Steve Legato is a freelance photographer specializing in food, restaurant industry, cookbooks and advertising. His work has been featured in Art Culinaire, The New York Times, Food and Wine, Wine Spectator, Food Arts, GQ, Departures, Wine & Spirits, Travel & Leisure, Philadelphia Magazine, Delaware Today, New Jersey Monthly and Main Line Today. He resides just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Visit his website at http://www.stevelegato.com.

An ocean of fish and seafood preparation techniques at your fingertips!

In The Fishmonger’s Apprentice, you get insider access to real life fishermen, wholesale markets, fish buyers, chefs, and other sources—far away from the supermarket, and everywhere the fish go well before they make it to the table. This book is a handbook for enjoying fish and seafood—from fishing line to filleting knife and beyond—and gives you instructional content like no other book has before.

Inside, you'll find:

- Hundreds of full-color, detailed step-by-step photographs teach you filleting, skinning, boning, harvesting roe, shucking oysters, and more

- Extensive interviews with seafood experts as they share their old-world, classic skills

- Tips on eating and buying more sustainably, using the whole fish, head to tail, and making the most of your local fishmonger—good for foodies and chefs alike

- A bonus DVD featuring 12 video tutorials of preparing fish, plus 32 downloadable recipes from master chefs

Whether you're a casual cook or devoted epicure, you'll learn new ways to buy, prepare, serve, and savor all types of seafood with The Fishmonger's Apprentice!

Green, Aliza (text) with Steve Legato (photogs.). The Fishmonger’s Apprentice: The Expert’s Guide to Selecting, Preparing, and Cooking a World of Seafood, Taught by the Masters. Quarry: Quayside. 2011. 208p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781592536535. pap. $24.99 with DVD. COOKING
Of foodstuffs, the preparation of seafood from catch to table may be the most unfamiliar to the consumer. James Beard award winner Green (coauthor, ¡Ceviche!) expands upon her authoritative and encyclopedic Field Guide to Seafood in a tremendously clear-cut visual guide to choosing, cooking, storing, cleaning, boning, and filleting finfish and other seafood. Close-up pictures and explicitly detailed step-by-step directions are delivered by master fishers, buyers, mongers, and chefs and turn what could’ve satisfied alone as an excellent technique guide into a buoyant explication of how to respectfully and sustainably navigate an industry marred by pollution, overfishing, and a general lack of product awareness, all of which is frequently reprocessed into skepticism and fear. The accompanying DVD contains downloadable recipes and video versions of the technique how-tos. VERDICT The “fish to fillet” photography may not be for the squeamish or for animal rights advocates (though more humane cooking alternatives for lobsters and crab are offered), but this is an absolutely indispensable technical resource for seafood cooks and aficionados. Highly recommended.