WALKING THE TALK
Restaurant 902 Main's Chef Pepin Knows Where His Food Comes From

by Doug Langeland

ATCHING HIM SHOP WE KNEW WE HAD TO TRY THE RESTAURANT

Chef Pepin Weighing His Choices at Mid-Cape Farmers' Market

From the opening day of the Mid-Cape Farmers' Market in late June, one customer stood out. He would show up each Wednesday morning around 9:00 AM in baggy shorts and dark wrap-around shades with a large cup of coffee in hand. While friendly and smiling, he was clearly there to tend to business. Sometimes he would arrive with an elegant woman with killer cheekbones or perhaps with one or two young men.

What really made him stand out though was how much he bought. Potatoes by the pounds, entire weekly harvests of berries, armloads of beets, scores of small squashes, and a great many rose plants. All of this bounty would be carried across the parking lot and loaded into the back of a small pick-up truck. As he shopped we noticed that he lingered at every stand and had quiet conversations with the farmers and vendors. He asked a lot of questions while large quantities of goods were purchased and handshakes and smiles exchanged.

We quickly learned that the customer was Gilbert Pepin, chef and co-owner of Restaurant 902 Main on Route 28 in South Yarmouth. The elegant woman was his spouse, co-owner, and front-of-house manager Kolleen, and the young men were Mike Nevelos and Curtis Wong, two chefs from the restaurant. We knew that 902 Main had a great reputation and scored highly in Zagat's (creative, elegant, romantic), but seeing Gilbert, Kolleen, and crew personally shopping at the farmers' market each week made us quickly move the restaurant to the top of the list of places we wanted to know more about.

One week I asked Gilbert if we could sit down for a conversation and sample his cooking. Eminently approachable, he smiled and suggested that I come by after the market one week to talk and to see where all of the "great stuff" was going.

DEVELOPING AN INTENSELY PERSONAL STYLE

Gilbert was born in Maine and raised along with five brothers and two sisters in Western Massachusetts. His grandfather was a grocer and his grandmother was a renowned pie baker; Gilbert figures he got the food gene from them. His mother was an accomplished, efficient cook for eight kids. She made everything from scratch with a lot of things coming from a vegetable garden his father tended.

After attending the culinary arts program at vocational school, Gilbert wound up in Daytona, Florida where he majored in Hotel-Restaurant Management. Upon completion of the program, Gilbert took advantage of an opportunity to cook in France, a job offered to him by a friend of his oldest brother who had attended La Sorbonne in Paris. For the next four years Gilbert apprenticed at restaurants around Paris including the 25-seat La Reve D'Alsace, which had one star from the Guide Michelin.

The first thing that Gilbert noticed about cooking in high-end French restaurants was the obsession that the chefs had with the quality of the ingredients they used. At least twice a week at 4:30 AM, the entire battery of cooks would follow the head chef to the Rungis market near Paris. The staff would gather the produce, but the chef would carefully examine each item for quality before he would accept it. Gilbert noted that the chefs would gravitate toward the smaller vendors where they knew the manager, or even better, the farmer who grew the produce. Gilbert also noted how excellent the produce was from those small vendors.

In 1986 Gilbert returned to the States and cooked at the Regatta Restaurants in Cotuit and Falmouth for about five years, eventually becoming executive chef. At the Cotuit location there was a plot of land adjacent to the restaurant where a local farmer helped them plant and manage a kitchen herb garden. With this garden, Gilbert learned about the joys and challenges of working with local produce in a seasonal environment.

While at the Regatta, Gilbert met and married Kolleen, who was a wait person there. Since the Falmouth Regatta was seasonal, they had many opportunities to travel to Europe each winter to cook and eat. During one visit to Switzerland, Gilbert met an Australian businessman who was looking for a chef to help him open a new restaurant. Gilbert and Kolleen packed up and headed to the southern hemisphere for the winter. Gilbert loved cooking in Australia because he had the opportunity to cook with new ingredients. The beef, for instance, was only grass fed, which makes it tougher, but more flavorful. The fish while different was always very fresh; Baramundi was one of his favorites. Gilbert loved cooking for Australians because, "They are great eaters without a lot of pretense about it."

