- 5/24/2025
Theodora is one of Brooklyn's hottest new restaurants, known for its dry-aged and open-fire-cooked fish. Owner and executive chef Tomer Blechman values the caramelization and umami flavors that only smoke can bring, which you can taste in its Moroccan fish stew, whole butterflied trout, and bone-in branzino. Beyond the grilled dishes, the restaurant also offers a popular crudo selection, featuring red snapper ceviche and Ora King Salmon, as well as bread from its sister bakery, Thea, which supplies sourdough and seeded laffa.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00People come in, they smell the smoke first thing,
00:05and they're like, something good is gonna come.
00:07The heart of the restaurant, there is this open fire flame
00:10that it's a show for everybody.
00:12Open fire cooking, the smoke is kind of like a natural flavor,
00:16something that you cannot achieve any other way.
00:18I think it's just like a way to eat.
00:20Order in chicken, one.
00:21You come here, it's gonna be a little fun.
00:23The servers are really dedicated.
00:25The cocktails are gonna come, super fresh.
00:27It's pretty special, yeah.
00:30We have about five sections of the menu.
00:40We have the section of the crudos,
00:42we have the bread section that comes from the bakery,
00:44and then we have veggies.
00:45On the right side of the menu,
00:46we have the Jasper grill and the Jasper oven.
00:48Really brings in the smoke flavor,
00:50and also bring very nice color.
00:52I think this oven is magic,
00:54and so much we can achieve with caramelization and umami
00:58and the creation of what it makes is amazing.
01:08It's 9.15 now.
01:10We're starting to prep for our chicken over here.
01:12This is part of our large format.
01:14Ignacio is in charge of all the butchering the chickens,
01:18the veggies and deliveries.
01:20The chicken over here, we get a spine out.
01:22We kind of have spatchcock, but we have it.
01:24This restaurant is very focused on fish and seafood,
01:27but this chicken is unbeatable.
01:29People come to this restaurant,
01:30I would always say you have to try this chicken
01:32because this is like one of the best things that we have.
01:35Now, we have to start the process of the marinade.
01:39You need it to marinate for about three to four days.
01:41Nicely sold them.
01:43The chickens are just gonna soak the olive oil.
01:47Then we have the lemons.
01:49We're gonna give it the acidity.
01:51Some serrano, too, to put more of the spiciness.
01:54Thyme, rosemary, and marjoram.
01:57So I'm gonna just like take the chickens
01:59and get all the flavors in.
02:01I cooked a lot of Italian food in my career,
02:03so this is where like Roman cuisine is usually at,
02:06using nature to provide the flavor for the food.
02:10The chicken is now ready to be stored in the walk-in for three days.
02:13We do have these beautiful bones over here.
02:15We're gonna roast inside the Jasper
02:17and make a stock from them.
02:19We're gonna go upstairs.
02:20We have lima beans that are cooking overnight in Jasper oven.
02:22So what we do at the end of the night,
02:24we throw two logs of wood, we choke the oven,
02:27and then we close it,
02:28and then the residual heat's gonna bring smoke to these items.
02:31We figured out techniques from ancient times
02:34where things are cooked underground for 48 hours, 24 hours,
02:38and then we wondered why not do here the same thing.
02:42Me and Chef Vitor, we care about the same things.
02:44We live the same.
02:46We cook the same.
02:48We kind of like explore together what wood fire means to us,
02:52and how do we make it a little more fine touch.
02:58We also look at some fresh logs inside
03:00to start the oven for the rest of the day.
03:03Sometimes we joke around who's gonna start the mother fire today,
03:06and then whoever does it,
03:08start the fire to serve 220 people today.
03:11This is a saver.
03:12It's a life saver and time saver.
03:14Little fan.
03:16We get hickory, cherry, and apple, a mix,
03:20and that's where the flavor comes.
03:26So these beans were cooked overnight.
03:27Now we're gonna puree them.
