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Your favorite restaurant’s fish with the buttery texture and pronounced taste might not be fresh — and that’s by design . Fishmonger Liwei Liao meticulously dry ages fish in climate-controlled refrigerators, extending shelf life by weeks and coaxing unique flavor from snapper, salmon, mackerel, branzino, tuna, sea bream and more. His fish crops up on menus across the Southland — and across the country — be it in tacos or on fine dining tasting menus.

It’s sold through his Sherman Oaks market, the Joint Seafood, as well as a rapidly expanding wholesale roster that includes some of the world’s most prestigious chefs and restaurants, challenging the perception of how fish is processed and served, helping to eliminate food waste and spreading the gospel of Liao: “Fresh is boring.” “I’ve always said I wanted to change the way fish has been sold, but I never realized that it would have been at this scale,” Liao said. A number of cultures have been aging and curing seafood for centuries, though Liao’s techniques — inspired by the process one might find at a high-end steakhouse — certainly popularized the concept since he opened the Joint Seafood in 2018.



He currently supplies roughly 30 clients on a weekly basis, with another 60 to 70 accounts that purchase less frequently. Liao, 41, works with many of the big players in town, including Brothers Sushi and Damian . Local chain Granville recently began serving his aged branzino across its five locations, .

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