graduated high school, I knew how to cook.”
From those inauspicious beginnings, a chef was born.
When we start, he lays a wet rag under his fiberglass cutting
board (he uses fiberglass because he can throw it into the
dishwasher) to keep it from shifting around. And he does all his
chopping, dicing, and mincing with a giant cleaver.
“Whoa,” I say when I first see it. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Not at all,” says Davis. “It’s an indispensable all-purpose
kitchen tool. It’s ergonomically designed, it fits right into your
hand. It’s great for chopping; you can break down chickens with it
or fine herbs. In China, they’re universal.”
He finishes chopping the garlic that’s going into the fish
marinade, and then adds: “Cleavers make great scrapers, too.”
When it comes to prepping fish—some might say it’s Davis’s
forte—he is both aggressive and delicate. He uses a stiff boning
knife to cut out the spine of the trout he’s prepping. He uses it to
cut out the bones, too (he leaves the skin intact), and then uses
pliers to pull out the bones he couldn’t get the first time around.
That fish will eventually get cooked on the grill while, on two
very hot burners, we fry up salt-and-pepper Dungeness crab and,
in a different pan, white asparagus with orange and Marcona
almonds. The cooking is fiery and fast and the results are big. The
whole time, though, Davis is focused and intense—much like I
imagine he is when he gets a bite on the line while fishing for
steelhead.