After getting the Australian restaurant off to a great start, the Pepins returned to the U.S. that summer. Gilbert continued to work at the Regatta, but he began to itch for something new. Soon a completely different opportunity arose: to be a private chef. For the next few years Gilbert and Kolleen enjoyed working for first one and then a second family with bold-face names; being discreet, they won't name them. The Pepins found themselves splitting their time between Cape Cod and Palm Beach.

Gilbert prepared everything for the families and their staffs including organic baby food. It was a total change of pace. Gilbert says that restaurant cooking involves trying to please people while making sure each dish is "profitable in addition to being good eating". While he missed the rush of working in a restaurant kitchen, Gilbert found he liked being able to put his own very personal touch on food that was always of the highest quality. This sensibility still influences the personal touch Gilbert puts into his cooking.

MAKING A VISION REALITY

Being a private chef allowed Gilbert and Kolleen to save money to realize their vision to own a high-quality medium-size restaurant back on Cape Cod. Gilbert says they saved for at least 10 years because, they wanted "enough money to do it right".

In late 2002 they looked at the property at 902 in South Yarmouth - which at the time was a pizzeria - but it took them a while to decide to purchase it. It was on a busy commercial area of Route 28 and it did not exactly scream "top-notch dining". But the more they thought about it, the more they realized that the busy area would be good for business. And the building was small enough that they could create an interior that was a direct reflection of their personal taste.

Starting in February of 2003 they began renovating - 18 hours a day, 7 days a week - in order to open for business that spring. Stepping out of the bustle of a busy Route 28 into the restaurant is to be transported to a quietly elegant space that sooths you at once. Kolleen runs the dining room, meeting and chatting with guests as they come through the door, immediately putting them at their ease, She also personally selects each bottle on the restaurant's wine list. Gilbert runs the kitchen every day with Curtis and Mike, and cooks on the line for every dinner. They want the patrons to get a sense of their personalities in the food and in the ambiance. Basically they want the restaurant to provide a way for them to make a living by following their passion.

A CONVERSATION WITH CHEF PEPIN: QUALITY ALWAYS COMES FIRST

The chefs of 902 Main: Mike Nevelos, Curtis Wong, and Gilbert Pepin

When you sit down to talk food with Gilbert Pepin you are immediately struck by his expertise and utter lack of pretension. Highly articulate, he is passionate about the importance of finding superior ingredients. As he puts it, "You only have a chance to do your absolute best if you use the best ingredients. The greatest cooking in the world will not make up for inferior ingredients." He continues, "Having farmers' markets around here is a big deal and a great development for restaurants. Food from farmers is not packaged; it is not peeled and it is not pre-processed. You can look at it, squeeze it, and taste it in its raw form. Nothing gets in the way of your perception of the quality. This allows you to prepare it as much as possible at the restaurant; it gives you a great starting point and control over every step in the process." For example, Gilbert insists on getting his fish whole and breaking them down himself so he can assess the cuts and make the most efficient use of the fish possible. At the restaurant, they make all their own stocks, with no bases. Everything is made from scratch: breads, sauces, desserts, palate-cleansing sorbets.

Gilbert places great importance on meeting the growers. He asserts, "The markets are good because you get to know the people who are growing your food. You can also work with the farmers to let them know what you would be interested in buying." For instance, he has encouraged farmers to pick their carrots earlier so they are smaller and sweeter, and to grow specific types of vegetables. Gilbert quickly rattles off names of suppliers and owners: Tim Friary of Cape Cod Organics (Barnstable), Gretel Norgeot of Checkerberry Farm (Orleans), Karen Lee of Pleasant Lake Farm (Harwich), and other vendors at the Mid-Cape Farmers' Market for produce; Les Hemilla of Barnstable Seafarms, Cape Cod Clam and Seafood, and The Lobster Trap Market for fish and shellfish; and William & Company for Wolfneck Farm Meats from Freeport, Maine. In season more than 80 percent of his vegetables come from Cape farmers and include mini carrots, baby beets, haricot vert, cucumbers, swiss chard, tomatoes, corn, squash, greens and on and on.

