Customer Reviews

Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have always enjoyed fish when I go to restaurants but the fish market and cooking fish scared me. 'Fish Forever' gives me the information to select and cook great seafood dishes. The results of the recipes are spectacular. I am lousy cook, but the recipes are so easy to follow, they improved my cooking. The book is also an interesting look at fishing and the seafood business.

As both an amateur home cook and a devotee of sustainable seafood, I think this is the best sustainable seafood cookbook on the market. The recipes are simple and healthy, and the factual information is well-balanced. I highly recommend this cookbook!

FISH FOREVER: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING, SELECTING, AND PREPARING HEALTHY, DELICIOUS AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD is for neo-pros and chiefs who would choose sustainable seafood, and is written by the owner of the Monterey Fish Market in San Francisco who has supplied such seafood to some of the nation's best chefs. His guide blends an international recipe book with in-depth profiles of both fish types and discussions of fish health issues and concerns. Access to a range of fish types is required, but any library catering to patrons who love to cook seafood must have this, with its bright centerfold of photos and detailed fish cooking insights.

This is a beautiful book, full of great information about different types of fish, fishing practices, and how to buy fresh seafood. I was surprised to find, however, that it only includes 1-3 recipes for each type of fish. There is a chapter on each fish/seafood, with detailed information about it, and then a recipe or two. I thought it was mainly a cookbook, i.e. lots of recipes, but there are probably about 100 recipes total in the book, and since I won't eat or cannot access all types of seafood, my choices are pretty limited.

This book is really a great seafood cookbook. I learned how to search out healthy seafood and then cook it in a simple but tasty way.

This is an absolutely essential cookbook for your kitchen if you are a serious cook. The recipes are beautifully presented, and are not difficult to prepare. They don't require a lot of hard to find ingredients. You know you are eating wonderful food, as it was meant to be prepared. Taste the fish. Can't recommend it more highly.

I think of this as a food book more than a cookbook. It is a book about fish that has a few favorite recipes for each type of fish discussed. The recipes are very good. For example, I am known for my salmon glazes. But the simple tomato basil relish that Paul Johnson recommends has been requested by my wife every time we have had salmon since we got this book. But the philosophy of how to eat fish (which fisheries and and aquacultures to avoid) has changed how we buy fish as well (starting with the humble tuna fish salad sandwich). The index could be improved (e.g., try finding his discussion of farmed vs. wild salmon), not every type of commercial fish is listed and some of the species he discusses have never been seen at our local fish market. But the writing and recipes are both great. Now we just have to wait for the rest of the species to come into season. Highly recommended!

This is a great book if you want to enhance your understanding of seafood and why it is important to support sustainable fisheries. The book starts with a general background regarding relevant issues and then has short chapters on numerous types of seafood that discuss the nature of the species, how and where they are harvested, their status with respect to populations, the impact of harvesting or aquaculture on the environment, and how to select and prepare. The recipes tend to be a little bit on the high cuisine side but they are relatively simple to prepare and the ingredients are generally not exotic. The books ends with very informative sections on health issues and harvesting methods. Reading this book helped me better understand not only the breadth of seafood available, but also how to make more sensible and sophisticated selections. It would be nice if the book had illustrations of what the species looked and if the photographs were not randomly positioned throughout the book without regard to subject matter. However, the layout of the book is both competent and elegant. This is by far the most interesting book on seafood I have read.

This book is invaluable for the knowledge you will gain about so many species of fish, and seems to be written with a very fair and balanced approach towards the importance of preserving the eco-system and not over-reacting. While I prefer my cookbooks to be a little more photo/lifestyle oriented, there is no doubt that the intent here is to inform, and it does a fabulous job of that. Great writing, and the recipes look good, if complex.

Hated fish as a kid, but love it as an elderly guy.
I was fortunate to have an opportunity to fish commercially for salmon before the decline of the fishery. I steadily developed a great appreciation for seafood and the industry. I have not met the author, but I have heard about the good things he has done to support the fisheries.
I have his book, "Fish Forever" and have used this quide to prepare a variety of seafoods. It is a favorite reference.