Delights and Prejudices

This chapter, Delights and Prejudices, is all about having one foot in the past and one in the present as we build a new American culinary tradition. My delight in opening a bay scallop, standing knee-deep in crystal Maine water and eating it right out of the shell, is as strong as my prejudice that our American culinary language must evolve at the same rate as our culinary discoveries, and that common sense, laced always with an appetite for life, should eventually prevail over the momentary pleasure of fashion.