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Sea change: Abalone farming puts rare delicacy back on menus

Before he started cooking it and serving it in his restaurant, abalone was but a sensory flashback for chef Chris Kobayashi.

He remembers the rare shellfish more as a taste and texture from his childhood, something his family used to have all the time when it was still abundant in the waters of Southern California.

“I grew up with it and then I remember it just disappeared forever,” he said. “It had been so overfished that it was brought to the brink of extinction in our coastal waters.”

Today, the tasty mollusk is back from oblivion and has a permanent spot on Kobayashi’s Paso Robles menu, thanks to Cayucos-based The Abalone Farm—and the foresight of its founder, John Alexander, himself a huge abalone fan…

Read the full article and watch the video at CaliforniaBountiful.com.

sea-change

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