(lively upbeat music) - I just love fish, but I try to buy it wisely because so much fish in endangered.

You can go to seafoodwatch.org to find good fish choices.

But today, I'm going right to the source and cooking with a chef, who is an expert on the subject of sustainable fish.

He's Hung Huynh, a Top Chef winner classically trained and known for his skill with seafood.

We'll meet him where he lives, on the upper west side of New York and he'll take us to some of his favorite haunts.

Back here in my kitchen, we'll make simple and tasty delicious shrimp wraps with a nod to Hung's Vietnamese heritage.

You know what I'm really looking forward to, his Roasted Whole Branzino, perfect when you want to impress someone even though it's ridiculously simple.

And he'll show us the trick of deboning a whole fish.

Chef Hung is bringing sustainable fish to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

That's all coming up.

Funding provided by ... Family-owned and Indiana-grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals, providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens.

Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room.

A recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Sara] And thanks to the generous support of ... Hung Huynh is our guest today.

He's a Top Chef winner and an expert in seafood.

We caught up with him in his neighborhood in the upper westside of New York City.

- I think food is definitely a comfort.

It's certain dishes, definitely comfort food.

Wear it like a safety blanket because it brings back the culture, the history, the memories of eating that.

I was born in Ho Chi Minh City which I know it as Saigon.

After the war, everyone was broke and poor and we'd eat bread and dip it in sugar and that was what you ate, no water.

My father escaped, along with my brothers, on a wooden boat.

So many people drowned and died along the way, but their boat was obviously the lucky ones but thousand of other boats sank.

A lot of Vietnamese refugees needed help and sponsorship to come over to America and my family was sponsored.

A folk singer helped my father start his first restaurant.

The kind of food they served was really my mom's cooking.

She's very critical, she has an amazing palate.

My mom spent her whole life in the kitchen to support us, to be at work, she worked seven days a week.

Every day, every day, every day 'til 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

She hand picked everything.

I would go with her to the supermarket and she would have the owner take out the boxes from the storage, so she can pick through each one of the boxes.

It drove them nuts.

I realized I wanted to be a chef when I was about 13 when I heard about the Culinary Institute of America.

I was so fascinated with chef hats and everybody's in white and everyone just, you know, like in the military.

I did pretty well in school.

I was on Top Chef in 2007.

Winning Top Chef was just an amazing feeling because when I was younger my goal was to be famous before I was 30.

And it happened when I was 29 and the feeling was like wow.

I've worked so hard.

My family struggled so much and ...

I won, like my career is set.

I started doing pop-up restaurants in New York City, We're doing pop-up on a Voyage to Vietnam.

to pursue my passion for Asian-inspired dishes (mumbling) pork belly.

that I personally love to eat and that I want to share with people, doing things I grew up eating This is like a Vietnamese tamale.

that mainstream restaurants won't serve and it's been fun.

And really good feedback and people are loving it.

My philosophy of food is people need to learn how to taste food.

The food is supposed to taste good, not mediocre, not just ok, not just for the party aspect of it.

Everything I cook is always inspired by something that I loved.

I love seafood because even when I was a child in Vietnam, we eat a lot of small fish and I would just munch on the fish, eat all the bones.

I like cooking it much more than meat because it takes a little more skill and you have to be a little more delicate with great techniques.

Maybe that one, let's see the eyes.

Perfect, beautiful.

The message I want to convey in food is definitely in that there's soul.

There's someone passionate behind the dish.

And I just hope they can see that, see the balance and the care that I put in there.

Flavor is culture, I think.

Like the Latino says, "Sabor!"

It's soul, it's flavor.

Thank you.

Hi, Sara.

- Hung, hello!

How are you?

How was the train ride?

- It was good.

Took a little nap, you know.

- I love trains.

What have you got?

- Some vegetables.

Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes.

- Terrific, come on in.

What do you think of my garden, isn't that something?

- It's beautiful.

- Yeah.

- Beautifully manicured.

- [Sara] (laughing) Just like me.

