Show Notes
On this episode of Huntavore, we touch on the fundamental question we all have, as people heavily involved with what is on our plate: Where does my food come from? Nick is joined by chef Adam Diltz, who sheds light on why knowing about his dishes is so important. Along with health and wellness, it brings an understanding of history and valuing the wholeness of what is presented on the plate. So come along on this chat, on this episode of Huntavore.
Chef Adam Diltz, owner of Elwood Restaurant, discusses his passion for food and the importance of knowing where our food comes from. He emphasizes the value of using every part of an animal and the cultural shift away from this mindset. Chef Diltz also talks about his involvement in teaching culinary skills to aspiring chefs and the importance of hands-on experience. He shares his approach to cooking fish, including utilizing the head and collar for dishes like hamachi collar and salmon head soup. Adam Diltz and Nick Otto discuss various ways to utilize different parts of fish and meat to minimize waste and maximize flavor. They talk about making fish soup from fish heads, using fish collars and heads to make fish cakes, and repurposing fish trimmings for salmon tartare. They also touch on the trend of reducing the quantity of red meat and focusing on higher quality cuts, such as grass-fed beef and wagyu. The conversation concludes with a discussion on cooking and enjoying offal, specifically heart dishes.
Takeaways:
- Knowing where our food comes from and using every part of an animal is important
- Culinary education and hands-on experience are valuable for aspiring chefs
- Utilizing the head and collar of fish can create delicious dishes like hamachi collar and salmon head soup Utilizing different parts of fish and meat can help minimize waste and maximize flavor.
- Fish heads and collars can be used to make fish soup and fish cakes.
- Trimmings from fish can be repurposed for dishes like salmon tartare.
- There is a trend of reducing the quantity of red meat and focusing on higher quality cuts.
- Offal, such as heart, can be delicious and should not be overlooked in cooking.
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Show Transcript
Nick Otto (00:00.59)
All right. Well, hey, folks, beautiful morning here in Michigan. I tell you what, the sun is up. It's already getting steamy. I'm still a hot coffee drinker, so we're going to stick with that. I'm not going with the cold brew yet. We're just sticking with the piping hot cup of Joe here this morning, though. We've got a guest from the east side of the country. We're heading all the way out to Philly. We're going to be talking with Chef Adam
Adam Diltz (00:16.515)
you
Adam Diltz (00:27.843)
You
Nick Otto (00:29.646)
Diltz this morning, owner and chef of Elwood Restaurant. Adam, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Adam Diltz (00:37.763)
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Nick Otto (00:42.862)
When I, well, I think I found you basically, I think through the podcast here, I think you've jumped on and engaged on Instagram and listened to a few episodes. and we've, we've gone back and forth on some conversations. and I'm just glad to get on board with someone who is passionate about food like myself, being in the restaurant business, being someone who
Adam Diltz (01:05.251)
You
Nick Otto (01:07.726)
Literally, they wake up in the morning and you think about food, you deal with food and you go to bed thinking about what's coming up tomorrow. Where, where did you get your start with that? When did food really become something that you're like, I am going to put my life's work behind it.
Adam Diltz (01:28.163)
Well, I mean, interesting enough, I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the hunting culture is huge up there. Well, it is in Michigan. It's probably the same. It's probably the same. And, yeah, Michigan actually, here's a quick aside. Michigan's beautiful. When I lived in Chicago,
Nick Otto (01:43.374)
Absolutely. It's part of the Orange Army, is like we like to say.
Adam Diltz (01:56.931)
We would try to back in the days when fine dining restaurants would be closed Sundays and Mondays you didn't have to be open for brunch, you know, we used to take trips my buddies to go fishing over in Michigan beautiful place Like the Muskegon had an amazing time. man amazing time on the Muskegon River You know not a lot like we didn't do it every week, you know what I mean? We because it's still a hike but
Nick Otto (02:09.774)
no way.
Nick Otto (02:16.238)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (02:25.539)
But yeah, it was a beautiful spot. But yeah, anyways, I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the hunting culture is big. You start hunting when you're 12 there. But because of that, I always like to, I mean, I like hunting, of course, but I like to eat it too. So I got into cooking from eating, looking up recipes of.
I mean, everybody eats everything well done back home, you know, they still do, you know, it's a different world from, you know, Philly, the city. But yeah, I mean, I got like Elwood is my grandfather, it was my grandfather's name. And that sort of inspiration though, stems from the hunting culture also, you know, like you take you out hunting when you're young, you shoot a rabbit.
Nick Otto (02:54.126)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (03:21.091)
and then you would just roast it up. I mean, that's what I do. That's one of my signature items is a whole roasted rabbit at Elwood. So I always had it, you know, in high school, my favorite course or whatever you call it, class was lunch, you know, so, so I always liked to eat. I always liked and my, they had a farm, you know, my great -grandparent, I mean, he grew up on a farm, Elwood, but I didn't, but they had a farm and
Nick Otto (03:36.014)
Yeah
Adam Diltz (03:50.883)
So it was always, you know, it was always in the culture, I guess you could say, is, you know, eating food, some of it, growing, you know, the great grandmother, she used to have this huge, well, it wasn't a huge room, but it was like her laundry room where she would have like, every time he went over, she'd have like three kinds of cakes, three kinds of pies.
Five different cookies, cream puffs, doughnut, I mean everything, all the time, you know? And that was even when I was a kid, like I wasn't even the height of when they were farming, you know, back when my, like, say my mom was younger. But anyways, that's how I got into it, because I just like to eat, so.
