Six months ago, New York chef Marc Forgione had hardly heard of fish sauce. Then he watched his chef-partner Soulayphet Schwader using it to flavor nearly every dish at their new Laotian restaurant Khe-Yo.
Now, it’s in all of his restaurant kitchens.
“It’s like a new thing in my arsenal,” says Forgione. “Instead of saying, ‘Let’s add salt or soy sauce,’ it’s ‘Let’s add a little fish sauce.'”
Used at least as far back as ancient Rome, and known today primarily as a flavor enhancer in Asian cuisines, the seasoning made from fermented — read as rotting — fish is about to have its kale moment. Fish sauce is making its way out of the ethnic ghetto and taking its place next to salt in American restaurant kitchens as many chefs embrace its complex profile and ability to intensify other flavors.
“You don’t necessarily see it on menus as an ingredient, but almost every chef I know — no matter what cuisine — has fish sauce in the kitchen,” says chef Andy Ricker, of Portland’s Pok Pok, who has been using fish sauce for decades in his Asian cuisine. “They use it to season. It gives this immediate boost of umami.”