastes and looks a lot like the sea bream native to the Mediterranean.

So exactly what is this fish, and why is it so popular?

Black sea bass, Centropristis striata, are found along the U.S. Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida. Most of the landings, though, are made from New York to North Carolina.

The fish is a member of the Serranidae family, which makes it a true sea bass. Around the world, a number of black groupers, which also belong to the Serranidae family, are sold as black sea bass to give them more panache.

Black sea bass have been hugely popular in New York City for hundreds of years. According to the late seafood historian A.J. McClane, George Washington even chartered a boat to fish for black sea bass on the banks off Sandy Hook, across from New York harbor.

Sport fishing for black sea bass was such a rough and rowdy affair at the turn of the last century, McClane says, that police boats had to meet the party boats upon their return "in order to gather in the wounded and their assailants without undue loss of time."

Black sea bass are small fish that are normally harvested in a size range from 1 1/2 to 3 pounds, although fish as big as 5 pounds are caught from time to time. The ethnic restaurants that serve black sea bass whole prefer the smaller sizes, says Mike Byrne of Lund's Fisheries, a Cape May, N.J., fish processor.

"The Chinese restaurants like the smallest fish, which are called 'mice,'" he says.

Commercial fishermen catch black sea bass with trawl nets, pots and jigging machines, which they use to fish wrecks where the fish congregate. In recent years, about 60 percent of the black sea bass catch has been made by pot fishermen, about 25 percent by trawl fishermen and 15 percent by jig boats.

As a general rule, pot- and jig-caught black sea bass command a premium price when there's a fair amount of fish around. When fish gets tight, though, as often happens with black sea bass, the price difference narrows as buyers scramble to get their hands on whatever fish they can find.

Almost all the catch is sold as fresh, round fish. When they can get it, Chinese restaurants buy live black sea bass, but the fish are difficult to keep alive, as their air bladders often burst soon after they're landed.

Although the 2002 black sea bass quota was increased slightly, landings have been below 2,000 metric tons a year for more than 10 years. The 2002 commercial quota is approximately 1,400 metric tons.

In an effort to spread landings throughout the year, the black sea bass quota is divided into quarterly allocations; however, the third- and fourth-quarter quotas, which are substantially lower than the first- and second-quarter quotas, have been landed in a matter of weeks, which has resulted in long closures of the fishery.

In another effort to keep landings spread out, fisheries managers have approved a system that establishes limits on the number of pounds of black sea bass a fisherman can land per trip.

The best buys on black sea bass are in January and February, when more than a third of the annual quota is landed. Still, don't expect any real bargains, as the price of whole fish to restaurants rarely falls below $3 a pound, and prices of $5 or more are not unheard of when fish are tight.

But even at $5 a pound, the numbers for black sea bass work for New York City eateries like Club 21, where chef Erik Blauberg charges $39 for Crisp Black Sea Bass with Truffled Potatoes and Champagne Sauce. Of course, the Club 21, where every president since Franklin Roosevelt has dined, may be in a league of its own, but chefs do fork over top dollar for black sea bass.

And exactly why are they willing to pay so much?

"It's got a lean white meat that's slightly sweet and similar to red snapper," explains Michael Schenk, the chef at New York's highly regarded Oceana restaurant. "It also has a fine skin, which makes it very easy to fry or grill. It adapts very well; you can serve it with almost anything."

Schenk's most recent black sea bass offering pairs the fish with English peas and rock shrimp risotto.

But a lot of chefs like black sea bass, says Schenk, simply because it's an easy sell.

"Put it on the menu, and it sells, no matter what you do. Seventy percent of the appeal is the name. People like the name," says Schenk.

"It's a fine fish, but personally I would eat fresh skate or fresh cod before I'd eat black sea bass."