Nick Otto (04:36.866)
I think that even reflects like you were just saying a minute ago, you'd shoot a rabbit, you'd go and you bring it home, maybe let it hang, but pull it and a whole roast rabbit. You didn't have to guess what was on the plate. You saw the foreleg, you saw, you know, the spine, the bones. And with your restaurant, Elwood, just as I was going through the Instagram
Adam Diltz (04:56.323)
Hehehehe
Nick Otto (05:05.006)
just looking at photos, you keep the head on fish and the pin bones and the spine and fins are right there. And so that's kind of what I wanted to talk a little bit today was kind of that pulse on farm to table. I still run across people who are shy about the idea of eating something that was living, that if it resembles any sort of what it used to be.
Adam Diltz (05:11.363)
yeah.
Nick Otto (05:33.55)
You know, a turkey sandwich, you put up the skin on the turkey sandwich on there, it's beautiful, you see the grain in there, but at the same time, you also know, like, this is off of an animal. It's not the deli roll. You know, the deli roll hides it, and you can have a turkey sandwich without thinking, I'm having a sandwich, yeah. But at the same time, presenting something that is whole in its essence, that whole farm to table.
Adam Diltz (05:34.307)
Hehehe
Hahaha
Adam Diltz (05:41.635)
Love it, yeah.
Adam Diltz (05:49.731)
It's formed, yeah.
Nick Otto (05:59.022)
where we're going to eat every part of it. You're not just having the ribeye. You're not just having filet. You're having all the bits of it. What is that pulse? Especially like in a town like Philadelphia, how are people responding to that?
Adam Diltz (06:01.667)
Yeah
Adam Diltz (06:10.563)
Hmm.
Yeah, well, I mean...
It's rough in general, I think. I mean, yeah, but I'm glad you... Let's clearly say that because one of the themes when I opened was how we used to eat and how we would rel... I mean, America in general, I want to say, has just moved so far away from where our food comes from.
Like you're right, like I say that all the time, like people think that, you know, we've been saying for a long time, people think that like pork comes from the grocery store in a styrofoam, you know what I mean? And I think that like, you know, when you lived on a, if you lived on a farm, like, you know, you're like my mom or whatever, farm life, like you had a better view of the world, you know, there's...
certain things, hey, that pig was cute, you know what I mean? And then it grew up and then we had to slaughter it and sell it. I mean, that's just, that's life. It's not good, it's not bad, it's life. I mean, that's life. And so, especially with industrialization, we moved out of this, of what we used to know, or take for granted, I guess, is that
Adam Diltz (07:41.891)
like we're raising these animals and we're eating these animals that the respect is gone from the plate you know what i mean like that turkey was a living being are you going to respect that you know by like you said you know what i mean i'm just throwing the skin away or or you know what i mean i i think we moved far away from that i mean american i'm this is my opinion
Nick Otto (08:10.638)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (08:11.523)
But, you know, lots of other countries, most other countries in the world, you know, you don't, it's like an affluent thing where you wouldn't even dream of throwing the head of the fish away. You know what I mean? Like my wife's Chinese. I mean, they would never, that's unthinkable. You know what I mean? That's unthinkable. And that was a way that we used to eat too. Americans used to eat too. I mean, and we've moved further. I mean, even the slaughterhouse, I mean, obviously for sanitation reasons too.
But there's this great book, it's called Modernity and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse, or Meet Modernity and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse, and he says how in France when they started doing slaughtering, eventually Paris, they just moved them further and further outside of Paris, which is good for sanitation reasons. But it happened in all the big cities.
But then when Refrigeration claimed, people wouldn't even call it fresh meat then. Can you imagine? Because they got it every single day. They went to the butcher, got their meat, and then they were like, once Refrigeration came, like, wait, what? This isn't fresh? How long has this been in the fridge? Can you imagine? It's crazy stuff. But it's interesting how that sort of, you should check that book out, but it's interesting how that sort of, the culture just changes.
Nick Otto (09:17.838)
Heheheheh
Hahaha!
Adam Diltz (09:38.147)
And I think it's hard. I mean, Philly is a big, you know.
East Coast progressive cities.
Nick Otto (09:50.862)
Absolutely.
Adam Diltz (09:58.723)
lots of people you know like whoa I don't like the fish looking at me you know but I mean other people they have that cheek you know and it's the best part best meat on that head on that fish so I mean it's tough sometimes well like I said there's lots of but one of the things is Philly is a big multicultural city with people from all over the world who are used to that sort of thing you know whole fish frying whole fish
You know, I love a little fried fish like Vietnamese or like the Southeast Asian fried fish. So good.
Nick Otto (10:35.854)
Absolutely. And like, just like you were just saying too, like cultures outside of ourselves, again, they were living that day to day subsistence farming, having, you know, a flock of chickens or having the availability to go and catch a few fish. And that's going to be the week. That's what you're going to have. And you don't want any of that to go to waste. And I think I just in our, in my local area too, the rise of
the cuts that normally weren't sought after are now become those hidden gems because the almighty dollar is not stacking up the way it used to. You know, when the ribeye and the loin is getting super expensive, you know, people are looking around at, well, what are some other cuts? Like we start hearing about, shoot, what's the one, the flat iron, flat iron off beef, off the shoulder blade or even an oyster steak again.
Adam Diltz (11:23.171)
you
Adam Diltz (11:30.467)
Mm -hmm.
Nick Otto (11:33.23)
off the pelvis bone there where butcher shops are finding a way to make it creative. But at the same time, it's like, how can we stretch that out a little bit further? And the closer you get to the slaughter of that animal, the closer you get to that whole aspect of animal you buy in bone in stuff. Well, shoot, you got a base for stock right there. How many people in modern America, I know of several hunters on my own and I try to do the same thing. You know, when I'm done with my turkey bones,
Adam Diltz (11:53.859)
Mm -hmm.
