Grilling Octopus with Departure's Gregory Gourdet

Welcome back to Chef in the Kitchen, a recurring Eater photo feature where we boldly go where few diners have gone before — into Portland restaurant kitchens — to get a sneak peek of the chef du jour hard at work.

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• First, Gourdet gets his fire hot, lighting a grill fired by petrified wood.
• Gourdet blanches a Spanish day-boat octopus three times before simmering...
• ... in a bath of curry paste, garlic, ginger and cilantro stems.
• After a 90-minute simmer, the beast is removed.
• After simmering for 90 minutes and cooling the octopus, Gourdet peels off the colored flesh, leaving the tentacles intact.
• The tentacles are rubbed with a little olive oil before hitting the grill.
• The grilled octopus is plated with a watermelon "curry," made from toasted and crushed cumin and coriander seeds, which are simmered with turmeric, sweet chili powder, and watermelon.
• The dish is plated with Chinese sausage "crisps," avocado, curry oil, olive oil, pickled watermelon rind, and sea salt.

Onetime hottest chef in Portland Gregory Gourdet knows his way around seafood: Last year, the Departure chef won the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans with an Oregon salmon dish. For these last lingering days of summer, Gourdet hangs onto familiar summer flavors — the smoke of a wood-fired grill, the sweetness of avocado and watermelon, pickle-ly brine — in a slow-cooked and grilled Spanish octopus dish.

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