03:29In the beginning of making this dish,
03:31we had a lot of chicken bones,
03:32and we also, the same week,
03:33we made a special with lima beans,
03:35and we decided to put both together,
03:37and it became a nice addition to our chicken dish.
03:40I'm gonna add a few spoons to our chicken sauce.
03:42It will thicken the sauce
03:44without having to add xantham gum
03:47or, like, some chef-y things,
03:49but this way it's more organic.
03:50And on top of that,
03:51adding the flavors of these lima beans
03:53that was smoked, cooked with garlic,
03:55rosemary, margarine,
03:57and then I was just gonna season
03:59with a little bit of orange juice,
04:01salt of base.
04:03But that's gonna go in the bottom of the plate.
04:07The bakery is basically two doors down.
04:09We have an amazing pastry team and bread bakers.
04:12They produce everything that we have over here,
04:14so everything is coming fresh every day.
04:16There are multiple shifts at the bakery.
04:18The first shift starts at 4 a.m.,
04:20goes until 12,
04:21and then the bread team comes in.
04:23They're here from 5 to 1,
04:24and then the pastry team comes in.
04:26They're here from 6 to 2,
04:27and then the Theodora team comes in
04:30from 9 to 5,
04:32and then the sandwich team is here until closing.
04:35So we are always operating.
04:37A very short amount of time
04:38that this place's lights get turned off.
04:40So this is Camille,
04:42our bread soup for the bakery.
04:43She's about to bake all of our sourdough for Theodora.
04:46The sourdough is used for the whipped ricotta toast,
04:50and they go through,
04:52I would say, about 9 to 10 loaves a night.
04:55The production for that,
04:57plus for the sandwiches,
04:58plus for sale at the bakery,
05:00it's a lot of sourdough that we're producing every day.
05:03I think that Camille and I have, like,
05:05really honed in on what we're looking for,
05:07what Tomer is looking for in a sourdough loaf.
05:10His biggest ask was that the crust was really nice and caramelized,
05:15that it was nice and airy,
05:17it wasn't too dense,
05:18and we've achieved that, honestly.
05:20The ricotta.
05:21Sorry, though,
05:22it's probably the best seller in the restaurant itself.
05:24And the drizzle of the brown butter,
05:26honey, and Maldon, fresh black pepper,
05:28just, like, bring it to the next level,
05:30and people absolutely love it.
05:33Bakery hours and restaurant hours are so different.
05:38Having the bakery openly allows us to produce fresher,
05:43quality ingredients for the restaurant,
05:45which is also really great.
05:46I think it's important because when you go to a restaurant,
05:49you start out with bread, right?
05:51And it's either really good or you're like,
05:53okay, like, this will get me by.
05:55But I think we're different because it's good quality.
05:59I think that you come to Theodora
06:01and you're excited to get a bread dish.
06:08This is what Theodora is all about.
06:12It's a dry-age program that we do over here.
06:15The fat content is going to be higher.
06:17It's going to be less water.
06:19It's going to bring much more flavor
06:21and a little more crispiness.
06:23You can see it with the branzino today.
06:24We're going to put it in the oven.
06:26The skin is going to be incredible.
06:28This is Joel.
06:29He's in charge of the dry-age program.
06:31He's receiving all the fish,
06:32making sure that they're all right.
06:33We have different providers,
06:35and we have to make sure that the fish
06:37is the freshest that he's going to get.
06:39Joel looks at the gills,
06:41make sure that the skin is nice and firm.
06:43He's the guy behind the scenes.
06:45The team dancers,
06:46they've been working in restaurants together for a while.
06:48They take care of the people
06:50that are actually, like, dining in.
06:52They take care of the family meal.
06:54The heart is this guy and Ramon and Ignacio.
06:59We have some fish that are good for crudos.
07:01We have some fish that are good for cooking.
07:04So if you take the red snapper,
07:06dry it for four days,
07:07and then get, like,
07:08a very nice texture for crudo or ceviche.
07:11Kind of like a nice medium dice for the fish.
07:13Each filet, probably like four,
07:15and then the whole fish is going to be eight to ten portions.
