Octopus has gone from ick to menus everywhereOctopus has gone from ick to menus everywhere

Octopus, once seen by diners as too exotic to even try, or, if they did try it, too tough and chewy for their taste, has in the last decade or so gone from ick to menus everywhere.

Over the last 11 years, the cephalopod has increasingly gained acceptance, and diners can now be found eating it grilled, braised, boiled and otherwise at all manner of restaurants, according to the latest research from Datassential MenuTrends. Octopus now appears on 8 percent of restaurant menus, an increase of 6 percent since last year and nearly 80 percent compared to 11 years ago. The phenomenal growth is primarily coming from fine dining, where octopus now appears on 146 percent more menus than it did 11 years ago, but also from casual dining, where octopus appears on 95 percent more menus than it did 11 years ago.

“Lots of people were put off by so many chefs not cooking octopus correctly that it developed a bad rap. They are expecting rubbery, chewy legs with little flavor served over a salad of poorly dressed fennel and citrus segments,” chef Vinson Petrillo said. “Now many chefs have a favorite way to prepare it much more outside the box, and guests in restaurants can appreciate the beauty of the ingredient itself.”

Polipo, a grilled octopus “potato salad” at Tarallucci e Vino’s Union Square location in New York City. Photo: Giada Paolini

​Petrillo has always had some form of octopus on his menu at his Zero Restaurant in Charleston, S.C. Currently, he is offering octopus with crispy lamb belly, eggplant and an herbed condiment, his twist on surf and turf. To ensure the octopus is tender and soaks up all of the flavors, Petrillo first pressure cooks it, then grills it over wood coals to develop a char, and then rests it in aromatic olive oil seasoned with garlic and herbs.

Jeanie Roland, chef and co-owner of Ella’s Fine Food in Westerly, R.I., has also long been serving octopus and has prepared it in a variety of ways, including miso barbecued with soba noodles, as a cold ceviche and Mexican-style with white beans, tomatillos and house-made chorizo.

“Octopus is inexpensive and it’s fun to work with; that’s why chefs are working with it,” Roland said. “Using the whole animal, that’s part of it as well.”

She is currently offering a Provençal preparation as a verbal special. She slow poaches the octopus, slices it and then marinates it with a mix of celery, fennel, Niçoise olives, basil, currants, mint, Espelette peppers, Calabrian chiles, lemon juice and olive oil, and serves it with grilled French bread drizzled with brown butter.

But no matter the preparation, when she makes octopus Roland says she sells out of it.

“We’re really pushing diners,” she said. “People are eating things they normally wouldn’t eat.”

At Oporto Fooding House & Wine in Houston, chef Rick Divirgilio serves Polvo Com Batatas, a wood-grilled octopus dish made with mustard seed, sofrito, coriander and curried potatoes, as well as a house-made octopus salami.

“People are into octopus now because [chefs] are getting more and more creative with it,” Divirgilio said. “We use Portuguese octopus that is slow poached with a cork in the water for tenderizing. We used to sous-vide cook it, but the quantity we go through is way too much.”

Chef Vinson Petrillo’s octopus and lamb belly surf and turf at Zero Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo: Christopher Shane.

At the recently opened Tre Rivali in Milwaukee, which serves Mediterranean-inspired Modern American cuisine with locally sourced ingredients, executive chef Heather Terhune serves olive oil braised charred octopus made with salsa verde and preserved lemon.

“I braise in olive oil at a low temperature because I think it’s the best method to result in tenderization,” Terhune said.

Chef Amy Brandwein is serving wood-roasted baby octopus with potato confit and cotechinata, or pigskin rollups, at Centrolina in Washington, D.C.

“It tastes great and also has great texture [when cooked properly],” said Brandwein. “Octopus can offer the diner elements of the sea without some of the fishy components that turns some people off. It is also high in protein and low in fat.”

But not all diners are ready to take a dive deep with octopus; some first need to just dip their toe in the salty water.

To help diners ease into octopus, Cara Hermanson, executive chef at Tarallucci e Vino in New York City, offers Polipo, an approachable, classic chilled Mediterranean preparation of grilled octopus — a potato salad of sorts — made with with potatoes, celery, mustard aïoli and caper berries, at the restaurant’s Union Square location. Later this summer Hermanson will offer Frutti di Mare, a slightly more adventurous preparation made with octopus, smoked mussels, cuttlefish, pickled mushrooms and Castelvetrano olives, at the restaurant’s soon-to-be-opened NoMad location.

“I’ve always loved octopus,” said Hermanson. “Most people if you get them to try it, they like it.”