American Seafood:Heritage, Culture & Cookery From Sea to Shining Sea

From prestigious writer, chef, and sustainability advocate Barton Seaver comes a seminal reference on every aspect of American seafood.
With the growing trend to reintroduce US-caught seafood into our culinary lexicon, this trustworthy reference will be the go-to source for home cooks, culinary students, professional chefs, and anyone fascinated by American food culture. American Seafood looks at maritime history, including Native American fisheries; fishing technology (including aquaculture); the effect of imports on our diet, economy, and the health of our seas; the biology of taste; and the evolution of seafood cuisine, from Pine Bark Stew, red and white chowder, Po’ Boys, and Clam Bakes, to Baltimore Crab Cakes, Planked Salmon, Oysters Rockefeller, and Sushi. And although this is not a cookbook, Barton Seaver presents invaluable information on traditional culinary arts and his favorite ideas for taste pairings and preferred methods for cooking seafood. An index of species—with common, regional, and accepted names, all alphabetized—rounds out this must-have volume.

Barton Seaver, the author of Two If By Sea, For Cod & Country, and Where There’s Smoke (all Sterling Epicure), has established himself as the preeminent expert in sustainable seafood. Before leaving the restaurant industry to pursue his interests in sustainable food systems, he created three top restaurants in Washington, DC, and was named Chef of the Year by Esquire magazine in 2009. Seaver’s Washington, DC-based restaurant, Hook, was named by Bon Appétit as one of the top ten eco-friendly restaurants in America. Seaver was an explorer for the National Geographic Society and now works as the Director of the Healthy and Sustainable Seafood Program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The contributing seafood editor at Coastal Living magazine, he and his work have also been featured in The New York Times, Cooking Light, O: The Oprah Magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, the Washington Post, and Fortune, among many others. He has also appeared on CNN, NPR, and 20/20. Seaver was the host of the national television program In Search of Food on the Ovation Network and Eat: the History of Food on National Geographic TV.