07:18As you can see, like, the flesh is, like, much more firm.
07:23It's ceviche style.
07:24Do a little bit of shallots, serrano, celery.
07:27Toss it in.
07:28A lime vinaigrette.
07:29We have pineapple that we grill,
07:31and then we start plating.
07:33We put the vinaigrette, the fish,
07:35and then the pineapple.
07:37Everything comes together really nicely.
07:43We have some fish drying.
07:45The ones on the back just came in fresh about two days ago.
07:49So they're still drying.
07:51They're still getting smoky.
07:52They're still, like, pale white.
07:53I think this one has been around for about two weeks.
07:56It's nice and dry.
07:58Kind of caramelized.
08:00The sugars of the bones of the meat.
08:02And then the smoke is super nice.
08:05And it's going to add a little bit of umami.
08:07And we use it for two preparations.
08:09One's for the piu-piu.
08:11The piu-piu, we use it for the butterfly trout.
08:14And also we use it for the aura king salmon
08:17to add some creaminess to the crudo.
08:19The piu-piu is basically the fish heads
08:21cooked to release all the gelatin of the fish heads.
08:25We strained it.
08:26We reduced it.
08:27So I'm going to put it here.
08:29We cooked overnight the tomatoes.
08:31And then with the oil of the tomatoes,
08:33we're going to use it to emulsify with the piu-piu.
08:38We got a bit of salt.
08:44It's already getting nice consistency.
08:46It's like a mayonnaise, but no eggs, no dairy.
08:49It's just the fish heads and oil.
08:51And we're going to use this big one called our dashi.
08:54Dashi is basically seaweed cooked in water.
08:57And sometimes you can add your own touch to it,
09:00which is some dried bones.
09:02Hatsuobushi, which is dried bonito flakes.
09:04And this is going to be for our sauce, for the hiramasa.
09:09Hiramasa, we dry it for seven days.
09:11We do the dashi.
09:12So the dashi create a little more flavor of the smoke and the umami.
09:16Then to plate, make a little drizzle of the honey habanero.
09:20We have an avocado.
09:21We make it nice and char.
09:23I think that when you look, it's stunning.
09:25The way that everything kind of like popped together,
09:27we have some diced shallots that brings a pink intuition to it.
09:30And then I think the hiramasa really is so beautiful.
09:34So we have the branzino.
09:38So those have been in dry ager for about two days.
09:42Now we're going to season them and put the flavor in.
09:46And what Joel is going to do right now is tie up the fish
09:49with all the lemon, garlic, and rosemary.
09:52And put it again in a dry ager to dry for about two to three more days.
09:55The skin is going to get almost like a chicharron, we say.
09:59So really nice and crispy on the outside.
10:02Very juicy on the inside.
10:04Very easy to take off the bone as well.
10:12Right now it's 4.17.
10:14We open the doors in about 40 minutes.
10:16Oven is getting refilled with some heat.
10:18Jules here on the grill.
10:20Say hi, bro.
10:22It's about 20 minutes away from the line outside being filled up.
10:26Usually it's a mix of both.
10:28People that have reservations right at 5 p.m.
10:30And a mix of people trying to walk in.
10:32We are a very hard place to get into.
10:35Every day we have to live up to this standard.
10:41We're going to start our process of building the sauce
10:43for the Moroccan fish stew that we're doing.
10:45It's called haime.
10:46We're going to use the tile fish that we got from Montac.
10:49We're going to start with some oil.
10:50We're going to start building it with some garlic.
10:55Onion.
10:56We're going to put it inside Jasper oven.
10:57And then we're going to smoke it up.
10:58We're going to forget about it for about 20 minutes.
10:59It's much better.
11:00So that's better for building sauces.
11:01Also for grilling stuff.
11:02We're going to put some tomatoes.
11:04Some Korean Gojijang for a little spice and smoke.
11:07Moroccan fish stew.
11:08We eat it on a Saturday.
11:10That's tradition in my family.