Nick Otto (12:02.542)
I'm making a bunch of stock. When I get my deer bones, we're putting that in the big pot and it's gonna boil over for overnight just to get that sucker the way it was, you filter it out. I'd like to say it lasts long, but it's like, shoot, you go to the grocery store and you get one of those salt laden stocks on a shelf, whether it's beef stock, chicken stock or whatever it is, that stuff goes fast.
Adam Diltz (12:06.403)
yeah.
Nick Otto (12:29.326)
shoot, you make your own pod of stuff. It's got flavor. It's, you know, a lot of aromatics to it. And boom, I was doing it where I would actually take that. That was what I was doing for lunch. I would do, I was like a pint of it for lunch, but it was like, I can't make this stuff fast enough. I'm running, I got to kill more animals just to keep the bones coming in, to keep making more stock.
Adam Diltz (12:30.659)
He he.
Yeah
Adam Diltz (12:47.075)
Yeah, yeah
Exactly, especially if you reduce it down, you know, make an old school red wine sauce, you know, an old school sauce. But yeah, I know, I even, you know what I do? I even just throw, I mean, this is what I do at home. Okay, I'm on a preface, but I, this is out of the restaurant, this is at home for myself. But what I do, I take that bloodshot, you know, shoulder, I throw it in the stock, the bones.
Nick Otto (13:09.23)
This isn't at the restaurant, this is at home.
Nick Otto (13:21.806)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (13:22.211)
You know what I'm saying? Obviously if it's, you know, blood clots, I don't, but like the rib where you would throw that away, I mean, I just throw that in there. It doesn't hurt anything. It just adds more flavor, you know, it's good. I mean, I honestly don't throw it away. You know what I mean? So I use that too in the stock and for a big stock, you know, on venison and stuff.
Nick Otto (13:32.11)
Right.
Nick Otto (13:50.062)
Excellent, excellent. Kind of like, you know, shifting back again, I want to come back to that Elwood, the restaurant feel. It's not only a restaurant. Am I looking at that? Like you go out of lengths or out of your comfort zone of day to day to now teach others what to do. I watched one where you were showing a class, whether it was a culinary class or just people that signed up for it.
Adam Diltz (13:58.115)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (14:11.043)
sure.
Yeah...
Nick Otto (14:18.158)
but you were taking apart a whole salmon and just how engaged they were in the process of, you know, getting those filets off of.
Adam Diltz (14:28.323)
Yeah, that was, well, I'm on the board of, it's a national foundation, but there's one here in Philly. It's called CCAP. I mean, Careers for Culinary Students. And it tries to raise, well, it doesn't try, it does. It raises, the whole point of it is to raise money for scholarships so that kids that are in high school, they're going, high school, like technical, like the culinary.
that they can go to culinary school. So they give out, it's a great program. They have a test and stuff. It's not automatic, but there's testing that they do. And then they can get scholarships to go to culinary school. So it's a great program. It's a national program, but the one in Philly is the one I'm part of. And then that particular one, yeah, we do this like job training thing.
during the summer every year and it's a week long thing where they do, they learn resume writing, they learn basic job skills that show up on time, what's the right time to show up, the basic stuff, which is losing it more and more as we go along. But it's the basic stuff and then also like
Nick Otto (15:51.182)
Hahaha!
Adam Diltz (15:56.963)
They get a class where fish butchery and chicken butchery, which is amazing, you know, because you're never going to have a time when you can just sit there and totally destroy while you, I mean, you have to practice, you know what I mean? You have to practice and, but practicing, you're not going to be perfect. You're going to screw stuff up. So you, you never will ever get that. You know what I mean? Outside of that, like there's not going to be, I mean,
Nick Otto (16:11.562)
absolutely.
Adam Diltz (16:26.755)
You're not coming to my restaurant and screwing up 10 fish that I'm paying for and then I got a cert, right? That's not, that's not gonna happen, you know? So it's an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing. And then that particular class we got salmon, yeah, it was donated salmon. So they got to see salmon butchery, yeah. And we roasted up the, and we roasted up the heads. I made them roast up the heads.
Nick Otto (16:31.342)
Hehehehehe
Nick Otto (16:49.23)
That's awesome. Yo, I like -
You
Adam Diltz (16:57.155)
and try the cheek too, you know, so.
Nick Otto (17:00.878)
Yeah. I'm going to circle back around. We're going to, we're going to talk a little bit about that head. We're going to talk about that cheek. but yeah, like you said, like when there's a teaching aspect and I follow this, I got a couple of buddies who they, like, they bring their deer to me and some of them have been like, here, here's some money. And, you know, just cut my deer up. I want stakes and I want ground. And then I got a couple others that are, you know what? Show me what you're doing here.
Adam Diltz (17:08.163)
Sure.
Adam Diltz (17:24.611)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (17:28.238)
And then that hesitancy with the knife, like they get into now wanting to, I'm like, stick it right in here. It's going to go to the joint. They missed the joint and they're like, shoot. Does it, is it ruined? Is it, you know, can we not use this? And like the thing I keep telling them is like, you know, if this one doesn't look, you know, like you want to take a picture of it, it's not a big deal. The worst of the worst, you're going to get ground burger. And isn't that stuff awesome? Like you can't screw it up.
Adam Diltz (17:40.771)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (17:49.411)
Exactly.
