So Here's The Story...
A look at Chef Seth Stowaway's memorable approach to dish development at Osito in San Francisco.
Food memories are a human experience. We all have them: some are shared (hot dogs at a ball game or popcorn at the movies), others are more personal, and some are entirely dreamt up—inspired by sights, smells, and even sounds. For a seasoned chef like Seth Stowaway, his food memories tend to work in reverse. Childhood experiences sit dormant for years, just waiting to be unleashed onto the plate.
At Osito, Stowaway’s ever-changing tasting menu always has a theme, from ingredient-focused (like game birds) to whimsical and fun, like the recent Growing Up menu, which showcased dishes inspired by the kitchen team’s childhood.
When it's time for a new menu, Stowaway will share a document with all his chefs that details the intended menu structure, theme, and key points to hit. They’ll crowdsource dish ideas, assign menu slots to chefs with strong inspiration, and then jump headfirst into R&D. “If we really are all about community, we have to put our money where our mouth is,” he says. “Sometimes it might take a while for someone to get on the menu, but they will get there eventually and they get to experiment and have fun in the process.”
Chef Seth Stowaway of osito
interior of osito
Poached Jellyfish, Shiitake-Ramp XO Sauce, Black Vinegar, Dark Soy Sauce, Fried Garlic, Smoked Corn Broth
In the Summer of 2022, Osito’s menu highlighted culinary interpretations of Stowaway and his chefs’ childhood memories. “We wanted to tell the stories of our people, the ones who work with us day in and day out," he says. Challenging his team to tap into their childhood memories and dreams, Stowaway asked each of them to think of moments of fondness and nostalgia, then flip them entirely on their head to create a dish.
For Stowaway, he decided to tap into a slightly traumatic incident from his youth–the kind of trauma that as an adult, he can now look back and laugh about. "My dad is a total criminal. But, what’s fun about a criminal father is you grow up doing criminal shit without knowing it,” he explains. One such incident involved illegally scuba diving in Mexico at just 10-years old. “My dad was in the Navy. He loved the ocean. He took me to Mexico, but I was too young to dive, so we would go to the docks at the end of the day and steal the full air tanks left on the boats and go night diving.”
“But during the day time, to not get caught, I could only snorkel. One day, I was snorkeling off the side of the boat, and I got caught in a school of jellyfish. I was a little guy, swatting them away, and I got swept up in the current, so I was pretty far from the boat. I swam back and got a really bad sunburn in the process."
So how does Stowaway translate this memory into a dish? A chilled jellyfish dressed in a fiery chile oil that mimics the color of sunburn. The jellyfish is poached, then compressed in the fragrant chile oil packed with scallion, onion, and aleppo pepper. He makes an umami and spicy XO sauce with ramps, Fresno chiles, and shiitake mushrooms. The dish is finished with fried garlic, buttery smoked corn and smoked corn broth, and just enough Thai basil for a pop of freshness.
GROWING UP
It’s not just Stowaway’s memories that end up on the plate. The staff finds inspiration from their own lives, and synthesize these into plated dishes seen through the restaurant’s live-fire philosophy. These are a few highlights from their “Growing Up” tasting menu.
Geoduck “chowder,” sourdough miso, mirepoix
Sarah Baldwin, Executive Sous Chef
Sarah’s geoduck “chowder” was an ode to some of her treasured family weekends in San Francisco. “We would pile the whole family into the car and spend the day in the city. Our first stop would always be Boudin Bakery at Pier 39,” she says. “We would crush bread bowls of chowder and pick out our favorite seals hanging on the dock.”
Smoked salmon, Rainier cherry, porcini, onion, fennel, sea lettuce
Matt Hanley, R&D Chef
Matt grew up in the Pacific Northwest where smoking salmon was a cornerstone of the local diet. His dish paid homage to those traditions through a modern lens. The fish is slowly smoked until just barely cooked through, both familiar in flavor and surprising in texture. It’s served with a PNW medley of preserved Rainier cherries and porcini confit, and is dressed with sea lettuce oil.
Artichoke, egg yolk, popcorn
Adam Lawrence, Pastry Assistant
Adam draws inspiration for his dish from a childhood snack his mother used to make. His version of artichokes and mayonnaise packs all of the flavor of poached artichokes into the fun new texture of a crisp.