11:12It's like a slow cooking.
11:13Very nourishing.
11:14It's a really great way to start the weekend with the family.
11:20We're going to put it inside Jasper oven.
11:22And then we're going to smoke it up.
11:23We're going to forget about it for about 20 minutes.
11:29Your special this evening on the card is wood-fired picanha with our badger flame beet puree.
11:35Every day we reach for the best and today is no different.
11:39Let's have...
11:41Best Tuesday ever!
11:46Order in picanha.
11:47Three on back.
11:48Every night, beginning of service.
11:50First ticket comes.
11:51Start to get energy up.
11:53A bit of hugs.
11:54Get everybody ready.
11:55And now we're service at Teodora.
11:57Right, chef?
12:02So here's our tile fish.
12:03Dry-ish for about seven days.
12:04This is for our Moroccan fish stew.
12:06It's going to go on the grill first.
12:08Get the skin nice and crispy.
12:10Then we're going to preserve the moisture of the fish by putting inside a stew.
12:15A little drizzle of olive oil.
12:17And then inside the oven it goes.
12:19It's going to be about five minutes.
12:21I'm going to add a little bit of gumbo juice.
12:23The smell of the caramelized bits on the corners.
12:25It's just going to elevate the dish to a whole new level.
12:28We use some bucochipollinis for acidity.
12:31We add for texture a little bit of toasted cassava flour.
12:34And for garnish, a little bit of mustard frills.
12:37And that's our Moroccan fish stew.
12:41We get the trout in.
12:43As you can see, it's been four days in the dry-ager.
12:46Oil it up, both sides.
12:48We're going to put it inside the Jasper oven.
12:51Skin down.
12:52So this is going to probably take between seven to ten minutes.
12:55We have a scallion over here.
12:57We charred inside the grill.
12:58We're going to use the peel peel that we did before.
13:01And then the charred scallions in the bottom.
13:03So we want to make sure that the skin is nice and crispy.
13:07One side charmoula.
13:09One side orissa.
13:10Put some lemon juice.
13:11You can experience one side, which is the orissa, a little more smoky.
13:15And the other side, kind of like a little more acidity.
13:17You can always decide which one you like better.
13:20And every day, you're going to change your mind.
13:22You're going to be like, oh my God, the green sauce is the one I like.
13:25And the next day, it's going to be the red sauce.
13:27For the king or salmon, it's dried for seven days.
13:34We take one cold.
13:35It is super duper hot.
13:37And then we kiss it with the salmon.
13:40It gives it a little smoke flavor.
13:41And you eat it with the combo vin and a little ginger.
13:44It's this combination of acidity and smoke together, which is amazing.
13:53Foie Green is a very, very special place to me.
13:56I think also in Brooklyn and New York, there is something about the community over here
14:00that's really important for people to connect with each other.
14:02Feel fortunate to be here.
14:04Feel fortunate to connect to the community.
14:08So chicken, put on the top.
14:10We did a marinade.
14:11Three days passed.
14:12We're going to close both vents.
14:14And then all the smoke and pan-fried chicken, make it nice chocolate.
14:17So we call it like chocolate.
14:19It's like almost like, you know, like when you do like a picking duck,
14:22something that is really nice and smoky and slow cooked.
14:26Nice, beautiful.
14:27We're going to toss it in an anchovy sauce.
14:29And then we're going to take these carrots, toss them in.
14:34Oh, this is the smoked bean sauce.
14:36And the rest.
14:37So a little bit more of like a city in sweetness with the oranges just to finish.
14:44When guests come here, like I think that our hope is just like for them to really be together,
14:50enjoying their company of each other, enjoying the food, explore their palates.
14:54When you come to a place, you want to have an experience.
14:57That's what we want to give.
14:58We want to give an experience that you come and you're like, this was amazing.
15:01Like, I need to tell my friends.
15:03I need to tell my family.
15:04I need to tell more people to come and experience this.
Recommended
13:10
|
Up next
22:58
9:17
13:23
1:34