Nick Otto (17:57.23)
Now, like on a fish again, like you want the big fillet, but at the same time you cut one, you know, in the wrong place, or you got to pin out a little bit extra bone there. You know, you're just, you're making more product for patties there at that point. You're going to have more product for fish patties, which everybody loves. You have deep fry those and those things are awesome. But yeah, there's that learning curve. There's going to be that, well, I got to get used to the knife. I got to get used to handling the fish. I got to get used to handling stuff. And then after a while, like,
Adam Diltz (18:19.747)
Yeah
Nick Otto (18:25.454)
Bam, now things, it's clockwork. Riding a bike at that point as well.
Adam Diltz (18:30.723)
Yeah, yeah. I mean I say there's no wrong way to butcher as long as you're using it. You know what I mean? Like there's no wrong way to break down a pig. It's whatever, however you're gonna use the end product. I mean if you're throwing it away, yeah, that's the wrong way to do it. But I mean there's so many different ways. There's somebody like deer, like there's no, there's no wrong way.
Unless you're throwing out, unless you're not eating half of it or you're not eating even a quarter of it. Yeah, exactly. Unless you're just, you know, good old boy style like back in the day, you just take that backstrap and then everything else. You know, that would be the bad way. But I mean, yeah, like you said, if you screw it up, I mean, who cares? I mean, you can just do whatever. You can grind it or you can still use it.
Nick Otto (19:01.198)
Right, unless the whole rib section's going into the dumpster.
Nick Otto (19:27.662)
Absolutely. let's jump into the discussion of, of that fish. So I've got listeners that they've been, they've been calling, they've been crying, they want the fish episode. And so I'm like, beautiful. I got a guy at a Philly who deals. Now I should ask, are you, you're pulling a lot of your stuff, saltwater, we're getting out of these, out of the Atlantic, or is there still a bunch of fresh water, that you're pulling out or putting in your restaurant? Where do you seem to lean heavy on fresh water?
Adam Diltz (19:43.747)
Hehehe
Nick Otto (19:57.486)
or saltwater fish.
Adam Diltz (20:01.091)
Well, see, I do, well, that just comes to the style or what is the end way you're serving the fish. Okay. And in this case, I do like this, so my Dutch, I mean, my restaurant, we focus on like Pennsylvania Dutch, which is I grew up eating, you know, pork and sauerkraut, my family made Scrapple, Shoofly, that sort of thing. So.
I lean towards this and my entrees are like family style for like two people, two to three people. So you're getting a whole fish. So in general, most of, for that aspect of it, it's mostly from like, bigger, shit, like three pounds striped bass or snapper.
For instance, that sort of thing. You know what I mean. And then other times I do, like I do Green Walk Trout Hatchery. So like an hour or two away from Philadelphia, they do trout. When the beautiful walleye from Lake Erie are in, I get some walleye, gorgeous stuff, you know? But yeah, like that.
Nick Otto (20:56.846)
Gotcha. Yep.
Nick Otto (21:14.35)
Mm -hmm.
Nick Otto (21:22.286)
Gotcha.
Adam Diltz (21:22.467)
For the family style entree though, it would be like a bigger fish. Like I could do a trout for, I mean, people, lots of people do whole trout, but not for, it's not quite big enough for two people. You know what I mean? So.
Nick Otto (21:36.398)
Right. Yeah, I'm close to Lake Michigan too. They own the same big lake that you were fishing out of. And I've been on a couple charters where, yeah, you pay the guys to have your fishing license and to take you out and you use their intel. And basically you're just the real guy. You just sit there and just pull on the reel and drink beer. But we pull out some beautiful fish out of that big lake. We're looking, you know, king salmon, lake trout, steelhead.
Adam Diltz (21:42.371)
You
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (21:57.923)
Hahaha
Adam Diltz (22:04.195)
wow.
Nick Otto (22:05.742)
They've, I mean, they're all, they're all stocked in there. There is a wild, there is a wild run of steelhead and rainbow trout still, but it, those go to the big lake and then they work their way up into the rivers as well. my other buddy of mine, he's a big fly fisherman and so loves to just try and get those things on a fly. But the end of the day, like it comes to me, I'm like, you know what? The fight is fun, but.
Adam Diltz (22:29.187)
Hehe.
Nick Otto (22:32.27)
What are we coming home with? Where are we going to do something with these fish? And I've had a chance to play with a few of these fish. I've got either the big fillets, the charter guys, they do a great job of just taking that and then, you know, taking the fillets off for you and then send them home with you. I've got a chance to bring home, you know, fish that I've caught. You know, I've tried the smack it on the head, bleed out the gill and then get it as cold as possible. I mean, we were running through the wintertime, so it was like.
Adam Diltz (22:35.395)
Hahaha
Mm -hmm.
Nick Otto (23:01.166)
Shoot, the water tamp kept that sucker nice and cold. But now I have one of these big fish and it's like, I wanna use as much as possible. I know the fillets there, I know the bellies there and the potential there, but like when we get closer to the head of that fish, we're looking at the head and we're looking at the collar, what are some parts, we mentioned the cheek earlier, but what are ways that I can now take that piece and use it?
Adam Diltz (23:05.027)
nice
Nick Otto (23:30.35)
to its utmost value.
Adam Diltz (23:35.779)
sure, with the head you mean? Or just in general?
Nick Otto (23:37.038)
Yeah, yeah, the head, the collar, everything kind of like up by that gill area that, you know, it gets chopped off. And then in a lot of cases, cause you're fast, it just, it just gets flipped off. I don't want to flip it off. I want it to stay here. I want to utilize it.
Adam Diltz (23:45.923)
Yeah, yeah. Look, look.
Yeah, yeah, well that collar if you do especially if it's a bigger fish, I mean that's
Classic delicacy, you know Japan, you know what? I mean hamachi collar would be so good. You know what? I mean, I mean
Nick Otto (24:06.126)
Is that like a slow cook or is it, is more of like a hot fast and then you pick it at the end.
