Cooking Up A Solution

The team at SingleThread works diligently to stay conscious of the community and environment in which we work. With an overabundance of purple urchins ravaging the California coast kelp forests, we have taken it upon ourselves to look at ways we can use these delicious creatures and inspire others to do the same.

Here in Sonoma County, Chef de Cuisine and free diver Aaron Koseba and the rest of the kitchen have come up with dozens of ways to weave the unctuousness of uni into their dishes. Uni-enhanced ponzu and béchamel, enriched brioches and biscuits, and urchin-driven ferments are also appearing at restaurants such as the Willows Inn on Lummi Island and Smyth in ­Chicago. The creativity of these chefs in preserving sea urchins might also hold the key to transforming a ­fragile, perishable product into something more stable that can reach a wider audience.

Read more about  Chef Aaron and food scientist Ali Bouzari's pursuit in putting a dent in this ecological epidemic.