« January 2007 Table of Contents 
In the Kitchen: Il Grano goes beyond Italian
Owner Sal Marino rises to the daily challenge of sourcing L.A.'s best fish
By Joan M. Lang
January 01, 2007
Sal Marino is obsessed with quality. The chef-owner of Il
Grano in west Los Angeles rises every morning at 4 to beat all
the other chefs in town to the best seafood from his favorite
purveyors. Marino's tactic seems to have worked: In a town
where restaurants go out of style as fast as last year's shoes,
Il Grano has stayed on every Top 10 list since it opened nine
years ago. And in a city with an estimated 300 sushi bars, Il
Grano has become known for its crudo, or Italian-style raw
fish.
At any given time, approximately half of Il Grano's
customers are having crudo, says Marino, who grew up in a
well-known L.A. restaurant family. The restaurant has become
synonymous for this pristine fresh specialty and is
consistently named one of the best seafood restaurants in
town.
Since opening Il Grano, Marino has changed the menu
considerably, from typical Italian offerings like veal
scaloppine and penne arrabbiata to a one-of-a-kind,
ingredient-focused selection that changes nightly and derives
80 percent of sales from seafood.
Marino says he was shy in the beginning. "I thought I had to
do a certain type of food, that that's what people expected."
But having spent several years honing his craft at
Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, he knew there were other
things to cook besides typical Italian fare.
"So I said, 'No, you may not have Caesar salad. You may not
have penne arrabbiata. I am going to cook what I want to
cook.'"
The decision changed his life, but he never looked back. "I
cook a lot of fish," he says. "But I never wanted to cook
meat."
Marino also owns the more casual La Bottega Marino, with one
location next door to Il Grano and another in neighboring
Larchmont. La Bottega is where Marino serves "regular" Italian
food, such as pizza, panini and pasta.
The Il Grano menu features an expanding selection of
seafood, prepared Italian-style with contemporary American
touches: whole branzino baked in salt; grilled Queen Charlotte
Island king salmon with roasted vegetables and black truffle
sauce; and squid-ink pasta with cuttlefish and sea-urchin
sauce.
And crudo. Marino introduced the raw-fish specialty in 1998
and believes he was the first chef in Los Angeles to do so.
"Everyone credits Mario, Mario, Mario [Batali, at New York's
Esca]" Marino says with typical Italian brio, "but they've been
doing this in Italy for years."
Well, not quite like this. What has evolved over the past
eight years is a signature Fantasia di Crudo, consisting of the
best fish the market has to offer, each with its own garnish or
accompaniment. In early October, for instance, Il Grano offered
a kumamoto oyster, a live scallop and a sea urchin, a bit of
fluke with basil oil, a taste of hiramasa (line-caught
yellowtail with breakfast radish and pea shoot) and a marinated
fresh anchovy from Japan.
Hearing him rhapsodize about the crudo is a lot like
listening to a serious oenophile describe a particularly
satisfying flight of wines.
"I always have a scallop, because people love that
fresh-cucumber taste," he says, "and usually some sort of lean
white fish, like bass or branzino, for its clean flavor. Also,
wonderful tuna or something else that's oily and rich. Each is
selected for its own distinctive taste, texture and 'bite,' and
each must have its own garnish or sauce that brings out its
best qualities."
Often, there is a tentacled item - cuttlefish, perhaps, or
even octopus - and a blue-skinned fish like an anchovy or fresh
sardine. Whatever the species, people gobble it up, either a la
carte at $15 or as part of a tasting menu.
But with the popularity comes the challenge: The chef has
had to fight to get the quality and variety of fish he wants.
He shops daily, trolling the Asian markets, "four blocks over
for oysters, three blocks down there for scallops," moving his
car when he needs to. Afterwards, he hits the farmer's market
for fresh produce, shopping like a true Italian, buying only
enough for that day's service. "It's better that way," he
explains.
At first, the notoriously insular Japanese fishmongers would
have nothing to do with him: "'Too bad, that's reserved,'
they'd tell me. They wondered what this white guy was doing
there."
The "white guy" persisted. With all the sushi restaurants in
town competing for fresh seafood, he had to set himself apart.
He had to win the local fishmongers' trust. He asked questions.
He asked his sushi-chef friends to vet him. After three years,
his perseverance paid off. "Now," he says, "they fax me the
list of 'special' specials. They even call me when they get
something in."
When two wild Alaska sturgeon came into town not too long
ago, Marino got one of them - something akin to winning the
lottery. He got it because he was on-site in the store at 6
a.m., before the salesman could call Patina or the Water Grill,
two other big-name seafood users in L.A.
Marino has had to overcome some resistance about the species
he serves and the crudo.
"People would say, 'This is not Italian, this is fusion.'
Or, 'Raw fish is Japanese.'" That's why it's been especially
important for Marino to focus on great quality.
Fish bought in the morning is used for crudo only that day.
If he buys something extraordinary, like the Queen Charlotte
salmon, he'll cook the rest as a special entrée and will cure
and smoke some to hold for a few days and use in an appetizer.
There are also several daily fresh-fish specials on the menu at
La Bottega Marino.
And there's always next morning's shopping.
"What can I say?" laughs Marino. "It's like women and shoes.
This is what I love."
Contributing Editor Joan M. Lang lives in Cape Elizabeth,
Maine