Adam Diltz (24:12.131)
That'll be like a hot fast. Sometimes fried, but so good, yeah. I mean, you would just take, well, it's a bigger collar. I mean, I never done it with a salmon collar, I guess, but I mean, I guess you could, but, yeah, for sure you could. It'd just be smaller. You just sear that in a pan. And then if you wanted to, you know, drizzle it with olive oil or a little jalapeno or even, you know,
Nick Otto (24:13.23)
Okay.
Nick Otto (24:29.422)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (24:41.859)
Soy sauce if you're so in cilantro, you know something like that And then the head I mean the classic way is I mean in the mech in the restaurants the Mexican guys will be you butcher some salmon and then they make this little Salmon head soup is just like salmon and cilantro some men's so good so So good. I mean a fish head soup, but like we said earlier and you were touching on is that
Nick Otto (25:01.262)
Yeah
Adam Diltz (25:11.683)
Every rest, every culture already knows this stuff, you know what I mean? But yeah, like the salmon head or a soup made with that, even if you don't have to leave it whole, I mean, you could just, like if you're making a chicken soup, grandma style, you boil, you simmer that chicken, you pick the meat, you make your soup. So you could do the same thing. I mean, there's so much meat left over.
You cook those, simmer those heads, pick all the meat off of it, and then you can make a fish soup like that, and it's so good. I mean, lots of people, you know, they're weird, especially rural, old my growing up, you know, it's weird about like fish soups, fish heads, but it's so good.
Nick Otto (25:56.718)
Yeah, no, I like how you simplified that. Like, like, yeah, you don't have to just make the final dish with the head in there. But like, like you said, boil that out, pick the meat at that point. It doesn't it doesn't look like the head. It takes the intimidation factor out of.
Adam Diltz (26:07.075)
Yeah!
Adam Diltz (26:11.651)
Yeah, I mean if your daughter or whatever is like, no, or somebody you don't, your buddy, you don't have to just throw a fish head looking at him out of the soup. I mean, pick that meat, pick the meat out of it after you do it. And you could throw the collar in there and do the same thing. But I mean, I would try to like, I mean, you could either just throw a collar in the oven too. You could throw the whole heads in the oven, drizzle them with whatever your preferred style and then.
Nick Otto (26:19.662)
Hehehehehe
Adam Diltz (26:39.427)
picked the meat too. There's so many meat. I mean, there's such, I mean, you know, there's such good meat there on that back of that head and the cheeks are always a delicacy. I mean, the eyes are good too. Let me tell you another trick we do in the restaurant world is that, so you're butchering. So let's say you get like lots of salmon in, you got salmon on the menu. Okay. You're doing the seared salmon filets, right? Filet in that, filet in that.
salmon that's my phone here let me see. Laying that salmon and you would take a spoon I don't know if it's in that video I told the kids that I don't know if it's in that little take the spoon and you get that you clean that up a little bit if you have to chop it up and then you got salmon tartare you sell that for you know another extra ten bucks you know you got salmon tartare exactly it's a little appetizer that you make more money on you know
Nick Otto (27:17.742)
Yeah, you went right along the spine, right along those fin bones.
Nick Otto (27:31.95)
Yeah, there's your side dish right there.
Adam Diltz (27:38.979)
So that's another trick we do in the restaurant industry. We add that. We make little, yeah.
Nick Otto (27:44.846)
I liked it. I got a little rambunctious with the belly on one of the steelhead that I kept. And I kind of ended up with like the tartar, like the ground already there. And I'd just been in the Midwest. I just did a little mayo mix up, had a little bit of breadcrumb and patted that together. And shoot, man, that was just quick deep fried. And I had myself a quick little snack there of a fish patty. But I felt really
Adam Diltz (27:58.179)
He he.
Adam Diltz (28:05.859)
Hehehe!
Nick Otto (28:15.278)
by doing that again, yeah, there's the crown piece of that fish being the filet, but at the same time, like I didn't let the belly go, I didn't let those pieces go. Utilizing every little bit doesn't have to be like super hard and complicated. That was just a simple matter of me, you know, putting a little bit of mayo binding and getting that into a deep fryer. And same thing with what you're saying with the tartar, shoot, you're not even cooking it at that point. You're just giving it that vinegar and citrus bath.
Adam Diltz (28:25.315)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (28:42.851)
Mm -hmm
Nick Otto (28:43.246)
Mix that up and boom, you got yourself a little side dish there. I think that.
Adam Diltz (28:49.411)
Yeah, put it in a ring mold, put it in a ring mold with some cucumbers and some cilantro and jalapenos and you got yourself a $15 appetizer, you know what I mean? But like, but here's another thing, like you said, I mean, if you just take that initial, whatever your waste is that you think, you take the, or in general, you can say this, like we said with the fish head soup, you just simmer that if you want, or you can just cook it in the oven. You pick all the meat and then you,
Nick Otto (28:59.246)
Right?
Adam Diltz (29:19.107)
you know fish cakes you can just like you just made save all that meat and make fish cakes or you could even cry back and put it in the freezer save it for another day then you can just pop it out mix your mayonnaise bread crumbs and have some fish cakes
Nick Otto (29:33.294)
Yeah. I, yeah, that, that waste not want not mentality. I got that from my grandfather. And so, and I, when I hear that the restaurant business is doing the same thing, like that does get me excited.
Adam Diltz (29:38.339)
Hehehe
Yeah!
