A Cookbook TRACKING the history of fishing in san diego while demystifying local seafood
coming to kitchens in early 2025
Thanks to all for your support of this community-contributed cookbook. Your pre-orders and contributions covered the book's printing and publishing expenses. Books will be ready in early 2025 and will be available at local retailers. Follow us on Instagram @discovercaseafood for updates.
Check out our promotional video by local photographer and videographer chris rov costa
learn more about the book's background on this San Diego Magazine Podcast
Preview EXCERPTS OF THE DRAFT COOKBOOK
While the final book design may be different, we hope this excerpted selection of the chapters gives a little flavor of the book ingredients.
What this book is all about
This project is a collaboration among Sea Grant, NOAA Fisheries, local chefs, fishermen, historians, and Sunbelt Publications to create a charitable cookbook for institutional chefs, with copies available for purchase by the general public. The goal is to provide recipes and seafood tips that showcase the stunning diversity and flavors of San Diego’s responsibly-sourced seafood, and the long and rich history of fishing and seafood in San Diego. This cookbook will provide place-based recipes that celebrate the cultural diversity of San Diego’s past and present, and will also include fishery information and fun science facts about each species. Digital resources will accompany the cookbook, including nutritional information for recipes, detailed species information, and short biographies for participating chefs and fishermen.
Why CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONAL COPIES?
The importance of local food sources in maintaining food security throughout international tariffs and pandemics has recently been highlighted, even magnified. Direct producer-to-consumer sales have ensured that fresh, safe, healthy protein continues to make it onto the plates of many households. However, the most vulnerable people- the homeless, low-income families, and seniors- have faced worsening food insecurity with no access or means to afford direct food sources. At the front lines of food insecurity are institutional meal services- struggling to connect masses of the food insecure to healthy, fresh, local foods. We hope to offer this cookbook free of charge to institutional kitchens to help bridge that gap through increased awareness of local seafood and fishermen, guidance from professionals like you for the acquisition, safe handling, and preparation of local seafood, and strengthened connections within our community.
The same food service disruptions caused by tariffs and the pandemic have impacted families, who have become increasingly reliant on local food sources. Our hope is to also strengthen connections between the general public and our sustainable seafood system in San Diego. Furthermore, we hope that the sales of the at-home cookbook can offset at least some of the expenses incurred in the publishing and distribution of the free institutional cookbooks.
THIS BOOK GIVES BACK
Cookbook proceeds will go to three San Diego-based charitable causes that represent themes throughout the book: commercial fishing; community diversity and multiculturalism; and Indigenous efforts to reconnect with the ocean and seafood.
San Diego Fishermen's Working Group - A non-profit organization of San Diego fishermen whose mission is to revitalize San Diego fisheries through community-based management and direct marketing. In 2020, this group also founded and has since co-led the charitable Fish to Families program, currently in collaboration with Craft Meals and Feeding San Diego.
MAKE Projects- A non-profit employment social enterprise whose mission is to empower refugee and immigrant women and youth with the job readiness skills to achieve their dreams. They operate an urban farm, restaurant, and events/catering company to provide paid, real-world work experiences while leveraging the power of food to bring diverse populations together, unite a community, and educate each other about our history, differences, and commonalities.
Indigenous Futures Institute, UC San Diego. Still under development at UCSD, this new institute will consist of programming including education, applied research, hands-on practice, and community engagement that will focus on the preservation of and reconnection to Indigenous foods, culture and ecology; and the advancement of Indigenous food justice and sovereignty. Inspired by the popular Food Justice and Indigenous Food Sovereignty course at UCSD, the institute will also host a demonstration kitchen and a cultural workspace.
cookbook CORE team
This community labor of love has come to life under the leadership of:
Theresa Sinicrope Talley, California Sea Grant, University of California, San Diego
Emily Miller, California Sea Grant, University of California, San Diego
Cynthia Fuller Quinonez, MAKE Projects
Neva Sullaway, Author, Editor, Publishing Consultant
Chris Rov Costa, Words & Pictures Co.
Heather Ponchetti Daly, Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, University of California, San Diego
Sarah Shoffler, NOAA-Fisheries
Riley Davenport, Designer
With assistance from others at California Sea Grant, University of California, San Diego, and Arizona State University
Contact: tstalley@ucsd.edu
Theresa Sinicrope Talley
Emily Miller