Customer Reviews

The Fish Market Cook Book

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This is the most informative fish/shellfish cookbook I have ever read. It discusses how to buy fish/shellfish, how to prepare fish/shellfish, and (of course) how to cook them. It is rather like having a more-benign version of chef Gordon Ramsey in one's kitchen: the incomparable excellence of completely fresh (alive in the case of oysters) fish/shellfish cooked in simple ways that reveal rather than disguise the taste experience. The Fish Market Restaurants began in California, so the cooking philosophy is Californian: grilling whenever possible, and offering simple side dishes such as cherry tomatoes or rice. Of course, there are salads too: my favorites are Caesar salad or warm spinach salad with feta cheese, black olives and balsamic dressing. When the Fish Market opened in Palo Alto they served no dessert: it did not fit with their philosophy of utterly simple and healthy food. Then after a number of years the owners got a note that read: "Don't you think just a little something sweet would be nice? David Packard". That was the beginning of the dessert menu, which now includes creme brulee, cheesecake, and of course, dark chocolate covered strawberries. This book even teaches you how to sharpen a knife, as well as how to clean fish and shellfish. It discusses the changes in texture as the various fish cook. It is awesome in its completeness and adherence to the fresh/simple/wholesome philosophy. And finally, it is warmly humorous: for example, Don Betts described how when he opened a fresh fish market he vowed to describe each fish honestly and accurately. At the time most supermarkets sold rockfish as red snapper because snapper cost more. Betts refused, and described rockfish as rockfish. He explained this to the Greek and Italian ladies who came looking for red snapper, but it was futile: they were looking for red snapper just like in the supermarkets. After a week or so of "honesty and accuracy" he gave up and put the rockcod in a package marked red snapper. "So, you finally got some red snapper!" said the ladies, who bought it delightedly.

This review is about the book, but if you go to the Fish Market Restaurant in Palo Alto you may be waited on by a Stanford graduate student. It is a Bay Area institution, rather like Hewlett Packard. But maybe that also says something about the book: it presumes intellectual curiosity and a desire for competence in whatever one does: buying, cleaning, cooking or even serving the very best fresh fish and shellfish.

This is a great cookbook in fact I just bought two for $18.00 each from The Fish Market Restaurant. Why are these so expensive on Amazon?