Seattle Kitchen takes Spam from ordinary to extraordinary

The idea of a dish including Spam being “extraordinary” might seem a stretch for some, but if anyone can take this canned mean from ordinary to extraordinary it is the Seattle Kitchen crew of Tom Douglas, Theirry Rautureau and Katie O.

During a special edition of The Seattle Kitchen Show recorded in Hawaii at the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, they took a close look at how to make a high-quality dish with this somewhat notorious canned food.

Seattle chef Tom Douglas said in his mind, Spam has no better showing than when it is featured in musubi. Musubi is composed of grilled Spam on top of a block of rice, wrapped in seaweed. “It’s hard to make musubi any better than just seaweed, rice and Spam.”

Scott Toner, executive chef of the Modern Honolulu, added a twist to that: “You can take the Spam and marinate it in teriyaki sauce and sear it off and make it teriyaki Spam musubi.”

Of course, Rautureau’s French roots were as always on display with his suggestion of bringing Spam to a new level. He suggested combining the canned meat with a French brioche bun.

“You can also take the Spam and put in a brioche and make it that way. It actually comes out OK,” says Rautureau. “You just need some good Dijon mustard to go with that.”