Adam Diltz (29:47.875)
Let's hold on money. I mean, people think that the French chefs were there, is that you had to have a perfect bourgeois and a perfect little, you know, your knife cuts had to be perfectly, you know, cubed, this tiny little 1 1⁄8 inch, but I mean, so they think that because of that, there's lots of waste, but in reality, there wasn't much, I mean, there wasn't really much waste. I mean, they'd use it for something. Like if you're Dyson,
Maybe those carrots, I mean, they're going in the stock, the ones that don't make it to the diner. And other things, your tournée and a turnip, I mean, you're making a turnip puree with the scraps or something. I mean, you'd always use all that stuff. Because it's money. I mean, it's money at the end.
Nick Otto (30:20.718)
Absolutely.
Nick Otto (30:35.022)
Yes.
Absolutely. Kind of switching gears. Red Meat out of your restaurant. I see like you're in Fishtown, Berg of Philadelphia. Red Meat, are you seeing where where quantity is going down? yeah.
Adam Diltz (30:53.123)
wait, hang on one second. Can I? Fishtown. I didn't mention this. I don't know why I should have, but so I don't forget Fishtown is from the shad industry that used to be here in this area of Philadelphia. So the shad would run up. I mean, I do it. Actually, I do shad every year. I didn't say that when it's the season. Beautiful fish.
Nick Otto (31:17.421)
Okay.
Adam Diltz (31:22.723)
And I do it like on cedar planks like they used to. But anyways, yeah. Let me, I just want to mention that because I forgot.
Nick Otto (31:25.07)
Ooh, like, yeah, and now I wanna dive in, because I'm excited about this. What river are they coming up in? I didn't look at Philadelphia to see it, but like you said, they're running up. There's a season on Shad. They're coming off. Okay.
Adam Diltz (31:30.819)
Okay.
Adam Diltz (31:37.858)
Well, there's a season on them. It's tough because, I mean, my seafood purveyor, you know, my big seafood purveyor, I mean, I can see in 10 years, I'm not even getting them anymore because there's no, see shad is the biggest fish in the Herring Fin. I actually have a, on YouTube, Elwood Restaurant, I do a shad, American shad video on this fish. But, so it's an oily fish, but it's not oily like,
Nick Otto (31:59.214)
Okay.
Adam Diltz (32:07.971)
a sardine or a mackerel, you know, but it's such a good fish. But there's so many bones. There's like three lines of bones on each side. It's a crazy fish. So many bones. So it sort of fell out of favor. Now they start running.
Nick Otto (32:20.27)
Okay.
Adam Diltz (32:24.643)
In the spring, it seems like it gets earlier every year. Starting down south, and as the water temps rise, they start coming up all the way up through, you know. Here it's the Delaware. They'll run up the Delaware. And so I get them, my seafood purveyor gets them, but they're not necessarily just from the Delaware. They're from like the Bay, Chesapeake and stuff.
Nick Otto (32:48.014)
Gotcha.
Adam Diltz (32:54.371)
But they run, the season goes up until like the Connecticut River, like all the way up. So, but yeah, it was a long history of this fish. I mean, that fish fed the Native Americans for thousands and thousands of years before Europeans came. Yeah, exactly. And they lived on that and they waited for that after winter, you know, that was, you know.
Nick Otto (33:09.262)
before he even showed up, yeah.
Adam Diltz (33:22.691)
Something to look forward to every spring, you know one of the first things to look forward to and then and even that the sturgeon too I mean, there's so many but there you know industry and Delaware is You know, I mean even growing up I grew up next to the Susquehanna River and it's so we never ate anything from there. It's just so Polluted, you know
Nick Otto (33:32.302)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (33:44.942)
Yeah. But as far as that fish town was like the shad was its flag star ship, or I mean the flag star fish. This is what the town was based on. You said it was an oily fish. You said it was a bony fish, but yet here it is this delicacy. What are you doing with like this? Yeah. And shad roe in the inside of it. So you're, you're frying up the shad or the roe.
Adam Diltz (34:02.947)
And Shadrach.
Nick Otto (34:11.566)
You're serving this family style. Are you picking it as well? Like lay out a shad dish a classic shed
Adam Diltz (34:16.803)
I'm serving it family style. So yeah, the Native Americans would take it and use planks, wooden planks, planked sand. Northwestern, the Northwest, I mean, yeah, Northwestern, you know what I'm trying to say. They're known for the sand. I mean, Applebee's in the 90s was doing the cedar plank salmon, right?
Nick Otto (34:45.326)
Absolutely, yeah.
Adam Diltz (34:48.227)
So they're known for that, like the Northwestern region, like Washington, you know, they're known for that, but lots of people did that, stuff like that. I mean, lots of native peoples did that. And so, and around here, they would do it too on like cedar too, also the Eastern cedar. And so I have these cedar planks that I do it. I mean, I used to serve at home. See, here's one thing where I used to do, but it just doesn't sell as much.
Nick Otto (35:13.87)
Yeah
Adam Diltz (35:17.187)
You know, so you gotta find that medium, but I'll fillet it now. Put the fillets on a cedar plank. Now when the colonists arrived and they started doing it, they would like nail bacon on it. But they will put it like this. Like here's the board. So here's the board and then nail that shad over and here's your fire. And so it would cook it like that.
Nick Otto (35:31.15)
Okay.
Nick Otto (35:44.494)
Okay.
Adam Diltz (35:45.155)
and then the colonists will put like bacon over it. And so I serve it with a little bacon. But so I do it in an oven though, I don't have a grill, but I do it on little cedar planks, just like, so it gets that same flavor. But it's a cool fish. I mean, I think it tastes like crab almost, especially when you dip it in butter. I mean,
Nick Otto (36:05.326)
Yeah!
Adam Diltz (36:12.195)
It can be a tedious fish to eat, but it's actually, speaking of crab, I mean, it's no more work than crab dinner, crab feast, you know, cracking crabs, blue crabs.