Gilbert acknowledges that working with local producers requires flexibility on the part of both parties. He says, "You can't be too hung up on getting things delivered at a certain time each day - things vary somewhat according to weather and how things grow." Gilbert changes his overall menu every six weeks, but there are also "seasons within seasons" and variations from day to day. "If you are counting on a type of green and something causes it to get wiped out, then you need to adjust real quick. In the same way something awesome may show up and you need to craft a special around that." But he stresses that growers also need to appreciate the pressures he is under and be reliable and highly focused on quality.

Gilbert believes that the somewhat higher prices he pays at the farmers' market are worth it because there is less waste and less inferior quality food that he has to send back to the producer. It also pays when people taste his cooking. An example Gilbert uses is the local oysters he buys from Barnstable Seafarms. "The restaurant currently is going through about 400 oysters a week - a lot for a restaurant of our size. They come from the Five Bays area on the southside of the Cape and they are great - large, sweet, and nicely shaped. We most typically prepare them with spinach and diced pancetta [the Italian unsmoked bacon] and they are delicious and fly out of here."

FROM MARKET TO TABLE: DINING AT 902 MAIN

We've tried those oysters and a number of other dishes on the summer menu. Two of our favorites were the yellow fin tuna with lemon thyme, cucumber, and arugula, and a wonderfully fresh striped bass with roasted beets, opal basil, beet greens, and capers. A dish I still can't get out of my head is the pan-seared sweetbreads with lobster risotto.

The food is delicious, reflecting skillfull cooking with superbly combined flavors that allow the fresh ingredients to speak for themselves. The front of the house is a sensory joy; the many-hued rose bushes that Kolleen purchased at the farmers' market are thriving in the tiny plot of land in front of the restaurant. Once inside the door, Kolleen's imprint is obvious, on the décor, the wine list, and the staff. The servers are polished, knowledgeable, attentive. The Pepin's efforts to create a first-class dining experience have been getting justifiable attention recently; Boston Magazine just named it the Best Restaurant on Cape Cod in 2005. Now that the word has gotten out, do make reservations to ensure a table at this jewel of a restaurant.

The menu will change to reflect the seasons but we hope Gilbert, Kolleen, and crew will be shopping, cooking, and feeding Cape Codders well for a long time to come.

Restaurant 902 Main is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5:30-10:00 PM. For reservations, call 508-398-9902.

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PERFECT VISION :
Gretel and Jeff Norgeot's Dream Farm in Orleans

by Dianne Langeland

Jeff, Gretel and Buddy get ready to work in the garden

ix years ago if you stood smack in the middle of what today comprises Checkerberry Farm, all you would have seen is trees. If you had really good eyesight and perhaps prior knowledge of its existence, you might have seen - hidden under dense vegetation - a two-story wooden structure, which until 30 years ago was home to 7,000 chickens. But mostly you would have seen trees: white and red oaks, stag-horn sumac, pitch pines, sassafras, and locusts.

Gretel and Jeff Norgeot didn't see just trees, however. What they saw was the perfect location for a farm. This was not the vision of some dreamy idealists, but rather the next logical step in the evolution of a growing business that the Norgeots, in particular Gretel, had nurtured for many years.

Today standing on the gentle hill in the middle of Checkerberry Farm you survey several large plots of neatly planted vegetables, a row of beehives adjacent to a couple of apple trees, a 20'x60' greenhouse, a chicken coop, berry patches, and a tidy two-year old home that houses an amazing collection of eel spears and other nautical items that Jeff collects.

Most amazing of all is that the majority of work involved in getting from point A (trees) to point B (farm) - clearing the land, building the stone walls, planting the gardens, and constructing the various structures on the property, including the greenhouse which was delivered in six boxes with dubious instructions - was almost entirely done by Jeff and Gretel, with a some help from their three (now teenage) children.

Orleans natives Gretel and Jeff had known each other since they were children, but became close friends while attending what was then the brand new vocational school in Harwich. When the school first opened students had to cycle through all the programs learning a variety of skills: electrical, nursing, plumbing, welding - before selecting a concentrated field of study. During her first year in the agriculture program, Gretel worked in a greenhouse and became hooked on growing things. Summer jobs picking onions and green beans for Fancy's Farm in East Orleans, and doing plant maintenance and delivery for Flower & Fern in Hyannis sealed the deal. Her experiences in the garden harkened back to when Gretel was a child spending a lot of time at her cousin's grandparents' dairy farm on Barley Neck Road and Mayo's Duck Farm, both in East Orleans.

