Across the Bay with Bon Appétit
In which we braved the waves to fix a fish feast with new friends
We had the incredible honor of being featured in the September Issue of Bon Appétit Magazine – right on the cover, with a basket of crab! The story inside, written by Amanda Shapiro, includes recipes from our new cookbook, which went on sale just last week and beautiful images by Brad Ogbonna, who made the journey from NYC to Homer, Alaska to photograph this piece and the wild Alaska seafood we love.
It was a blustery day in October when Brad and his assistant photographer and friend Daniel Cochran met us in Homer. We had planned to take them out on Kachemak Bay in our family’s skiff, to fish for dinner. The waves at the harbor entrance drenched us immediately, and thrilling as it was to feel livened by the North Pacific and breath the salty sea breeze, we made a short troll around the Homer Spit and headed back in without landing a salmon. As is goes. Fortunately, our Fish Shop near the harbor was stocked with all our favorite seafood!
We called a water taxi with a cabin for a drier ride to bring our crew (Emma, Claire, baby Ingrid, our mom Shelly for baby support, photographers Brad and Daniel) across Kachemak Bay to Emma’s house in Peterson Bay – 20 minutes from the harbor, where we planned to cook some fish together on the fire. We cruised by gull island, admired the fresh snow dusting Poot Peak and the surrounding mountains, and were dropped off in the swell at the staircase leading up the cliff from the sea to Emma’s house.
We set to work starting a fire outside, preparing coals to grill our fish. Our menu included fresh oysters from Alaska Shellfish Farms, grown one bay away by Weatherly Bates and her family, a fillet of wild Alaska sockeye salmon harvested in Western Alaska, dungeness crab landed in King Cove, black cod long-lined from the Gulf of Alaska, and king salmon bellies smoked by Wildfish Cannery in Klawock. Aside from the oysters, all this beautiful seafood is sold in our Fish Shop in Homer and sourced from our trusted processing partners around Alaska. We cooked our salmon on a cedar plank with citrus, sea salt and olive oil over the coals, prepared the black cod smothered in fresh pesto and cherry tomatoes in a cast iron pan, and filled a big pot with water to boil the crab outside. We shucked oysters around the fire while the rest of the meal cooked, and when everything was ready, we sat down together for a seafood feast. Cracking hot crab legs kept our hands warm as we shared fishing stories and a little bit of what makes life meaningful to us with good food and family in this place we call home.
Though we didn’t know much about what the story in Bon Appetit would be at the time–a year prior to publication–we had such a lovely day with our new honorary salmon brothers, who were genuinely interested in learning about Alaska, its fisheries and hanging with us. We learned about their amazing lives as creative professionals and made them a list of some of our favorite places to enjoy on their drive back to Anchorage the next day (Lucy’s Market, The Nordic Spa, Jack Sprat!), lingering over boxed wine until the water taxi rounded the point to take us back to Homer.
The story that was published in this month’s issue includes a beautiful collection of recipes from our new cookbook, alongside photos from our fish feast and an introduction about Salmon Sisters and Alaska Seafood. We had no idea that the story would be on the cover of the magazine until it was in print and a friend sent us a photo of the copy they picked up in their neighborhood Seattle market. We are honored to be published in this magazine, and proud to share the food our family and fishing community works so hard to harvest from the sea with so many. Find the September Issue of Bon Appétit and our story inside on your local magazine stand.
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