Recipe: Otium’s Smoked Ruby Red Grapefruit with Cured Amberjack, Chicharrones & Yuzu Crème Fraîche

Written by
Chef Tim Hollingsworth’s ”Smoked Ruby Red Grapefruit with Cured Amberjack, Chicharrones and Yuzu Crème Fraîche.” It’s being served now at Otium. (Photo courtesy of Otium) (All photos courtesy of Otium)

Tim Hollingsworth headshotThe opening of Otium made a splash in Los Angeles in 2015. Though situated on The Broad’s campus, it’s not your average museum restaurant. Designed by architect Osvaldo Maiozzi, the restaurant commands a sculptural presence atop Bunker Hill. Otium’s interior and exterior spaces merge clean lines and great city views with raw materials — wood, sleek sheet metal, and walls of glass.

Inside the restaurant, chef and owner Tim Hollingsworth combines a fine dining sensibility with an appreciation for seasonal, sustainable ingredients and a deep love for rustic wood fire cooking. Inspired by produce Hollingsworth buys at the Santa Monica Farmers Market,  the menu includes dishes like “Smoked Ruby Red Grapefruit with Cured Amberjack, Chicharrones and Yuzu Crème Fraîche,” which features three different types of California winter citrus and a tasty fish you might never have heard of. Hollingsworth got his training as chef de cuisine at The French Laundry. Then he opened Barrel & Ashes in Studio City with Bill Chait.

Hollingsworth begins this memorable dish by curing sashimi-ed amberjack for six hours with homemade citrus salt that he makes from lime zest. He then adds contrast and texture to the dish by using a Japanese “Ibushi Gin” donabe-style smoker to infuse the scent of applewood and deepen the flavor of ruby red grapefruit he buys from Bernard Ranch at the farmers market. He tops the cured amberjack and smoked grapefruit with a cool yuzu-flavored créme fraîche, finely chopped scallions and mint, along with chicharrones and red chile slivers for a gentle touch of heat. (Hollingsworth is, after all, from Texas.) You’ll find his recipe below.