Nick Otto (36:22.414)
Yeah.
Now this would be something like I haven't been dating in a long time. I've, I've got my wife. I know I'm supposed to be continually dating her as we go on with this marriage. But like you said, it's like a tedious fish. Like I feel like if I, that's a perfect date night meal there. It's tedious. It's you're going to be there a while. And you know, I want to see if my girl can get in there with those fingers, like get that piece of meat out. That's, that's a keeper.
Adam Diltz (36:37.955)
haha
Adam Diltz (36:45.283)
Yeah, I think so too. Yeah.
Adam Diltz (36:52.675)
My wife says she actually speaking of my wife says she was doing that to me when I because like I said she's Chinese and so on our first date I was like you speak Chinese we got to go to Chinatown because they always gave me the you know
Nick Otto (36:55.438)
right there.
Adam Diltz (37:17.763)
Before that I would go there and I get one of those salt and pepper shrimps and maybe like the batter head off. And then I go, no, I got to get the good ones. And so we went there and I got the good ones. And then she ordered this whole fish too. She said she was testing me to see if I was going to like, ew. But I passed, so.
Nick Otto (37:23.406)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (37:35.566)
Yeah, what your reaction was going to be? Yes. I loved it. So you passed. Yeah, I was going to say you passed. Excellent job. You're a keeper. Good work. Good work, Adam.
Adam Diltz (37:46.947)
Exactly exactly
Nick Otto (37:50.894)
man, back, get back and gone that the train that I was thinking of is, you know, I know you, you're very, you fish heavy in that area. but then when we get into to red meat as well, and this is kind of where I think I find myself, this balance of quantity versus quality. I, I know the big 96 or sirloin steak is a, is a cool,
commodity to be able to do. I think it depends on where it's steakhouse you go to. But the same idea, like that whole idea of huge portions of red meat. I think there's kind of been this transition to up in the quality, but yet the quantity is gonna be a little bit smaller. I know for my family, we have switched, we still get beef as a treat, but.
We're really kind of holding it in on venison and I'm finding like each one of those cuts that I'm getting off of it. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's paired down. I mean, the size of the animal, but at the same time, like the quality that I'm getting off of that, that piece of meat is just through the roof in the restaurant world. Are you seeing that same trend where quantity is going down, but quality is going up? Are people looking for.
the wagyu, the prime, or is it still one of those, hey, I'm cool with any sort of sirloin steak.
Adam Diltz (39:22.307)
Well, I think it's complicated. I think that it was, for sure.
definitely pushing that trend. Everybody like me, you know, we all were pushing that COVID hit, you know, and just the prices are so, you know, everything's so much more expensive. And so I think now it's sort of
I mean, you know, a grass fed ribeye, for instance, is smaller than, you know, a typical grain finished, you know, industrial ribeye. So, I mean, it's, there's a big difference, you know? And I would say, I mean, of course there's people that do, they do want that and they do...
like the wagyu there's a big push in I don't know what's going on now but there's like a big wagyu push in the east coast now are you seeing it yeah and then it's I assume they got money
Nick Otto (40:26.99)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (40:31.63)
Or even like the, yeah, you can buy them, you get Wagyu burgers. And I'm at that point, I'm kind of like, wait, what? We're, we're cutting up the Wagyu into little bits. Maybe that was the guys that are learning. They're learning on the Wagyu.
Adam Diltz (40:43.203)
You can get Wagyu burger at Costco. I think there's some people that do, but I think it's harder. It's a lot harder. To be honest, it's a lot harder to do grass -fed beef. It's just so much more expensive.
Nick Otto (41:04.878)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (41:07.043)
And even getting, I mean, I used to get back home, we used to get, well, I guess I did it after COVID, but the farm that I was buying, I mean, they closed sort of, but I was getting half a cow from a farmer. And it's still, it's more expensive. I mean, you gotta sell all those parts. Even though you're getting it, you know.
Nick Otto (41:27.758)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (41:32.579)
$5 a pound say you still get that ribeye for $5 a pound, but you got to sell every single other thing and The things you don't sell I mean the fat, you know You it goes up that price goes up $8 a pound. You know what I mean? So it's it's tough It really is tough it it's
Nick Otto (41:38.702)
Mm -hmm.
Adam Diltz (41:55.939)
I mean, meat is a luxury, you know? I mean, especially beef, like you say, you don't do that. I mean, if you got a freezer full of venison, though, why would you buy? I mean, I don't know why you would buy beef. You don't need to. But, yeah.
Nick Otto (42:06.734)
No, I don't need to, but like my life is a big steak eater. So it's one of those things like if it's a, if it's an occasion, like we go, we go get the, the choice, but at the same time it's like, well, Hey, I can make steak just as well as any beef shoot better. Cause I, I get to handle it. I acquired it. I did it. And that was, you know, I, I appreciate that.
Adam Diltz (42:12.579)
Yeah
Adam Diltz (42:20.547)
You
Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's it's tough sometimes for sure. I mean, I think with like, you know, how expensive stuff is, you know, it gets I mean, and to talk about your first point of you originally saying about how people looking for different cuts. I mean, there was a time when
Well no, it still is most of the time where ribeye, I mean, flank steak, skirt steak, they're more expensive than ribeye, you know? With the carne asada trends and that style of really, really took off and it drove the skirt steak and flank steak insane prices. If you can even get it sometimes, you know? So it was more expensive. Sometimes it still is more expensive than ribeye now.
Nick Otto (43:12.558)
Yep.
Nick Otto (43:19.406)
Yeah. Having your wife be of Chinese descent, how much oxtail goes through your house? Do you get to enjoy oxtail soup? Because I was going to say, that's the buzzer picking right there. I love me some oxtail.
