August 2007: David Pasternack and Ed Levine’s The Young Man and the Sea, with forward by Mario Batali

What would it be like to learn about stroking doubles from Joe Mauer? Guitar lessons from Prince? Writing a spy novel from Vince Flynn? Perhaps we’re only dreaming, but when you want to get the best instructions, you go to the people who dedicate their lives to the craft and execute at the highest level.

So it is with The Young Man and the Sea (Artisan), by David Pasternack and Ed Levine. Pasternack is the renowned chef of Esca in New York, the man responsible for adding the word crudo—small plates of Italian-style sashimi—to the American gastronomic lexicon. His restaurant is often thought of as the finest seafood eatery in North America, and his devotion to fin fish and shellfish is legendary. He has created seafood dishes that impressed Ruth Reichl enough to say that, “On occasion, the food actually makes me vibrate with pleasure,” and the secret is that Pasternack’s dedication to fish is not confined to the kitchen—he is a fisherman as well, spending several days a week in pursuit of the ‘big one.’

Paired with Ed Levine, a regular contributor to The New York Times dining section, Pasternack stocks this book’s pages with recipes from Esca for every course and for every thinkable method of cooking fish. Tips on how to buy, store, and cook fish and shellfish are riddled with passages that inevitably lead the reader to trust Pasternack implicitly.  

Writing about diver scallops, he speaks of his own ‘diver scallop guy,’ a dude named Alf. Harvesting these succulent bivalves without catching hypothermia is Alf’s stock-in-trade, and Pasternack and Levine successfully capture what it is like to hear a chef and expert fisherman speak as one, providing all the little details that leave the reader in awe of the collective wisdom held on the printed page. How do these guys retain all that knowledge themselves? Passion.

Tackling a recipe from this book, home cooks will feel like they are in good hands. For example, the Seafood Salad Esca begins with a description of Pasternack’s first foray into this dish, then goes on to explain how (and why) to slice the calamari and scungilli, but not the shrimp. Can’t find scungilli or some of the other seafood in the book? Each recipe recognizes that not everyone lives near a bustling seafood market and makes notes on substitutions without sacrificing flavor. If that recipe sounds daunting, know that there are many recipes that the home cook will look at, scratching their head and wondering, “Is this really all it takes for a great fish dish?” Trout Almost Almandine simply calls for butter, olive oil, pistachios, trout, sea salt, black pepper, and lemon. But with Pasternack and Levine walking through the technique, adding unique and expert advice every step of the way, even the most clueless landlubber will be able to unlock the secrets of a great seafood dish.

Buy The Young Man and the Sea at Amazon.com.