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Brad Makes Gravlax (Cured Salmon)

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Brad Leone trades sourdough starters and hot sauce for a Nordic classic in the newest “It’s Alive.”

Episode 63 of Bon Appétit’s “It’s Alive” finds host Brad Leone back in the test kitchen, this time curing his own gravlax — the salt-and-sugar-cured salmon that’s a staple of Scandinavian breakfast spreads. As always, the technique is only half the show; Leone’s tangents with the crew, from his ball-bearing collection to a running argument over how to say “turmeric,” are baked in right alongside the fish.

• Leone cures fresh salmon fillets in an approximate 50/50 mix of kosher salt and sugar, seasoned with fresh dill and ground peppercorns, for roughly 36 hours under refrigeration.
• The episode includes Leone checking the salmon for pin bones, monitoring the cure, and slicing the finished gravlax thin on a bias.
• Off-recipe detours include Leone showing off his personal ball-bearing collection and a comedic back-and-forth with the crew about the correct pronunciation of turmeric.

Breaking Down the Cure

Gravlax doesn’t involve heat at all — it’s a cure, not a cook. Leone starts with high-quality, fresh salmon fillets and gives them a close check for pin bones before packing on a roughly equal blend of kosher salt and sugar. Fresh dill and ground peppercorns go on next, and the whole thing gets wrapped tightly and left in the fridge for about 36 hours, which is long enough for the salt-sugar mix to pull moisture out of the flesh and firm it up into that classic silky, dense gravlax texture.

It’s the same basic method that’s kept this dish on Nordic tables for generations, and Leone treats it with more care than his usual “It’s Alive” chaos might suggest — checking the fish, monitoring the cure, and finishing with a clean, thin slice on the bias once the 36 hours are up. That slicing technique matters as much as the cure itself; done right, it’s what turns a firm cured fillet into the kind of delicate, almost translucent pieces you’d see draped over a bagel.

The Tangents That Make the Show

No “It’s Alive” episode runs on recipe alone, and this one is no exception. Between curing steps, Leone pulls out his personal collection of ball bearings to show the crew, a detour that has nothing to do with salmon and everything to do with why the series has built such a devoted following. He also gets pulled into a prolonged, mock-serious debate with the production team over how “turmeric” is supposed to be pronounced — the kind of bit that’s become a signature of the show’s loose, improvisational editing style.

Somewhere between the pin bones and the ball bearings, Brad Leone still finds time to argue about how to say “turmeric.”

That mix of real technique and total tangent is the show’s whole formula. Viewers get an actual, repeatable method for curing salmon at home, wrapped inside the kind of unscripted-feeling banter that’s made “It’s Alive” one of Bon Appétit’s most-watched series.

Culinary Uses for Finished Gravlax

Once the cure is done and the salmon is sliced, Leone frames the payoff simply: this is bagel food, breakfast food, snack-spread food. Thin slices of gravlax alongside cream cheese, capers, or crackers is the classic move, and it’s the same use case that’s made cured salmon a fixture of brunch tables well beyond Scandinavia. For anyone who’s watched Leone’s other test-kitchen knife work, the bias-cut slicing here rewards the same kind of patience that shows up in other Bon Appétit knife-skills segments.

If gravlax feels like a leap from Leone’s usual hot-sauce and fermentation experiments, it’s really a natural next step for a host who’s built his reputation on turning intimidating techniques into something a home cook can actually pull off. The same logic that’s carried him through kimchi and koji applies here: salt, time, and patience do most of the work, and the crew’s antics do the rest.

Bon Appétit didn’t announce what’s next for “It’s Alive” beyond episode 63, but Leone’s track record on the series — one odd technique per episode, one running gag per shoot — means the gravlax detour was never going to be the last time his ball-bearing collection or a mangled pronunciation makes the final cut.