Q & A With Lure's Josh Capon

How many great seafood restaurants have bragging rights to a terrific burger?   Lure Fishbar does and Chef Josh Capon has a lot to do it.  His burger won the people’s choice award at last year’s New York Wine and Food Festival.   In fact, this fall, restaurateur John McDonald and Josh Capon are teaming up again to open a burger bar called Burger and Barrel in Soho, which will serve small steaks and chicken paillard.  Pretty impressive for a guy who used to cook chicken parm for his fraternity brothers at University of Maryland.  

Capon has proved himself a versatile chef, as talented with seafood as he is with meat.  Capon trained under Charlie Palmer at Aureole and David Burke, who he credits as his mentor.  “David Burke taught me how to have fun with food,” he explains.  His favorite dishes on the menu are
the steamed branzino with oyster mushrooms, scallions and ponzu, and the grilled daurade with dill gnocchi, agro dolce and tomatoes.

Single/Married/Divorced?
Married

What
did you want to be when you grew up?
An
Oceanographer.  I always wanted to study Dolphins.

What
was your first job in food and what did you learn?
I
was a dishwasher at –15, then a
busboy.  I learned I didn’t want to be a
dishwasher.

You
realized you wanted to be a chef while studying at the University of Maryland.  What dishes did you cook for your fraternity
brothers?  Were any lost on them?  What were you studying at the time?
I
was studying Agronomy at the time, the study of the soil and the conservation
of the environment.  But my parents
didn’t see much of a future in that.   It
just so happened I was spending most of my free time shopping and cooking for
friends.  Weekly dinner parties so to
speak.  Italian night was always a big
one, Caesar salad and Chicken Parm!

Did
you end up going to culinary school or are you self-taught?
After
2 years at the University of Maryland, I transferred to Johnson and Whales in
Rhode Island, with a little pressure from my folks.

What
was the biggest takeaway from your externship at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole?
It
was just an eye opening experience to the restaurant world of NYC.

Who
are your culinary mentors/influences?
I
think by far David Burke.  He really
taught me to have fun with food and not to take it to seriously.  People should have fun while they are eating.

What
is your favorite kind of seafood to cook and why?
I
would say shrimp, just because everyone loves them and they are so versatile
and not to expensive.

What
tips can you give us for picking out, handling and cooking fish?
Always
buy it from a reliable source.  It
should be fresh, pristine and smelling of the ocean. Never slimy and limp. As
far as cooking, keep it simple and light and let the product speak for itself. Season
things well, citrus and fresh herbs and of course S&P!

The
Lure burger won the People’s Choice Award at the 2009 New York Food and Wine
Festival Burger Bash.  Think you’ll win
again this year?   What’s your method for
cooking a great burger and how did you come up with the onion and bacon jam
recipe?
You
never know, but you gotta be in it to win it!  Truth is it’s a GREAT event and just a really
fun night to be a part of, win or lose. We cook our burger on a griddle with
lots of love.  As far as the bacon onion
jam, it was my interpretation of the classic bacon cheeseburger.  I just always hate when you get 2 or 3 strips
of bacon on top of the burger and when you bite in to it all the bacon comes
out.

We
heard you picked up another burger technique from In-N-Out, your favorite West
Coast chain (mine too!). Do you mind sharing it with us?
Yeah,
we spread a little mustard on the burger while its cooking the griddle, when it
caramelizes it gives a very unique flavor.

What
other New York City burgers do you enjoy?
I
love the Burger Joint, the Kobe Sliders at Stanton Social are awesome, and of
course the Black Label at Minetta  Tavern
deserves respect.

The
food at Lure is very different from the food you cooked while you were in the kitchen
at Canteen, which was located in the same space as Lure is today.  Was it
difficult making the transition from the Canteen menu to the Lure menu?  Why the change in the first place?
Canteen
was a great place back in the day, but I think we just felt it was time to
evolve.  When Canteen first opened it was
more of a hot spot then an actual restaurant. 
Towards the end, it became much more of a respectable dining
establishment.  With Lure, we were just
looking to continue in that direction.

What’s
your favorite dish on the menu at Lure right now?
The
grilled whole Dourade or the steamed Branzino.

What’s
your least favorite?
Don’t
really have one, its all good!  If I had
to pick I would say the soft shell crab only because I don’t love them in the
first place.

Any
plans to open a burger shop in the near future, say fall?
Hey
that sounds like a pretty good idea 😉 Yeah we are opening a place called Burger and Barrel. It’s not exactly a
burger shop although we will feature a few burgers.

You’ve been a judge on the Food Network show’s Chopped.  Any plans to do more television appearances?
You certainly have the personality…
You never know, I didn’t get into this business to get on TV, but I hear
that all the time.

Any cookbook or memoir in the works?  Do
tell…
Nothing in the works but sometimes I do think about putting some memories
and recipes down on paper, for now I am to busy putting them on the plate!

Lure
Website: www.lurefishbar.com

Address: 142 Mercer St. nr. Prince Street
Phone: (212) 431-7676