Daily Sitka Sentinel

Network Food Program Lured Back to Sitka

By ABIGAIL BLISS
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Restaurants around town are getting ready to host the crew of the Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations” this week, a sign of Sitka’s growing presence on the culinary scene.
    The series takes its viewers on a global food tour, spotlighting culinary treats worth the trip. Sitka was featured on the Travel Channel once before, in 2012.

Andrew Zimmern shakes hands with Ellen Frankenstein during a Sitka Farmers Market in 2012. A film crew for Zimmern’s program is in town this weekend filming at various eateries. (File photo by Barbara Craig)

    The host of the program is James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern. He didn’t personally make the trip this year, but his crew has been filming at half a dozen locations in Sitka, said Colette Nelson, owner and executive chef of Ludvig’s Bistro, one of the restaurants to be featured.
    Nelson told the Sentinel that “Delicious Destinations” normally features a region or theme, but one entire episode will be devoted to Sitka alone, the community’s culinary offerings, and the narratives behind the seafood at its core.
    “(Zimmern) really loved Sitka when he came,” Nelson said. “Sitka’s kind of on the culinary map these days, with the fishermen and amazing lodges that we have and some of the other restaurants. They had heard about us, and they’re really excited about the fish, the sustainable fisheries in Alaska.”
    Nelson said she was contacted by the staff of “Delicious Destinations” three weeks ago and was asked if Ludvig’s could prepare king salmon to be featured on the show.
    The choice, she said, pays tribute to her time spent commercial fishing with Lou Barr on the F/V Gavia, and allows “Delicious Destinations” to unravel the story behind a Sitka meal.
    “They gave me a whole list of different foods that they wanted to feature, and they chose king salmon for us, since I was a fishermen back in ’90s,” Nelson said. “Since I have a relationship with the king salmon, they are going to take me, hopefully, to the skipper that I used to work for when I was like 20 years old, and we’re going to go get the fish off the boat and bring it here.”
    Nelson expressed gratitude for both the Gavia crew and the Sitka Producers Cooperative for their help in preparing the anticipated show-stopping meal.
    Other Sitka items on the menu include black cod tips at Ashmo’s, a trip to Baranof Fish Market, and a gourmet meal at Talon Lodge.
    Talon Lodge’s owner, Phil Younger, said they’re planning to serve a basil Caesar salad followed by paella with Alaskan seafood, a main course of venison loin topped with local Dungeness crab, and a berry compote with locally-picked berries. There also will be potatoes au gratin and braised greens from the garden on the side. Dessert will be a flour-less chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache and cinnamon ice cream, featuring blueberry Alaskan sea salt from Sitka.
    Younger told the Sentinel that, in addition to being an “incredible destination” for sightseeing, recreation, and wildlife viewing, Sitka is becoming a culinary destination, too, with an abundance of natural ingredients.
    “(It’s) really amazing that we have enough content, you know, to talk about each species,” Nelson echoed. “Hopefully, they’ll go meet the fishermen and talk to the chefs. It’s really cool, you know, that they have found us.”