As a young working professional, however, Gretel took up indoor jobs, working in a pharmacy, a bakery, cleaning houses, and as a home health aide for the Chatham VNA. In 1995 after Gretel and Jeff had married and started a family and she became a stay-at-home mom, Gretel began growing flowers for the Orleans' Farmers Market, which was in its second season. Gretel quickly realized that people were looking for local produce, so she shifted gears and started growing "all the basics" as she calls them: lettuce, peas, beans, radishes, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, and squashes. In February of 1996 Gretel and Jeff went to "Bee School" given by the Barnstable Bee Keepers Association. That April they set up two beehives and started honey production. That same spring their oldest daughter was taught embryology in school and, once the eggs began hatching, she started bringing home chicks for weekend visits. Soon the Norgeots owned 25 chickens and four ducks.

Each Saturday the Norgeot's three young children would go with Gretel to the market and, pulling their little red wagon, deliver shoppers' purchases to their cars. Gretel jokingly claims her kids made almost as much in tips as she did selling her veggies. Truth be told, local farmers were unable to keep up with demand. Farmers' markets were gaining in popularity across the nation and more people were coming to the market each week seeking local produce.

Gretel was consistently selling out, but she had run out of working space on their property and was unable to expand her garden. So the Norgeots started looking for a larger piece of land. In addition to wanting more space to grow vegetables, Gretel wanted room for more chickens and more beehives, which meant fruit trees as well (think flowers).

It took them several years of looking before they found their current 8.5 acres in January of 1999. The land was so overgrown that it wasn't until the fourth time they walked the property that the Norgeots found the old chicken coop. They had considered rehabilitating the structure but, according to Gretel, it collapsed like a house of cards when they tested the walls.

While continuing to live in their existing home, the couple started clearing and restoring their new property beginning with the section that had housed a garden over 100 years ago. They felled the trees and screened the soil to remove any roots before returning the loam to their garden. They even undertook the time-consuming effort of moving the carefully enriched soil from their existing home to the garden at the new property. In the spring of 1999 Gretel was growing vegetables for sale from the new garden. Now farming was a full-time job for Gretel. She would drive to the garden to work and then go home for lunch and dinner.

Gretel at the Mid-Cape Farmers' Market with Chef Pepin of Restaurant 902 Main

In 2000, Gretel had taken over as manager of the Orleans' Farmers' Market and was continuing to expand her gardens. In 2003 they built a house at the new property and were enjoying the results of their hard work. By 2004, Jeff, who had been co-owner with his brother of a successful marine construction business, was working full-time on the farm.

Like an old homesteading family, the Norgeots are very self-sufficient. The house that they built has no painted surfaces, which means no maintenance, so they can spend as much time as possible in the fields. They get leaves from a local landscaper and fish bait from a local fisherman, which, along with the manure from their chickens and rabbits, provide a rich compost for their gardens. The beehives yield approximately 300 pounds of honey each year, which Gretel uses in her baked goods and sells at the markets. She also makes candles from the beeswax that she sells towards the end of the season. Gretel even has a spinning wheel that she bought 18 years ago after she had her first child thinking she'd have a lot of time as a new mom to knit. She confesses that the only time she gets to spin wool is at the farmers' markets during rare breaks between customers. She makes a very picturesque and calming vision sitting behind her wheel spinning raw wool into yarn. Eventually, Gretel would like to get her own sheep to have wool readily at hand.

Gretel and Jeff are very deliberate people, who clearly respect the land on which they live and work. Gretel painstakingly weeds before harvesting the arugula beds to ensure no foreign objects make it into her bags of the popular spicy green. Jeff is gradually lining their property with sturdy, neat walls built from stones he unearths as he clears new sections of their land.

Their pride in their accomplishments is obvious when they take you on a tour of their property. And someone - Gretel claims it's Jeff - has an artistic eye. Sunflowers mingle with the vegetables, punctuating them with color. The back of the hen house is decorated with antique bull rakes used for quahoging. And a mint-condition turquoise 1966 Ford pick-up truck sits picturesquely in the driveway, although Gretel says she gets better mileage and more storage space for transporting her produce from her 1999 Suburban.

