The
Provincetown Seafood Cookbook – Howard Mitcham – (Introduction) Anthony
Bourdain – (Seven Stories Press)
With so many online food outlets, cookbooks find
themselves at a crossroads; they can’t just be a list of recipes and
ingredients, those are over the web. Pretty pictures of delicious looking food
aren’t going to make the difference either, for the same reason. I am sorry,
but cookbooks by alleged super-models with chipmunk cheeks and butter faces
just aren’t believable; I am not buying what you’re selling.
So maybe aspiring cookbook authors or chefs should take
note of the newly re-release of the classic The
Provincetown Seafood Cookbook by artist, storyteller and chef Howard Mitcham.
A perfectly tasty mix of history, fisherman’s tales and seafood is served up
with some original drawings courtesy of the author, with just a nip of salty
sea air permeating this wonderful tome.
You can find original copies of this book for sale online
for hundreds of dollars or settle in to this retro upgrade complete with a new
introduction from late chef and raconteur Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain relishes
his early days in the food industry when someone gifted him a copy of the
original. I think the thing that separates the true culinary masters from the
super-model pretenders is the fact that these folks immerse themselves in not
only the food, but the stories that go into the recipes they create.
Mitcham was one such character; he not only gives you the
tasty victuals, he also steeps you into the history and the details of how he
acquired the recipe or the fish tale that goes with it. This one is as much fun
to read as it is to cook from. It’s easy to understand why for Bourdain, and so
many others this became the go to way finder when the goal was to achieve a
delicious seafood feast.
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