Raw: ROE's Seabream Ceviche with Miso Buttermilk

Welcome back to Like a Chef; lifting the lid on restaurant cooking for you at home.

We’re wrapping up our RAW series with a whopper of a dish: a beautiful sea bream ceviche with a punchy umami dressing and a chilli oil that gives it a great kick. Ceviche is one of those things I keep coming back to; partially because my wife keeps requesting it, and partially because it can be as simple or elevated as you like. It’s truly the best no-cook recipe to conclude the series: you’re gonna love it.

RAW is coming to a close, but we’re not going anywhere. We’ll still be sharing recipes twice a week, along with loads of extras including our subscribers-only chat, Q&As, and exclusive behind the scenes content. Subscribe and get in on it all.

Thanks for joining us,

Jack & Will

One of the rules that people in hospitality preach is that you should always, always go to eat at your own restaurant. A great piece of advice, with a lot of good sense behind it.

The issue? I haven’t sat down to eat at Fallow in about 2 years; when I sit down in my own restaurant I feel chronically irked by minute details around me. A waiter might miss out a point about the preparation of a dish, or the timings of the meal might be off kilter and it will all bother me a lot more than it really should. Not exactly the recipe for a relaxed date night.

Still, I’m aware of the advice, and so for the first time in years, I sat down to eat at Roe at the beginning of this summer. It was just starting to get quite warm, so I sat with my family on the terrace overlooking the water and we tasted every dish on the menu. We were about halfway through the meal when it dawned on me: everything just felt too heavy. I had eaten a fried blooming onion with smoked leek mayonnaise, a BBQ lamb shoulder skewer, a chilli octopus flatbread and flamed sriracha mussels. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious — but it lacked something intentionally fresh and light to combat the creeping heat.

The experience was a perfect demonstration of why that ‘rule’ exists: eating my own menu inspired immediate change.

The British summertime is kind of a bizarre time for business. When the sun starts shining and days get longer, you’d expect that restaurants would immediately be packed with Londoners in sunglasses and sandals with Aperol Spritzes in hand. The reality is that British people are incredibly mistrustful. Those first weeks are characterised by a quiet suspicion as opposed to unbridled excitement: ‘will the sun stay? Will it be cold by Tuesday? I bet if I make plans the weather will get shit again…’

But once you get a proper spell of good weather for a couple weeks, Brits begin to feel assured about the good times to come, and business starts to boom.

It’s in these moments that your menu makes a huge difference: if you don’t have fresh salads, light fish dishes and unlimited Rosé, you’re missing the opportunity to deliver what people are subconsciously craving. So during the three weeks that followed my meal, we changed seven menu items and effectively ‘soft-launched’ a menu which would deliver those summer vibes. One of them was among my all time favourite summer dishes: ceviche.

Each summer, my wife and I go to Cornwall with our kids and we’ll take them to Newlyn Fish Market to pick what seafood we’ll be having for dinner. I’ve managed to raise very stoic children who are pretty unphased by seeing their future dinner, alive. A fact I’m bloody proud of. On the first night of our holiday, I’ll always make a ceviche. It’s tradition. Last year, I made one with thinly sliced monkfish, blood orange dressing, and loads of good Spanish olive oil. We topped it with smoked sea salt, fresh blood orange segments, and some picked samphire that the kids and I had foraged that morning. It was almost embarrassingly good.

When we were back in London and my kids were requesting blood orange ceviche instead of chips and beans I realised that 1. My kids are experiencing a childhood that is hilariously different to my own and 2. A ceviche would be an absolute home-run on the Roe menu. That was when we started playing around with a few ideas for the dish that ended up being the sea bream ceviche with miso buttermilk and courgette. For a light dish, this packs an arresting amount of flavour. Umami, creamy dressing inspired by the Peruvian leche de tigre (Tiger’s milk). Fresh zing from the pickled green tomatoes, and an aromatic kick thanks to a final drizzle of crispy chilli oil. It’s a dish that makes you feel like you’re on holiday, no matter where you are. Get your favourite bottle of wine in the fridge, put on some summer tunes — let’s make ceviche.