From Norway to Houston: The Story of Golfstrømmen
What’s in a name? Take Golfstrømmen.
Golfstrømmen is Norwegian for ‘gulf stream’ — the warm current that flows across the Atlantic Ocean to the Norwegian west coast, that also symbolizes the gastronomic connective tissue that unites the culinary minds of Christopher Haatuft and Paul Qui.
Upon initial glance, Haatfut and Qui may appear an unlikely restaurateur pairing; under the surface, however— where the current flows — anyone who spends time with the two of them quickly comes to understand that they have forged a unique bond over a shared love of high-quality food that is now collectively transporting Haatfut’s signature Neo-Fjordic cuisine to Houston, TX at POST Houston.
Christopher + Paul
Christopher Haatuft is a chef and restaurateur from Norway who runs several restaurants in Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway. He is deeply involved in sustainability efforts through his seafood restaurant Lysverket as well as in his role as an advisor in the impact fund Astanor Ventures.
Paul Qui rocketed the ranks to culinary stardom after winning Top Chef and followed this up with a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. Born in Manila, Philippines and trained in classic French and Japanese cuisine, Qui takes a modernist approach towards food that’s delicious and authentic, yet playful and unexpected. A master at marrying classical technique with local flavors, Qui draws inspiration from Filipino, Japanese, Spanish, and French culinary styles.
Together, the dynamic duo is setting a new standard in the South for what it means to sustainably source seafood and transform the freshest of daily catches into dishes bursting with flavor to each and every customer.
sustainability
In order to honor the sustainability stipulation set forth by Haatfut, Golfstrømmen relies daily upon environmentally friendly seafood suppliers, such as Austin-based Heritage Seafood, to keep the concept’s market and kitchen stocked with the freshest catches of the day, much of it sourced from the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Heritage Seafood’s owner Ben McBride, a chef-turn-fishmonger who was once a chef de cuisine working under Qui at PAO by Paul Qui, shares in the co-restaurateurs’ collective sustainability mindset. McBride, who supplies fresh, Gulf-caught seafood to a bevy of Austin’s top restaurants —provides Golfstrømmen with daily catches of ethically-caught fish sourced from the docks of nearby beach towns such as Freeport, TX.
