You may be wondering why our recent menus have not featured Let’s Dish! signature salmon dishes.  Believe me, we miss it as much as you do.  That said, I wanted to explain why these super-popular dishes have gone missing in recent months.

Earlier this spring, our seafood supplier informed us that the area from which we procure our salmon (mostly around Chile) was having some issues with this year’s crop, and the government had temporarily closed the salmon farms in order to ensure their longer-term viability.  The farms must completely start over again before being able to re-grow and harvest salmon, creating a supply issue across throughout the market.

So, what does that mean?  Can’t we get salmon from somewhere else?  Salmon is grown and caught in other places such as Alaska, Canada and Europe.  The problem is that the South American farms were the largest and highest-producing salmon exporters.  That means that everyone is scrambling to buy the salmon that comes from these other places, driving prices way up and availability way down.  This unavailability means we can’t source the size salmon that we require (each filet you receive is about 2 pounds) or the quantity of salmon that we would purchase in a particular month (in any given month that salmon is on, we usually pre-order at least 12,000 pounds!).

So far, all vendors who purport to have an answer to our size and quantity concerns are offering frozen salmon.  As you know, our customers have come to expect only the highest quality fresh salmon– fish that has not been previously frozen.  Although we have tried many samples, none has met our (or your!) high standards — at least so far.  Although we miss salmon, we would not want to compromise the integrity, flavor or quality of our meals by purchasing frozen varieties.

So, when can we expect to see salmon on the menu again?  The short answer is we are not sure.  I meet weekly with vendors to try to get a product that is acceptable to us at Let’s Dish!.  I do have some leads, and am hoping to have a solution to the problem by mid-late fall.

For now, please bear with us.  Enjoy all of our other delicious meals that we offer monthly!  I am sure that once we get salmon back on the menu you will feel that it was worth the wait!