(lively music) Hi, I'm Sara Moulton.

Welcome to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Sustainable surf is on the menu today and my guest is a Top Chef winner and a graduate of my Alma mater and his name is Hung Huynh.

And I'm so excited to have you here!

- Thank you for having me.

Yes, and he's a complete expert on fish which is what we need, and shellfish since we're discussing sustainable surf.

And also just cooking with fish, which so many people are scared of, I don't know why.

Alright, we're getting started.

The first thing we're making is ... - We're going to grill shrimp with a lettuce wrap, heirloom tomatoes and cucumber and lots of herbs.

Mint, cilantro, and scallions, my favorite.

- Yes, well, it sounds like you're ... You grew up in Vietnam, so this is sort of a Vietnamese kind of simple sandwich.

- Vietnamese-inspired, you know, it's a great way to have gluten free or almost like a wrapped salad that you can just hold on to your hand.

I'm going to be mincing garlic.

I'm going to show you a really good way to peel them, if you need to peel like 80 cloves.

- Like when you're doing chicken with - Exactly.

- 40 cloves.

- 40 cloves of garlic, right so, I'm going to cut these up and then we'll shake it in a bowl and then ... - Oh, I like tricks, this is fun.

This is what makes us happy in the kitchen, all these silly little things.

- These what makes our day a little easier once we learn these, we'll kind of feel a little special.

- We just feel like geniuses.

You've got to be magic in the kitchen.

Alright, so wait a second, let's slow down.

So you've got those in there.

- You get two metal bowls, but it sounds really good or you can get like a pot and a lid.

So we have to go and (loud rattling) shake it up like this.

- Wow, is this like a boy thing?

Is this like boys like these?

Or is this a musician thing?

- Feels like you're having fun, make a lot of noise.

- Or this is a kid thing.

See?

- [Sara] Oh, wow.

- [Hung] Now we go ahead and mince.

- [Sara] Wow, I like that.

Boy, there is an aroma of garlic coming out of there.

So now we're going to ...

I'm sure you're going to make fast work of that.

- [Hung] So I'm just going to slice it real thin first.

- [Sara] While you're doing that, tell me what you should be looking for when you go to buy shrimp.

- Well, I like to buy smaller size like 16-20s because the bigger they are, the tougher the meat is I think, a little chewier, just like lobster.

- Gotch ya, alright so you said 16-20s?

- 16-20s, U10s, U12s are max.

- Now what he's talking about, you can keep chopping while I explain this, is that they say small, medium, large, doesn't mean anything anymore.

So you have to think about how many ... 16-20 means there's 16 to 20 shrimp in one pound.

So you'll get used to the number of shrimp you like in a pound and you will focus on what size those are, but just saying small or medium or large is not going to help you, look at the shrimp and think about the size.

Ok, so you added some ... - This is a basic marinade.

I love garlic, tons of garlic.

- I do, too.

- Yeah, it just tastes better.

- What's life without garlic?

- [Hung] So a little olive oil or grape seed oil, whatever oil you may have.

- [Sara] You like the grape seed too?

- [Hung] I love it.

For a barbecue, I thought I'd throw some hot sauce in there, add a little spicy little detail.

Black pepper, I love crushed black pepper.

Very coarse, that's my preference.

And of course some salt.

- Some salt.

So while we get that on the grill, let's talk about sustainable shrimp.

What kind of choices should we be making because you can buy shrimp from around the world?

- Most farms in Canada and the U.S. have great practices versus some countries that we don't know exactly what's going on there.

- Are we ready to get the shrimp on the grill?

- [Hung] Yes.

- [Sara] What's the temperature grill?

- [Hung] Medium-high.

We'll grill each side for about a minute and a half, two minutes depending on how much shrimp you have on.

- [Sara] So it's pretty quick.

- It's very quick.

- [Sara] This is a great weeknight meal for that reason.

- It's great for parties, it's great for banquets.

It's good to have small bites, it smells good already.

- [Sara] It does.

