Largest King salmon ever sold to home chef
For three years, Ōra King TYEE — the king of King salmon, weighing in at 30+ pounds — have been a hot commodity available exclusively to the best chef customers around the world.
The mighty fish, which have a longer life-cycle than their Ōra King siblings, are harvested only every couple of months and in limited supply. Once the supply is known, a white-glove process of allocating each individual salmon to chefs on a waitlist kicks off, and in a matter of days, the TYEE arrive at restaurants where chefs unleash their grand plans for the extraordinary fish.
Never before has a TYEE landed with a home chef until recently. On January 27, 2021 Robert Palmer — a self-described foodie from Orlando, Florida snatched up the only TYEE available direct-to-consumer in the whole US — one fish, at $1250.
“The fish was beautiful. We started eating it right away – as sashimi, sushi and grilled. The rest of the fish was put in our ThermoKing superfreezer, which keeps fish at negative 70 degrees, so it will stay fresh for a long time.”
Robert is a longtime fan of Ōra King salmon, having seen the product praised by top chefs on Instagram. He has purchased fillets from fish suppliers and was always pleased with the fish’s fat content, marbling, flesh color and clean taste. On Instagram, he has seen chefs receive and prepare TYEE . Finally, through Ōra King salmon’s first direct-to-consumer storefront on the e-commerce site Goldbelly, Robert had the opportunity to grab a TYEE.
“I bought it right away, but thought, ‘Maybe this isn’t real. Maybe it’s a mistake.’ It was not a mistake, and Robert’s 33 lb. whole fish arrived safely from New Zealand last week.”