Today Checkerberry Farm boasts three 50'x150' garden beds, ten beehives, and 100 chickens and the Norgeots still can't keep up with demand for their produce, honey, and eggs. In addition to Gretel's "basics", they grow potatoes, rhubarb, garlic, arugula, mixed lettuce, onions, sugar snap peas, purple, yellow and green beans, Swiss chard, and zucchini, patty pan and summer squashes. They are testing plots of asparagus and strawberries, and have planted hundreds of raspberries and blueberries bushes. And they are clearing more land for another garden so they can rotate their crops each year to avoid depleting the nutrients in the soil. Gretel says the next step is to become certified organic, a process that she believes will be completed within six months.

To ease up on some of the work involved in participating in multiple farmers' markets, Gretel is giving serious consideration to offering a CSA program in 2006. Anyone in the greater Orleans area interested in picking up a bag of organic produce each week during the growing season is invited to email her before April 2006 (checkerberryfarm@capecod.net), so she can make a determination whether or not to go this route. Gretel is also willing to consider growing specific vegetables that a program participant desires.

Gretel and Jeff still do the lion's share of the work on the farm themselves. They do not force their children (now ages 18, 17, and 14) to help in the gardens and, in fact, have tried to steer them away from the "Ag" program at the technical school. Gretel believes that if the kids want to get involved in farming, they can step right outside their own back door, but she doesn't want to force them to help around the farm in fear she might turn them off entirely.

Eventually, Gretel believes her oldest daughter and her son will go into farming. Happily for fans of Checkerberry Farm produce, eggs, and honey, Gretel and Jeff are young and vigorous. With luck and the continued support of loyal customers, their land will stay as a farm and we'll have the benefit of their produce for many years to come.

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SCALLOPING ON THE CAPE:
For Some it is the Bounty of the Sea, for Others the Sea itself

by Chelsea Vivian

Rake Full of Scallops

very day hundreds of thousands of scallops come off the boats in Provincetown, Chatham, Hyannis, and New Bedford and quickly make their way to many restaurants on the Cape and other areas of New England and beyond. Out at sea, scallopers face hardships ranging from storms and high winds, to equipment breakage, to scarcity of scallops. At home, they face a turbulent political atmosphere with new regulations possibly further restricting the amount of scallops that can be harvested each year throughout the East Coast. In this article we take a brief look at the two main types of scalloping on the Cape and some of the people who choose to make it or break it by the pulse of the sea.

DAYBOATERS

From Provincetown to Bourne, small dayboaters comprise the bulk of the scallop fleet. With a crew of one to six, they take multiple trips each week ranging from 16 to 40 hours. The length of a trip is determined in part by the destination and the quality of the fishing; these boats seek out specific areas known to have scallops of legal size, that is three inches or larger. Some boats have a modern GPS tracking device, others rely on the antiquated Loran system to navigate and maintain a record of good scallop beds. If the fishing is good, the boat will stay and try to catch the maximum legal limit of 400 pounds per trip. If the scallops are few or tend to be too small, the captain moves on.

Of course, weather plays a pretty big role in the quality of a trip. Even before they take off, scallopers check up-to-date weather reports, and wind and tide conditions. The government maintains a website that posts wind velocity every two hours, and buoy readings indicate tide levels and currents. However, conditions change frequently out at sea and a wind of 20 knots or more can create quite a challenge.

The only time of leisure for the crew is during the initial ride out to banks. Once they arrive at the fishing area the rest of the trip consists of raking, cutting, and bagging scallops. There is no time for relaxation in the next ten to twenty hours.

