Hidden Track: The Space In Between

We rarely get to witness the passing of a piece of art from one participant to another. On a beautiful rainy day in June, we got to do just that when Melissa Ferrick tasted Jeremy Kean's dish, Halibut and Trash, at his restaurant Brassica Kitchen in Jamaica Plain, MA. What follows is a piece of the conversation I had with both artists as the work was passed.

Interview and photography by L. Valena
June 9, 2023

Melissa Ferrick: I feel like you're not even allowed to tell me what this is.

Jeremy Kean: Really?

Lu Valena: You can if you want.

M: I think I want to taste it first. It looks absolutely gorgeous. My guess is this is... bacon! [Gasps] I'm going to have a piece with everything in it. Mmmm.

J: It should be fucking crazy.

M. Explosions!

J: Yeah.

M: It's awesome. Oh my god. What kind of flowers are these?

J: Chive flowers. They're only around for like two weeks out of the year. You just hop the fences of the community gardens with a pair of scissors. [All laugh]

M: This is orange? And what kind of fish is this?

J: Halibut. I don't know, I haven't tasted it, but it was really fun to cook.

L: You know what it tastes like in your head, right?

M: Do you want a bite? Get a fork. [Jeremy takes a bite] Explosion!

J: Yeah. This is crazy town. The smoke and chili. This was really fun. It's fun to grill over charcoal, and it's fun to have the time to watch the pathway of the heat, and use it for something else. The smoke is a byproduct of the char from the pork, which is a byproduct in itself. That's bacon scraps that didn't work on the slicer. As you're grilling it over charcoal, it creates smoke, and the smoke is like a wasted ingredient. You can put other ingredients in the pathway of that smoke and let it cook slowly. The liquid in there is water that salt, garlic and chilis have been sitting in for like a year.

M: Why have they been sitting in there for a year?

J: That's what we do to make hot sauce. So besides the halibut, everything in this dish is a byproduct. It's halibut and trash. Except for the chive blossoms, which were, like, stolen.

Editor's note: I was so excited by this conversation with Jeremy and Melissa, it inspired a dish of my own. You can get the recipe for Orange Toasted Coconut Cream Pie with Cherries and Stolen Rose Petals here.