Some call him "Bad Ass Chef."
Why? Well, Jason Munford, at a hulking 6'2", is pretty bad ass. The executive chef at
blu moon bistro, a Ludington sushi and cocktail lounge, once fed gourmet fare to 150 wedding reception guests using a one-burner propane grill.
"I didn't have a choice; the rest of the equipment on site didn't work and I was two hours from my restaurant," says Munford. "That being said, I can pretty much cook my way out of anything."
But Munford has never cut corners to do so. Fresh food, fresh food, fresh food--and still more fresh food--that's the way Munford thinks about, purchases ingredients for, and prepares each of
his culinary creations.
Everyone is familiar with the farm-to-table food movement by now. But what about boat-to-table? It has arrived--at least in Ludington, because Munford serves seafood no other way. What is boat-to-table? Is it freshly frozen seafood trucked in as fast as possible?
Nope. When this chef says "fresh," he's talking cuisine that was swimming until he made the call.
"About 90 percent of my seafood is caught the same day I get it," says Munford. "I'm using whitefish from a company in Muskegon. I ordered 30 pounds this morning--and this is not fish that's sitting there, waiting to be purchased."
"They are catching it for me right now and they'll deliver by the end of the day."
And get this: although their native waters are more than 2,000 miles from his downtown Ludington bistro, Munford has mastered a way to serve scallops, blue point oysters, gulf shrimp, sea bass, mussels and calamari that comes straight from the dock as well.
"I buy it from the East Coast, but I don't use seafood that's transported somewhere else first." Munford says. "The company catches my order and ships it right out so I have it the next morning. Like the 300 oysters I got today. They're really popular, served raw on the half-shell, and, believe it or not, this will only last, maybe, a couple of days. Sometimes I order oysters two or three times a week."
Ditto for most of the local produce that Munford weaves into myriad variations of sushi and other dishes like his Damn Yankee Pot Roast, Southern Carrot Cake, Tree Hugger Sandwich, Mama's Bread Pudding (no raisins in this one, folks; only Michigan-dried cherries will do) and the Tart Tatin dessert created with flame-roasted Fuji apples.
When in season, blu moon customers dine on tender asparagus that is, you guessed it, snapped that morning. So are most of the Michigan-grown baby lettuces, beans, squashes, potatoes, carrots and herbs that dance through the dishes that dot Munford's French and Japanese fusion menu.
This distinctive intermingling of cooking styles, according to Munford, is a marriage of many flavors and techniques--some stemming from his formal education and others from his own tastebuds.
"I'm a French-trained chef," he says. "But I love Japanese food, too, so I taught myself to prepare it."
There you have it--French Japanese fusion.
He is as choosy about the meat he selects as he is the fruits, vegetables and seafood. Every cut of beef, according to Munford, is a hand-cut (to order) U.S. Angus steak. Without exception, it comes from cattle with the finest of organic diets--vegetarian, corn-based and grass-fed cattle. No added antibiotics or hormones.
"I have always supported local businesses and farmers to buy fresh, sustainable ingredients from farm-to-table or boat-to-table," Munford says. "Sustainable, to me, means leaving a green footprint everywhere I can and trying to take care of my surroundings in every way I can think of."
Yet another reason to call Jason Munford the "Bad Ass Chef."
Kelle Barr can be contacted at Kellebarr@gmail.com