Building the Bridge Between Farm and Restaurant: An Interview with Sean of Preservation Meat Collective and Chef Aaron Tekulve of Surrell
If you joined us for Surrell’s late-winter menu, chances are you experienced a dish eighteen years in the making.
Squab, or juvenile pigeon, has long been considered a delicacy, but like many small game birds it features mainly in Chinese cuisine. “For the longest time you’d typically find them in larger restaurants in Chinatown that had the ability to buy a lot of squab. It was pretty much impossible to find squab that wasn’t from California or New York, and also impossible to find it fresh. In Seattle, there are only about 15 restaurants who are actively seeking it out,” says Sean of Preservation Meat Collective.
Sean noticed a demand for squab in Seattle as early as 2006, but has only recently been able to connect supplier, processing facility, and interested chefs. In order to link these 15 local restaurants with such a unique product, the owners of Preservation Meat Collective drive four hours to Benton City and four hours back…every weekend.
“There’s low demand in Washington, so someone had to figure out how to raise them at a rate that’s affordable for restaurants,” says Sean. This someone is Alex Ojeda. He recently took over a farm that had been raising squab for over ten years, but was shipping the birds to Canada and California. In collaboration with Preservation Meat, Ojeda’s birds from Mesa Washington are kept fresh and local.
“We’ve brought something to the market that’s unique to our country, but is finally available through all these connections,” says Sean.
And finally available at Surrell. “Being able to work with a farm that’s essentially raising these to order is a truly special thing…it doesn’t really get more local than that, and it’s made possible by our relationship with Preservation Meat,” says Chef Aaron Tekulve. These birds are so fresh that restaurants like Surrell receive whole squabs with organs intact and seeds still in their bellies.
For Chef Aaron, the dish is a highlight of the late winter menu. “I just love this process. I’ve worked with squab in my career, but this is the first time I’ve ever gotten it fresh. We lightly salt and dry age them, then hang them over charcoal. Lots of age-old techniques go into getting as much flavor as possible into this dish. The hazelnuts are from Oregon, the squash is from local farms - it’s just a truly Pacific Northwestern dish.”
As proud as we are of this dish, we’re even more proud of what it represents: an ecosystem of small businesses dedicated to local food and beverage excellence. We’re so grateful to be a part of the community of Washington food and farms.
To experience all the bounty the Pacific Northwest has to offer, we invite you to join us for our seasonal tasting menu. Reservations and details are available at exploretock.com/surrell.