- [Hung] The salad is going to have cucumber, scallions, tomatores, and herbs.

While you're doing that I'm gonna start cutting tomatoes.

- Ok. We have some beautiful tomatoes.

So I want to ask you, so you lived in Vietnam until you were nine.

- Yes.

- And then you moved to the United States.

Why did you move to the United States?

- We moved to the United States because my dad escaped after the war.

- Mm-hmm.

- He was one of the boat refugees along with my two older brothers and my uncles and grandfather.

- Wow.

- [Hung] You could only take so many family members with you because there's only so much gold you could have to pay off the people with the boats.

- Wow, are you serious?

- Harvard head serious, cash didn't mean anything back then.

- [Sara] It was gold.

So your dad and uncles came over.

- [Hung] Right and we were sponsored by Arlo Guthrie.

- Arlo Guthrie!

That's my hippie childhood.

Well, childhood, yeah, yeah.

I say childhood, I was a little older.

That's so cool!

- Yeah, it was great because they sponsored my family over and we ...

They stayed at his home.

So he helped my father get started.

- How the heck did you ... Well, ok, we won't go off.

That's for another time.

Arlo Guthrie, I have to get over that one.

- [Hung] It's great, yeah.

- [Sara] So then your dad opened up the restaurant.

- Yes, first Vietnamese restaurant in the county.

- Wow.

- A small little diner.

- What county though?

- Berkshire County.

- [Sara] So you were in the Berkshire's?

- [Hung] Yep, grew up there.

- That's in western Massachusetts.

Beautiful part of Massachusetts.

It's a beautiful part of the country.

- [Hung] By the time I got over here, he was already in the process of opening up a second restaurant.

- And you have a bunch of siblings?

- I have four older brothers.

And I'm the youngest.

- [Sara] Oh, you're the baby.

Your'e the darling.

And then what happened?

So you all grew up in Pittsfield.

- Both my other brothers decided to go to CIA also.

- That's so funny.

Culinary Institute of America, the Harvard of cooking schools.

- [Hung] So shrimp's almost done.

If you look on this one ... - [Sara] You mean where it's opaquing.

- We're getting a little white.

- You can't see through it anymore.

- Can't see through it anymore.

that's when you know it's done.

It's ok to be medium-well.

- [Sara] We'll let that rest for half a second and then we're going to cut it up and we're going to make ourself ...

I've got an idea, while that's resting for half a second, I've got an herb garden.

What do we want to put in the salad?

- I love cilantro, mint.

- Ok, well, I have everything.

You got to come see.

Pretty, so back there you see in the corner?

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

You know about mint, mint just is like rabbits.

They just keep going.

- Beautiful.

- Oh, that's lovely.

Alright.

We're like two brides in a wedding.

(Hung chuckling) Ok, so.

- I love herbs.

- Oh, so do I, oh my god.

I'm so glad that they're finally so readily available.

When I first started cooking it was like a big deal.

- So we're going to take a little tomatoes and we'll mix it right into the bowl.

- You know what, you want to see ...

I have favorite tools, too, I'm sorry.

You can do your garlic trick and I'm going to do my tomato trick.

This is called giant cake lifter, I highly recommend it.

- It's very big, a pie lifter almost.

- Yes, yes, yes.

- So to this mixture, we're going to add ... - How much of that?

- Depending on the mood right now, let's just about three tablespoons.

We're going to add vinegar, salt, and sugar.

- Do you want me to do that?

- Yeah, please.

- Ok, but should we do the ... Why don't I do the herbs first.

I'm going to actually let you season it because I know it's going to be one of those magical things so you add exactly the right amount of everything.

Tell me what happens with the mint.

- I love mint when it's like big chunks.

- Show me one, I'll do the rest.

- Rip it, rip it, you know, natural.

- [Sara] Ooh, this is fun.

Without a knife.

- Without a knife.

I like to do this that way it's ... - I'll do it, I'll do the rest.

- I'll cut some cilantro for now.