Each boat is outfitted with a rake that scrapes along the sandy ocean floor, scoops up the scallops into its steel mesh nets, and lifts them up to the surface. The rakes are specifically designed to catch and hold only scallops of legal size and larger, allowing smaller scallops and groundfish to fall out. Sometimes the scallops abound, spilling onto the stern of the boat. Other times, they catch nothing but seaweed and tidal wash. Occasionally a few other species of shellfish, groundfish, and larger aquatic species get caught in the rake and have to be thrown back. After several hours of raking, the boat returns while the deckhands continue the arduous process of cutting the meat out of the shells. The shells are dumped back into the ocean and the scallops are bagged, sold to distributors, and on to the consumer. Considering that each scallop weighs approximately 1/10th to 1/60th of a pound, with a maximum load a few pairs of hands cut between 5,000 and 15,000 scallops per trip. A good cutter processes 15 scallops a minute. You can imagine the time spent slicing through the muscle and shell, then separating the guts with the top shell, and finally cutting out the meat into the bucket and tossing the other half of the shell. More than a few suffer from severe hand cramps.

For newcomer Captain Mike Desimone, scalloping has been a challenging endeavor. Mike owns Esther's Pride, a 43-ft. boat operating out of Provincetown. During the height of the summer, he goes out with first mate Damian Parkington and one or two other hands. If the weather permits, they fish an average of two to three times a week for about 25 hours each trip. Desimone also has a lobster permit which allows them to alternate between the two fisheries. On days when bad weather draws near or the timing isn't right for a scallop trip, they check their lobster pots. Despite the prohibitive cost of permits, many other scallopers attempt to diversify their catch by alternating with lobstering, gill netting and dragging for groundfish, and rod-and-reel fishing for striper, cod, or tuna. When the scalloping industry experiences a decline or the price for scallops plummets, these fishermen have another fishery to fall back on.

After mastering the art of raking, learning about good locations, and developing a rhythm with the sea, they often return with a full load of 400 pounds. If you ask them why they duke it out in one of the most dangerous professions in the country, they invite you to their "office". Everyday they drive through the traffic of whales and dolphins with the sunset igniting the sky.

FULL-TIMER SCALLOPERS

The primary difference between dayboaters and full-time scallopers is scale: everything is bigger. The size of the boat and rake is larger, the number of crew is greater, the trips are longer, and the maximum allowed catch is 18,000 pounds per trip. Rather than working for 30 hours straight with no rest like the dayboaters, the full-time crews work in shifts; they alternate sleeping, eating, raking, and cutting for several days. Unlike dayboaters, full-time vessels are regulated by a total number of days at sea each year, in part influenced by the number of years the boat has scalloped. Since the pounds per trip are limited, the goal is to catch the maximum in the shortest amount of time. The big boats spend anywhere from one to two weeks fishing in areas too remote for the dayboaters. To manage trips of this length and catches this large, ship and crew adhere to rigid schedules of seamanship, maintenance, and muscle-wrenching deck work.

For thirty-odd years, scalloper Buddy Paine has worked his way up from deckhand to mate, to eventually owning and operating his own boat. He has seen every kind of weather, injury to crew, sunken boats, and broken equipment. Buddy comes from a long line of New England fishermen and sea captains and, even has an ancestor who got lost at sea while transporting a load of oysters to Wellfleet. In Buddy's own words: "I think I have seawater in my blood."

When Buddy first started, scallopers could fish 300 days a year and, because of the natural cycles, were allowed to catch as much shellfish as they wanted. As more boats started scalloping, over-fishing and a natural, cyclical stock depression injured the industry. For the next five years, Buddy seasonally fished in Alaska to make ends meet. He later returned to scalloping fulltime on the Cape. During the mid-nineties new regulations went into effect limiting entry into scalloping and decreasing the number of allowed fishing days. Many fishermen left the industry. Buddy managed to hang on and continue fishing.

Buddy currently owns the Alexandria Dawn, a 70-foot vessel out of New Bedford and captains a five-to-seven man crew. They can fish only 101 days of the year. According to Buddy, the new regulations will harm smaller operations and benefit larger companies. The new amendment may further restrict number of days at sea and size of crew, yet allow trading or leasing of fishing days. This enables companies with multiple vessels to trade days among their own ships, keeping more productive boats fishing longer. For smaller operations like Buddy's that have only one boat, the only option is to sell their days to another boat if they can't go scalloping for some reason, but they lose the scallop revenue.

