Williams-Sonoma Savoring Fish & Shellfish

Unlike their small Fish cookbooks, published in 1993 and 2002, which remain among my all-time favorite cookbooks for fish, this Williams-Sonoma cookbook is much larger and far broader in scope. Focusing on fish preparations from around the world, the book features the "best recipes from award-winning international cookbooks," not recipes developed for American kitchens by Williams-Sonoma. As always, the photography is gorgeous, focusing both on individual recipe presentations and on scenic photos from the areas of the world where these fish dishes originate. The emphasis is definitely international, rather than North American. The North America section, which also includes a number of recipes from Mexico, is a mere 39 pages long. The 51-page Asia section features recipes from China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. France is given 45 pages of its own, Italy has 33, and Spain and Portugal have 31 pages. Rock cod, bream, pomfret, carp, porgy, hilsa, cuttlefish, salt cod, fresh sardines, lingcod, fresh anchovies, eel, and sea robins are among the fish featured here--fish not usually found in the local fish market--though the cookbook usually makes suggestions for substitutions (except for the sea robins). Recipe directions are clear and fairly straightforward, though the preparations all seem geared to cooking and then serving immediately, rather than making ahead, a disadvantage for the home cook who may also be entertaining guests at a dinner party. Though I am an adventurous cook (and eater), I have found far fewer recipes here to prepare and serve to guests than I have found in the earlier Williams-Sonoma fish cookbooks, both of which are favorites which have provided me with some of my all-time best recipes. Eel kabobs, monkfish with pine nut sauce, and Vietnamese catfish simmered in a clay pot are interesting to read about, but they are not going to appear at my next dinner party. Additionally, about twenty of these recipes are served European-style, with the fish's head, tail, and skin intact, a presentation which many American cooks (and eaters) will find unattractive. Overall, this is a wonderful resource to have in a culinary library, with recipes which have all appeared in award-winning cookbooks, but most American cooks (even the most venturesome) may find themselves reading this for ideas and then going elsewhere (or to an earlier Williams Sonoma Fish cookbook) for a recipe to prepare for guests. n Mary Whipple