Cilantro, I like the stems where all the flavors are.

- I know, it's so amazing.

I don't think people have gotten the message yet that every part of cilantro is usable.

It's one of the few herbs that you can.

- I'm going to go ahead and be generous with this.

- [Sara] Ooh, I love it.

- Now I'm going to go ahead and take the meat off the shrimp tail.

- Now why did we cook it with the tail on if we're now taking the tail off?

- Actually the shell give the shrimp lots of flavor.

I'm going to go ahead and cut the shrimp in big chunks.

- [Sara] Ok.

I'm still going to let you season this because I know you're going to do the magical exact right amount of everything.

- [Hung] Season by eye.

- [Sara] Right.

Ok, so we've got vinegar.

- Vinegar, any vinegar would do.

The most simple one is the white vinegar.

About quarter cup of vinegar.

- That was exactly whatever it was supposed to be.

- Exactly and then about ... - That's kosher salt - just one tablespoon.

- The salt is really important.

- Salt and sugar, it's just always bouncing on the flavors.

- Now this is interesting, these actually get cut or you do something to it.

- If you want to put a lot of shrimp then you keep it whole.

You can go ahead and eat like this, as a big taco.

- Big taco.

- This we can save for chopped lettuce.

- Don't throw anything out.

- Now you want to get really fancy, you can square it off.

- Let's make a few to put on the plate and I'll get us a few more leaves so we can do two more for us to eat.

This is very, very healthy and light.

- [Hung] It's just natural ingredients.

- [Sara] Right.

- [Hung] Pure flavors.

- [Sara] Good, very exciting.

Perfect.

Now this is my idea of lunch.

They could serve this in spas you know.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's so good, ok, well, - It's fun to eat.

- here we go.

- Before we eat, I just want to say I hope you make this.

These are your shrimp lettuce wraps from Chef Hung Huynh.

Wow, mm.

Oh, so good.

- It's a little drippy, but it's ok.

It's worth it.

- So worth it.

(upbeat music) I'm cooking sustainable fish today with Chef Hung Huynh and we're onto whole fish.

Tell me what we're making.

We're making roasted Branzino marinaded with garlic and herbs and sautéed vegetables.

- Yum, very simple.

Ok, so now why did we pick this fish?

- It's a small fish, it's a Bass and it's farm raised and so this is sustainable.

I love using smaller fish because it's sweeter in flavor.

It's less to clean.

Fish should not smell like fish.

It should smell like the ocean.

- As I take the quick whiff.

No, it smells wonderful.

- Smells good to me.

Smells clean to me like clean salt water.

- After it's cleaned we have this.

Ok, let me get it out of the way.

- [Hung] I like to score the fish a little bit just right to the middle of the bone.

- [Sara] The point of this is so that the marinade goes down in.

And with those crevices, you'll get more flavor.

- Right, more marinade can go in and it cooks a little more evenly.

- [Sara] And so here are marinating ingredients.

I'm going to give you the garlic since we now ... How much do we need, we need a couple of tablespoons right?

- [Hung] I think about six cloves.

- Why don't I zest the lemon while you chop the garlic.

So we put our marinade in here - Yes.

- to mix it up?

I do want to talk about these restaurants that you've worked at.

You've worked at Per Se.

You've worked at Guy Savoy.

You've worked at Lespinasse.

Those are like some of the best restaurants in the country!

For every different restaurant you go to, It's always something to learn from that whether it be a cafe or a Michelin star restaurant.

The way you put it is what you really get out.

You can be the best restaurant, but you don't pay attention, you're not going to learn much.

- So I'm going to chop up some parsley and we need two tablespoons of thyme and use a quarter cup of parsley leaves.

- Go ahead, pick off the stems a little bit.

- Let me see, so the last restaurant you worked at was Catch.

- Catch, which is based on seafood, globally-inspired seafood.

- But now you're moving on to your own place.

- Now moving on to a, create my own brand and really promote Vietnamese cuisine.

I'm going to add some paprika in there.