The "view" from the office of scallopers Cape:

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Their challenges have ranged from losing a rake snagged by the ocean floor, engine failure and having to be towed back to port, and close encounters with large vessels out at sea. But the greatest challenge dayboaters now face is policy change. In March, 2006 proposed regulation Amendment 18 may go into effect. For all scallopers, the amount they can catch per trip may be further restricted; dayboaters may also be restricted by the total number of days per year they can fish, and newly licensed boats face the danger of losing their permit altogether. The amendment proposes a basis season of 2004, stating that each boat can only catch as much as they caught during that year. Boats that did not fish as frequently that season as other years may face a serious reduction in maximum allowed poundage and number of days at sea.

Although he relies on the economic benefits from scalloping, Buddy admits that it does have an impact on the natural balance of the environment. Scientists state that raking decreases species diversity, biomass, and the complexity of the ocean floor. Many fishermen argue that the disturbance to the sandy sea floor is minimal and actually clears space, allowing the scallop beds to repopulate. Regulations exist to maintain a balance between demand for scallops and the health of the beds. Buddy agrees with laws that result in sustainable fisheries, but not at the expense of the smaller operations.

For now, Buddy and Mike along with the rest of the scallop fleet await the outcome of proposed federal regulations that will determine their future as scallopers.

DAMIAN'S BLACKENED SCALLOP SALAD WITH RASPBERRY VINAIGRETTE & BALSAMIC REDUCTION

Damian Parkington, one of the dayboat scallopers featured in this article, worked for many years as a professional chef. A self-described "conceptual cook", Damian will take a wonderful main ingredient and then create a recipe using whatever he has on hand in his kitchen. We are happy he looked in his cupboard and came up with this dish. It demonstrates his ability to combine flavors and textures in a zippy, sweet salad that has just a hint of decadence from the balsamic reduction.

Note: The balsamic reduction is very powerful so use just a small drizzle on each plate. We also made the dressing with olive oil and red wine vinegar and the dish was very good. But the walnut oil and sherry vinegar do add delicious balance and richness.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
Blackening Spice Mix:
2 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp white peppercorns
1 tsp cayenne
2 tsp cumin seed
1/4 cup paprika
2 Tbsp kosher or sea salt
Optional: 1 cup of mixed dried Italian herbs

Raspberry Vinaigrette:
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1 medium shallot, peeled and chopped fine
Salt and freshly-ground white pepper to taste
1/4 cup walnut oil

Balsamic Reduction:
1 16-oz bottle of balsamic vinegar

Scallops:
2 lbs mixed field greens, washed and dried carefully
Olive oil for frying scallops
16-20 large sea scallops

Method:

Blackening Spice Mix:
Combine ingredients and grind into a dust in a spice mill, small coffee grinder, or food processor.
Reserve.

Balsamic Reduction:
Place balsamic vinegar in small saucepan and bring to a full boil.
Lower heat to medium and, stirring frequently, slowly reduce the liquid.
After about 12 minutes watch the balsamic carefully and stir constantly to avoid reducing the vinegar to sludge. The liquid should thicken to a gravy consistency and make a "ribbon" as it is drizzled from a spoon.
Remove reduction from the heat when there is about 2 ounces of liquid remaining and set aside

Raspberry Vinaigrette:
Place berries and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer and mash with a spoon until completely soft, about 5 minutes.
Strain mixture through a sieve.
Mix together with the sherry vinegar, shallots, and salt and pepper.
Whisk in walnut oil to create an emulsion.
Check and adjust seasoning and set aside.

Cooking the Scallops and Final Assembly:
Whisk raspberry vinaigrette and dress field greens.
Check and adjust seasoning of greens, remembering that scallops will be spicy.
Place greens in the middle of salad plates.
Coat scallops with the blackening mixture.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until oil is shimmering.
Sear the scallops until cooked through, about two minutes per side.
Arrange 4-5 warm scallops on top of each pile of greens.
Drizzle just a touch of the balsamic reduction over the scallops.
Serve immediately.

Wine Suggestion from Tracy:
These scallops pack a bit of a punch, so a sweet or spicy wine will create balance when the food and wine are tasted together. Best bets for a white are an off-dry Gewurztraminer or a Spatlese (Riesling). Pinot Noir is a great choice for a red, especially one from France or Oregon that has some spicy, earthy qualities.

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