{"id":1010194,"date":"2026-08-19T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010194\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T06:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:00:24","slug":"fish-guts-pablo-becker-is-betting-bigger-on-barrio-logan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010194\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish Guts\u2019 Pablo Becker Is Betting Bigger on Barrio Logan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It\u2019s not a stretch. It\u2019s not innovative. \u201cIt\u2019s the bare f**king minimum,\u201d says Herb & Sea<\/a>\u2018s executive chef Aidan Owens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I arrive at the Encinitas restaurant, I\u2019m ready to talk sustainability, farm-to-table stuff, with Owens. \u201cDid you see the chin on that?\u201d he says of the extra big jiggly chin on the sheephead that just arrived with the day\u2019s fresh catch. I did. It was Jay Leno adjacent.<\/p>\n

I learn quickly that he somehow oozes both charm and stone-cold honesty. Maybe he could construct a new dish with chin goo, like he did when he had a bunch of tuna scraps and voila\u2019d it into a smooth and crowd-pleasing \u2018nduja. \u201cI want to know what\u2019s in there,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Herb & Sea<\/p>\n

The instinct to look closer, to dig into what others might discard, says a lot about the chef\u2019s approach. I guide him back to our topic, but he has something else on his mind. \u201cWe\u2019re overcomplicating food\u2014what happened to just cooking good food and having fun with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens grew up on a farm in Byron Bay, Australia, where sustainability wasn\u2019t a concept you chat about so much as a way of life. Think dirt roads, backyard chickens, pulling vegetables straight from the ground, and a mother who believed that if you couldn\u2019t pronounce the ingredients on a package, you shouldn\u2019t eat what was inside.<\/p>\n

Food wasn\u2019t precious or performative. Making it was what you did because you were hungry and that\u2019s still what inspires Owens today. \u201cI like to cook good food because I like to eat good food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His approach to sustainability at Herb & Sea<\/a> began so naturally that it felt just like instinct. \u201cI was just like, \u2018Let\u2019s order food from the people who live and work here,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Herb & Sea<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t he when lives in San Diego? Cities all over the world vie for our goods. Our tuna is sent overseas. Our spiny lobsters hit dinner plates in China and Japan. Not to mention California\u2019s producing a third of the country\u2019s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we outsource when it\u2019s all here?\u201d Owens asks.<\/p>\n

Sustainability, in this context, is about cooking what exists in abundance, nearby, right now. \u201cI love the local fish here. It\u2019s f**king delicious and San Diego citrus, I mean, it is so f**ing good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Instead of importing ingredients, Owens also looks for nearby alternatives. \u201cYou can find really cool things in the local waters,\u201d he says, pointing out that stingray cheeks taste similar to scallops.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Herb & Sea<\/p>\n

Whatever he finds in that sheephead chin might just be the next substitute for marrow. But to make this work, it means getting diners amped up about the slightly unfamiliar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tasting menus, where diners are completely in his hands, become an opportunity to gently push boundaries. \u201cI\u2019ll serve mackerel, because people think they hate it,\u201d Owens says, noting that the abundant local fish can have some fishiness. \u201cBut when it\u2019s fresh, it\u2019s arguably one of the best fish in the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also tweaks the language on the menu so people might feel more compelled to give dishes a try without preconceived notions. He might use \u201clengua\u201d instead of \u201ctongue.\u201d \u201cWhelk\u201d instead of \u201csnail.\u201d When he puts \u201cstingray throat\u201d on the menu<\/a>, he disarmingly calls it \u201cskate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To reduce waste, scraps aren\u2019t always discarded but rather turned into something new. Sometimes they\u2019re smoked, cured or fermented. Apples going bad turn into apple ponzu. Lemons turn to marmalade, which stretches their usefulness far beyond peak season. \u201cAnd it\u2019s super tasty on our pizza,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

What makes the food even richer, is the relationships he\u2019s built with farmers. Though it didn\u2019t always feel natural, Owens sought personal connection first. He recalls approaching a fisherman at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. \u201cI was awkward,\u201d he says. \u201cI went up to him and said, \u2018I like your fish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen\u2019s is now so close to his suppliers\u2014like fishermen Ryan Sebo and Joe Daly\u2014that he gets texted pictures of fresh catches right as they flop on the boat. The messages always ask if he wants first dibs. \u201cI say yes to a lot of fish,\u201d Owens says, noting that Herb & Sea<\/a> can go through 2,000 pounds of seafood a week.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Herb & Sea<\/p>\n

The next evolution of sustainability, in his view, will be chefs working directly with producers such as his alliance with Sebo, cutting out middlemen and purveyors where possible. \u201cIt will put more money in the pockets of the people doing the work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It will mean that chefs can\u2019t just know their local farmers and producers, but they\u2019ll choose to work with the ones who have the best practices. Dining and sustainability will become much less about the final plate. \u201cIt will be more about the impact that plate has on the Earth,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he believes sustainability doesn\u2019t need to be loud. It doesn\u2019t need hashtags. It just needs to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t saving lives. We\u2019re feeding people good food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And yet, in feeding people well\u2014simply, thoughtfully, responsibly\u2014something meaningful happens. Guests leave satisfied. Ingredients are respected. Local ecosystems are supported and food returns to what it has always been at its core: nourishment, pleasure, and a quiet reflection of the place it comes from.<\/p>\n

No buzzwords required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It\u2019s not a stretch. It\u2019s not innovative. \u201cIt\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,92384,1582,276,8364,26150,3549,7264,8735,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1010194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-barrio-logan","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-food-drink","tag-food-news","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-things-to-do-in-san-diego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117120654762335709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}