- Where are you going to have this restaurant?

- We're going to start in New York City.

- Nice, so I can come, very good.

- Definitely.

I love olive oil and just be generous, it doesn't hurt.

Salt.

Want me to stir it up a little bit here for you?

And now you marinate these for how long?

- You can marinate it for half an hour, it's fine.

Don't really need to go that long because ... - If it goes too long is that a problem?

- Not that big of problem, but it's going to dry out too much moisture from the fish.

- [Sara] So the salt will do it, yeah.

- I like cooking with my hands - You must, do it.

- You have to touch it to connect to it.

- There's no better tool than that.

- You have to trust the chef.

- [Sara] But if you're in a restaurant, you wear gloves, I know that.

- [Hung] You have to.

- [Sara] But we're going for each other, so ... - [Hung] Go ahead and be generous with that, stuff it in there.

- [Sara] I like this, this is wonderful.

Oh, and you bake them that way.

- [Hung] So it looks beautiful, it looks like it's still swimming, I'm going to do the same thing to this.

- [Sara] Each fish is for one person?

- [Hung] If you like to eat fish, you can have for one.

For me, it's probably two fish per person.

(laughing) - You love fish.

Is that your favorite thing?

- I love fish.

- I'm going to put this in the fridge, you're going to hose down.

And then we're going to go on out and just, while this marinates, we can catch up.

And have a little drink the garden.

Alright, half an hour.

And then we'll come back.

So I have a question.

You won Top Chef, Season Three.

- Yes.

- What was that like?

- It was a great experience of course, if I didn't win it would be a bad experience.

I'm also happy that I won, of course.

- I just can't imagine cooking under that kind of pressure.

What did you make?

- I made everything under the sun.

- Tell me your favorite thing you made.

- The favorite thing I made was sous-vide duck breast with foie gras and truffle jus.

The compliments from the judges were it was a three-star Michelin dish.

- I love duck, too.

- Yeah, I love duck - Ooh, yummy.

We should go check the fish.

- Oh, yes.

- Ok, so this goes in a what, 375?

- [Hung] Yes.

- [Sara] For how long?

- [Hung] 20-25 minutes.

- Alright, so now we're going to make the sauce.

And there we are with these sweet ingredients again, so interesting, ok. - I love blending soy with balsamic.

- Really?

- Because when you reduce the balsamic, it's a little tart, a little sweet.

So I balance that with a little soy, to give it a little more savoriness, a more roundness to the dish.

We're going to start with ... - [Sara] Got a cup?

- [Hung] Oh, a cup.

- [Sara] And how much honey, about ... - [Hung] Two tablespoons.

- [Sara] Ok. And then how much soy sauce?

- [Hung] A quarter cup.

- [Sara] Ok. - We'll let it reduce to about half or to a quarter, a little thick where it sticks to the back of the spoon.

You're going to help me cut some vegetables.

So onions and there's some tomatoes.

I'm going to go ahead and get the garlic going while you do the onions.

Go ahead and generously add about 3 , 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

- [Sara] In the pan?

- [Hung] Yes.

- [Sara] Ok. - [Hung] Ok. For this dish, we're going to cook the onions in a medium heat.

- I know you're just doing a little julienne.

- Julienne, yep.

I'm going to add peppers and the ... - [Sara] Tomatoes go in?

- Yes.

And I'm going to cut the fennel.

Add it in.

I'm going to add a little salt.

- I was going to say you haven't added any salt yet.

- I'm going to add some white wine for liquid for another layer of flavor and acidity.

Don't be shy with your wine.

And again add a little butter.

- You're going to add it now?

- Yeah, so I have a glaze, glaze, reduce.

- Ok, butter.

You keep surprising me.

- I know.

- Want to keep me guessing.

- I'm not shy, so if not add a extra olive oil, it's fine.

- Why not?

- Why not.

A little pepper, lots of pepper, you got to love pepper.

- [Sara] We should go check the fish.

Wow, this looks fantastic.

What do you think?

