For many, BATA restaurant in Tucson, Arizona is synonymous with charred food — but BATA offers so much more than just charring.
“"I’ve been working on BATA since 2014,” chef Tyler Fenton told Salon Food. “It took so long to open, but I’m so glad that it did because we learned so much along the way. After opening our Italian-American concepts in Tucson, we wanted to plant our flag and establish a higher-level of standard for kitchen culture and sourcing in Tucson. BATA is our chance to do things the right, and responsible way."
The name itself hails from the Japanese word "rabata," a style of grilling. "It’s a wink to the influence we derive from Japan, while being a cool word. It’s a little mysterious and a nice conversation starter," Fenton said.
The ingredients for all of BATA’s dishes are sourced from within a 400-mile radius of the restaurant.
“Not only does our 400-mile sourcing rule support local farmers and purveyors, but it helps drive creativity,” Fenton explained. “When you have rules like that set in place, it keeps you focused and forces us to learn about the food that grows here in Arizona.”
He added: "Tucson is 400 miles away from the ocean, so the ‘400 rule’ is for our seafood. Most of our ingredients come from much closer in proximity to the restaurant."
This principle also impacts the menu, which shifts from day to day. "Because we source within that 400 mile rule, we open ourselves up to the challenges that our local farmers and purveyors face daily,” Fenton said.
For instance, the restaurant could order 50 pounds of cabbage, but only 20 pounds show up because that’s all that was ready to be harvested that day.
“So, instead of a cabbage dish on the menu for a week, we can only serve it for two to three days, or [as long as] supplies last," Fenton said. "Sometimes our orders are delayed because the harvest window shifts back due to weather –– that has happened with our beet farmer. Of course, we could call someone at any time and order more cabbage from the commodity market, but that’s just not what we do. Because we source so locally, our farmers bring us what they can, when they can."
While some automatically think of meat or animal proteins when it comes to grilling, that's not BATA's focal point. Fenton told me that "it’s somewhat of a personal thing. Eating primarily vegetables is how I’ve grown to eat because you can have more variety in a meal.”
“It’s nothing against meat at all,” he said. “When you sit down at a table, you can have 10 different vegetables with all different taste profiles, so that’s the experience I wanted our guests to have. It keeps things light, it’s a reflection of what’s available and it’s a celebration of the fact that Tucson has a year-round growing season."
In addition to grilling and cooking on the custom-designed hearth, Fenton also incorporates ash, oak and smoke into the dishes. "We use all of the obvious techniques –– like grilling something directly over the open flame –– but we push our creativity to think outside of the box and find unique ways to deliver that smokey flavor," he said.
Fenton said they often take ingredients a step further, pointing to the smoked mushroom garum for which NOMA is famous. There, the ends of mushrooms are dried over a fire and turned into a ferment with rice, koji water and salt, which is then pressed and turned into a liquor used for seasoning.
“The smoky mushroom flavor is [a] night and day difference from what a grilled or fried mushroom would taste like,” Fenton said. “We make the same style ferment with smoked pumpkin and smoked beets, depending on the season."
He also uses ash "to nixtamalize wheat berries for our beef tartare," as well as incorporating it into a dish with honeynut squash during autumn. "I’ve always wanted to incorporate masa in some form on the menu because of our location in Tucson and it’s another one of those things that always pushes our creativity,” Fenton added.
BATA also includes oak wood in lots of their dishes, which, as Fenton puts it, "may come as a surprise to most people because mesquite wood is the most common in the Southwest. But yes, oak does grow in Arizona!"
They opt for oak at BATA because the smoke is more delicate when compared to mesquite.
“Our food tastes different than other restaurants in the area for this reason, so it’s a great conversation point,” he said.
This attention to detail is something carried over into other elements of BATA’s culinary program. For instance, the restaurant is involved in heritage food crop preservation.
"Our whole ethos is to source locally around seasonality while extending the lifespan of each ingredient as long as we can,” Fenton said. “It’s centered around sustainability. We push our creative limits by using offshoots of ingredients that we’d otherwise throw away, such as that smoked onion powder example I gave. This ethos carries over to our bar program, barbata."
At barbata, beverage director Karl Goranowski makes homemade vinegar out of leftover wine, using local yeast to turn it into vinegar.
“Not only does this minimize waste, but it creates an unbelievable product unlike anything you can find on a shelf,” Fenton said. “There’s a ton of ambient yeast in Tucson so it turned out to be the best red wine vinegar we’ve ever made."
BATA’s Chef Tyler Fenton also shared a delectable seasonal recipe that’s reflective of the restaurant’s ethos, but can easily be made at home: Charred summer squash with boshi koji sauce, spiced pecans and alliums.
Note: Just a heads up that the recipe ingredients are listed in grams! Please don't be spooked or intimidated by that; it's a simple conversion (both this and this are good conversion calculators) — we promise.
Charred summer squash with boshi koji sauce, spiced pecans and alliums
Ingredients
1 to 2 standard-sized summer squash
For boshi sauce:
200 grams rice Koji
150 grams sweet potato miso
1,000 grams water
10 grams garlic
250 grams boshi (we use smoked melon, substitute store-bought umeboshi, likely reduce quantity needed for store bought)
650 grams tomato water
50 grams white vinegar
50 grams extra virgin olive oil
150 grams water
For black lemon vinaigrette:
1 whole black lemon(substitute black lime)
400 grams white vinegar
25 grams salt
300 grams grapeseed oil
For spiced pecans:
About 1/2 cup pecans
Ground Cinnamon, Clove and Fennel seed (equal parts)
For pickled onion:
2 to 3 white onions, halved, peeled and thinly sliced
450 grams white vinegar
250 grams water
60 grams sugar
40 grams salt
For garnish:
Chopped fresh herbs, like cilantro and parsley, but whatever you have on hand works
Directions
- Make the sauce: Simmer the first set of ingredients(up to boshi) until Koji is fully softened. Blend with the rest on high until very smooth. Taste and adjust if needed. Should be like a thick dressing, and aggressively seasoned.
- Make the vinaigrette: Blend and emulsify in oil (could substitute just fresh lemon or lime juice with salt and oil).
- Make the pecans: Boil pecans in heavily salted water for 1 minute. Strain. Wait 1 minute, then toss with powdered sugar, spices and salt. Spread on a silpat or silicon mat-lined sheet tray and bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees fahrenheit.
- Prep. the squash: Half the squash and scoop the seeds. Cut the squash into oblique cuts.
- Prepare hot pickle liquid for pickled onions: Combine all ingredients, bring to a boil.
- Place onions in a heat proof vessel. Pour hot pickling liquid over onions, allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate. Prep extra, as pickled onions are great to keep on hand.
- Cook the squash: Toss the cubes with grapeseed oil and salt. Grill in basket directly on fire. You want a nice char on at least one side and to be hot through.
- Put in a bowl and toss with black lemon vinaigrette and additional extra virgin olive oil. Taste for seasoning.
- Plate: In a coupe bowl, place the squash in a wide circle. Fill the circle with room temp boshi sauce. On top of each squash, place pickled white onion. Garnish with herbs (cilantro and parsley, but can play around with that). Spiced pecans on top as well. Add a few drops of quality extra virgin olive oil on the sauce.
