{"id":95323,"date":"2016-03-07T15:34:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T20:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=95323"},"modified":"2016-03-07T15:48:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T20:48:02","slug":"the-prince-of-tides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/07\/the-prince-of-tides\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prince of Tides"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

From the cover of The Pat Conroy Cookbook<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n

I never met Pat Conroy, but he was a frequent companion at our family dinner table. Since his death last week<\/a>, everyone who knew him has talked a lot about his generosity, his sense of fun, his menschiness. I knew him as a cook.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Writers\u2019 cookbooks are often interesting windows into their psyches\u2014see Maya Angelou\u2019s Hallelujah!\u00a0The Welcome Table<\/em>\u00a0for a lovely example, or\u00a0Roald Dahl\u2019s Cookbook<\/em>\u00a0for a predictably terrifying one.\u00a0The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes and Stories of My Life<\/em><\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>is one of the very best of the genre. \u201cThis book is the story of my life as it relates to the subject of food,\u201d he wrote in the introduction. \u201cIt is my autobiography in food and meals and restaurants and countries far and near.\u201d Accordingly, there are chapters beginning with tales of Rome and Paris, of Bangkok and the high seas. And always, always, the Lowcountry. South Carolina is the heart and soul of the memoir, and of the food.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also just a really good cookbook. Conroy could\u00a0cook<\/em>\u2014he taught himself classic French cuisine out of Escoffier\u2014and the recipes show it. As befits the wide-ranging nature of his biography, the dishes come from far and wide, different periods in the author\u2019s life and different traditions. But all are characterized by his knowledge and his know-how, and there\u2019s a sensibility\u2014as well as a clarity\u2014that links them harmoniously. He clearly loved to eat just as much as he loved to cook: a rarer quality than one might think in a cookbook author.<\/p>\n

His seafood recipes, maybe not surprisingly, are especially strong. That\u2019s what pulled my mom in. I don\u2019t think she\u2019d ever read a Pat Conroy novel when she found the cookbook at the library. Ultimately she found it so compelling and useful that she bought her own copy, and she\u2019s inspired me to do the same. She often uses a Gullah baked-fish preparation that Conroy learned about while teaching on\u00a0Daufuskie\u00a0Island. As expected, it\u2019s straightforward, comforting but not unchallenging, and very good. In Conroy\u2019s memory, I\u2019ve reproduced it below.<\/p>\n

Note: My mom likes this with bluefish or mackerel (although it\u2019s a good method for most fish), and she often mixes fresh herbs into the sauce. I\u2019ve also seen her add a slice of good summer tomato on top. She and I both use cast-iron skillets for cooking.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n