Adam Diltz (43:27.427)
She loves oxtail.
Here's the thing though, Oxtail is the most expensive thing at the grocery store, at Costco, even at the Asian supermarkets. It's expensive. It's crazy how expensive it is. But, because they know that that's their prime piece. That's the prime cut. But yeah, she loves Oxtail.
Nick Otto (43:37.358)
my goodness.
Nick Otto (43:48.654)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (43:53.55)
Exactly.
Nick Otto (43:58.062)
and it's one of those things like I shoot five, 10 years ago. yeah, I picked up a quarter, quarter beef and they had oxtail sitting right there. They had the heart sitting there. I wasn't ready for the liver yet. I wasn't ready, but I was like, what's happening with the oxtail and the heart. And they were like, shoot, they just threw it in a bag and I threw it in the back. I mean, I scored big. I thought I was, yeah, that was high on the hog with that. Yeah. But I've now I've.
Adam Diltz (44:09.891)
Yep.
Hehehehehe
Yeah, yeah
Nick Otto (44:26.158)
I manned up and got after liver too. So anytime I get a chance for OFL, man, I'm in, I'm on it.
Adam Diltz (44:29.411)
Haha.
Yeah, yeah, hearts my favorite part of the animal. I always liked the heart. At least the pickelum too.
Nick Otto (44:36.238)
You
Well, why don't we leave? Yeah. Why don't we leave with that? You need to lay out. Give me your ideal, not your not the restaurant, but I want your ideal heart dish. What are you doing with with either a beef heart, lamb heart, whatever you got in front?
Adam Diltz (44:58.403)
Sure, venison heart will say. Let's say, yeah, well you trim it up. I would, I mean this is what I do, super simple. You trim it up. I would cut it, I cut it into like pieces like that big I would say. If you can get it to that big and then it'll be about a quarter inch thick, you know. Trim it up, you marinate it, a little oil, thyme, whatever herbs you got.
Nick Otto (44:59.854)
Yeah, we can do Venny Hart.
Nick Otto (45:20.27)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (45:29.219)
And then grill, hit it on the charcoal grill. so good. So amazingly good. Mid -rare, you just shh, shh, you know, two sides, you char it up. And if you don't want to grill, I mean, hit it in a cast iron. it's so, man, it's so good. I love it.
Nick Otto (45:38.702)
just darken the outside of it.
Nick Otto (45:49.102)
I think, yeah, it's, I would say for awful that's, that's your gateway. Cause it, it's got such a, such a, meat texture to it. I mean, it is, it's a muscle, it's a working muscle, but it's like, that's that gateway into like, Hey, I, I enjoyed heart. Why was I scared of it before?
Adam Diltz (45:54.851)
You
Adam Diltz (46:02.627)
Yeah, yeah, all my family gives me their hearts too.
Nick Otto (46:10.158)
Yes, we do. We do tacos. So very similar to what you've done. I hit it with a, with a spicy marinade. because the marinade works because it's such a thin muscle at that point. You've, you've taken off those, the membranes on the outside. Shoot it. Yeah. For our deer camp belt or for, archery season, I get all the hearts. I store them up. I clean them up. You get them in the marinade. And by the time we get to, gun season deer camp, we have a night where we just get everybody together.
Adam Diltz (46:12.387)
Adam Diltz (46:18.147)
yeah.
Adam Diltz (46:22.403)
Yeah.
Adam Diltz (46:32.227)
Hehehe
Nick Otto (46:38.926)
It's literally a griddle, you know, a black stone. And I am just holding those suckers down, darken them up, slice them against the grain. And it's just filling, filling tortillas and passing them out. That's our, that's our tradition there.
Adam Diltz (46:43.075)
yeah. yeah. yeah. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's great. That's sounds great.
Nick Otto (46:54.382)
Well, Adam, this has been a great talk. I appreciate the time. Where can my listeners find more about you? How can they follow along with you online? And how can they find information about Elwood restaurant?
Adam Diltz (47:10.275)
Sure, ElwoodRestaurant .com, my website. I also, if you're on Instagram, it's Elwood Restaurant or Chef Adam Diltz. That's me. I do have a YouTube video. I mean, I don't really, I have no interest in being a YouTube or social media star chef, you know what I mean? But I mean, I do have a YouTube, but sometimes I don't do much anymore. Mostly did it in COVID because I had nothing to do, you know what I mean?
Nick Otto (47:37.39)
And...
Adam Diltz (47:38.883)
But it's an old restaurant. Well, I do have a Shad. Like I said, Shad. I do have a venison. Actually, I did a venison shank video over the winter. Yeah. I love venison shank. So good. Yeah. And.
Nick Otto (47:46.03)
nice.
Nick Otto (47:50.734)
Mm -hmm Well good, I know you didn't want to be a big star but hey for the people in this niche of the world They are they're looking forward to getting to know more Yep, hold on just a second Adam and I'm gonna let our listeners on out Folks, I hope you enjoyed this past hour, man I feel like we just went left and right but we found our way all the way upstream. We were talking fish We were talking big salmonella all the way down to
Adam Diltz (47:58.211)
Well, thanks!
Nick Otto (48:19.853)
the, the loved shad, out of Philly. And I hope that maybe you can take some of this stuff that we talked about collars and heads, and apply that into what you are making. Shoot. You put all the effort into getting on that fish, getting the fish into the boat. Let's use every bit of that delicious flesh that it has so graciously offered up to us. So folks, whether it's going to be trying to pick the meat.
off of one of those shads, or if you're going to be filleting out one of those big old Saminoids, make sure the knife you are using is very sharp.
