Louisiana restaurant GW Fins winning over customers with latest seafood fad: dry-aging

To some seafood restaurants, the fins, scales, and collar of a fish are nothing but waste, but to executive chef Michael Nelson and his team at New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based GW Fins, they’re pivotal ingredients in many of the restaurant’s innovative dishes.

Operating just around the corner from Bourbon Street in the legendary French Quarter of New Orleans, the team at GW Fins is unafraid to employ new strategies in an attempt to elevate the presentation and flavor of its offerings, including a butchering technique Nelson pioneered that yields 60 percent of meat on some fish cuts.

“This came from a sustainability angle,” Nelson said. “[In other words,] how can I use more of this product that I respect, that the fishermen are risking their lives to get, and not have any go to waste?”

Red snapper typically produces about a 43 percent yield when traditionally broken down, but chefs at GW Fins get around 60 percent yield using the in-house butchering approach....

Photo courtesy of GW Fins