Fish and chips is a once-a-week special at the Ojai, California, restaurant Rory’s Place. The nostalgic dish — which the owners, siblings Maeve and Rory McAuliffe, grew up eating during family trips to Cape Cod — is served only on Wednesdays. Rory’s Place is also laser-focused on sustainability, serving fresh local produce, seafood, and meat, and giving back to the local farmland by composting and donating scraps.
Head chef Maeve McAuliffe breaks down massive fresh halibut, sustainably sourced from the nearby Ventura coastline, for the weekly fish and chips special. The carcass of the fish is saved to make a fumet, fish stock laden with aromatics. A beer batter is whipped up just before service, to give the fried fish a delicate crunch, which McAuliffe calls an “effervescent pancake mix.” For the dish, two massive pieces of halibut are served on top of fresh fries, that have already gone through a two-day process of blanching before being dipped in the fryer, alongside housemade tartar sauce.
The sisters try to keep their sourcing as local as possible, working with farmers, seafood purveyors, and ranchers in the area. Every vegetable scrap is composted at nearby farms and ranches, creating a “closed loop nutrient cycle” that Maeve McAuliffe says creates healthy soil and future nutrient-dense vegetables. She showcases those fresh vegetables in a roasted cabbage dish, made by slow-roasting a huge slice of the dense vegetable in a wood-fire oven before plating it with a silky pumpkin sauce and winter herbs.
Shellfish and uni sourced from the nearby Channel Islands and Santa Barbara coast are also showcased on the menu, including three different types of oysters (they sell about 2,000 oysters each week), but the most popular dish at Rory’s Place is hanger steaks from Kansas City served with a French roasted-onion sauce, called a soubise. Even the steak scraps are given to a local rancher that will feed them to his pigs and use them in compost.
“Food can taste great and be exciting, unexpected, and delicious and be really good for you,” Maeve McAuliffe says, explaining that customers aren’t just enjoying delicious meals when they dine at Rory’s Place, but are supporting their commitment to ethical ingredients and sustainable practices.
Watch the latest episode of Experts to see how some of the most beloved dishes at Rory’s Place are prepared, including a weekly fish and chips special, charred cabbage, and hanger steak.
