San Diego Seafood:
Then and Now
What this book is all about
This charitable cookbook demystifies San Diego's seafood and fishing history through over 75 traditionally-inspired recipes, insightful historical passages, and stunning images. Driven by California Sea Grant, this charitable cookbook is a community creation composed of contributions from San Diego historians, scholars, fishing families, artists, scientists, home chefs, and professional chefs, and published by Sunbelt Publications. Each recipe features locally landed seafood with ideas for substitutions to help eat with the season, tips from the chefs, fun species facts, and local reflections.
A MULTICULTURAL SEAFOOD HERITAGE
This cookbook's place-based recipes are organized in chapters spanning eight distinct and diverse cultural communities with strong ties to San Diego fishing and seafood.
Histories and anecdotes from descendants and scholars add a depth of human dimension to the diversity and flavors of San Diego's responsibly-sourced seafood, celebrating the lasting cultural impacts of our region's past and present communities.
San Diego Seafood: Then & Now uplifts the human innovations and multicultural influences that have shaped our city's seafood cuisine through generations.
Stay Up to Date on the Project
California Seafood Profiles
Nutritional Information For Institutional Chefs
While many households benefit from direct producer-to-consumer sales of fresh, healthy protein, our most vulnerable populations—the homeless, low-income families, and seniors—face increasing food insecurity without access or means to afford these direct food sources. Institutional meal services stand at the front lines of this challenge, working to connect food-insecure individuals with healthy, fresh, local foods.
This cookbook is provided free of charge to institutional kitchens to bridge this gap by increasing awareness of local seafood and fishermen, and providing professional guidance for acquisition, safe handling, and preparation.
For institutional kitchens that require detailed nutritional data for meal planning and dietary compliance, nutritional information for all recipes will be made available on this website.
Thank You to Our Supporters
Significant charitable donations of time and money from local partners carried San Diego Seafood: Then & Now from development to print and publication.
- Craft Center Culinary Art Studio, University of California, San Diego
- MAKE Projects
- Maritime Museum of San Diego
- Riptide Ceramics
- Zeca Rodriguez, Portuguese Historical Center
- San Diego Ceramic Connection
- Paul Sinicrope
- Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries
- St. Luke’s Church, North Park
- The fishing families of Tuna Harbor Dockside Market
- United Portuguese S.E.S.
- North Park Restaurateurs:
- Corinne Goria & Accursio Lota
- Trattoria Cori Pastificio
- Drew Deckman, 31thirtyone
- Andrew Gerdes, MAKE Projects Cafe
- Luca Zamboni, Gelati e Peccati
- NOAA Fisheries
In theme with the community generosity driving the project, royalties from retail sales of the cookbook will go to three San Diego-based charitable causes.
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.
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.
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.