- It looks amazing.

- Now how do we know it's done, Hung?

- Well, we can stick a little fork or spoon in there and we can just peek at it a little bit here.

Almost, it's coming off the bone.

- [Sara] It's coming off the bone.

- [Hung] And the meat is not translucent anymore, see that?

Look at this, it's falling off.

Look at how amazing that is.

- Now you're going to show us how to bone that out.

But first let's take a look at these vegetables.

Those are beautiful.

- Look at that.

Now the tomatoes have broken up.

- Let me get a spoon just to see.

- And the wine and the tomatoes ... - Look at how thick that is, that's beautiful.

- The butter, the olive oil.

- Yay, that's a homerun.

- It is delicious, look at that.

- [Sara] So that goes underneath.

- [Hung] Yes.

- [Sara] Well, that would be good all by itself.

- [Hung] It's great by itself.

- The vegetarians are all going, "Yay!"

- Minus the butter is fine too, you can put extra olive.

- But that's vegan, that's vegan.

- [Hung] There we go, looks great.

- Take your time for those of us, who need to pay attention.

- I'm just gonna go right on top by the ...

So we're going down the backbone.

- [Hung] Backbone, and slowly take it out.

- Oh, that's so beautiful looking.

- It's ok if it's a little ... - Flakey, who cares?

- It's ok.

Wonderfully moist.

- [Hung] It's natural.

Look at that, look how white the meat is.

- [Sara] And you leave the skin on cause it's perfectly tasty.

- Oh, yeah, I love the skin.

That's where all the ... - So really, nobody should be scared just know where the backbone is and go down either side of the backbone with your spoon.

- Look at that, see the glaze is stick to a spoon.

- [Sara] There you go, yeah.

It coats the back of the spoon.

- This gives it another dimension of flavor, the layer.

- [Sara] I like this, I like all these layers.

This is much more exciting.

- This is let the flavor shine.

- Yes, I agree, we agree on that.

- Make it a pop and a dance.

- Wow, ok!

Well, I've set up a little table in the garden.

Let's go dine.

- Yes.

- So how do you like my garden here?

- Beautiful.

- Wouldn't you love to dine like this every day?

Do you mind serving me because it's so far away?

We've got that, you're familiar with forbidden rice?

It's what they used to save for the emperors it used to be so expensive, but it's really, really healthy rice.

It's wonderfully chewy.

- I love the chewiness.

- [Sara] Yes.

- Fish?

- Oh, you're gonna hold it for me, how nice.

- Here are some vegetables for you.

- We love all these vegetables.

So this would be a good dish, you know, do a whole bunch of them for a crowd just like we did.

I'm even thinking this would be good at room temperature.

- [Hung] It's fine, room temperature.

- Oh, wow, ooh, mm, yikes, so good.

Wow.

Thank you so much for joining me today, Chef Huynh.

And good luck on your new restaurant.

Can't wait to come.

- Thank you.

- Glad you're doing it in New York.

And thank you all for joining us today to learn more about how to cook fish.

I hope you're less scared and I also hope that you choose those sustainable choices every time.

Go to seafoodwatch.org.

I'm Sara Mouton.

I'll see you next time for Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- Cheers.

- Why not, there we go.

I think the rice is good with this, what do you think?

I love it.

The combination is great with the vegetables.

Chewiness is great.

- The chewiness, cause I mean you can serve this with white rice, too, which is lovely and I'm sure you like white rice a lot, but I just think the chewiness is good.

I just like all the things that are going on in here.

There's so many different textures and flavors.

But very deeply seasoned fish could be very bland.

It needs acid, it needs salt, it needs flavor.

Sara's Weeknight Meals continues online.

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And go to our YouTube Channel, Sara's Weeknight Meals TV.

Funding provided by ... - [Voiceover] Family-owned and Indiana-grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals, providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens.

Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Voiceover] Subaru builds vehicles like the versatile Subaru Forester with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room.

A recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Sara] And thanks to the generous support of ...