Whether the Chesapeake Bay is having a good crab year or not, a pound of pristine Maryland jumbo lump represents no small investment. Thus far, the going rate in the Washington area ranges from $23.95 to $39.99.
Indicators point to a promising season, but John Shields remembers the bountiful catches of his childhood. If anyone deserves to have sprouted a pair of honorary crab claws, it would be the 59-year-old chef-restaurateur, cookbook author and cooking-show host who is known as the culinary ambassador of the Bay.
As a boy growing up near Baltimore, he was treated to plenty of family crab feasts and one-pot meals. His mother, widowed when Shields was 6, had to feed five children and a collection of elderly relatives. He took note of the creative ways in which any amount of crab could be made to go a bit further.
These days, Shields keeps an eye on the bottom line at Gertrude's, his restaurant in the Baltimore Museum of Art, and still thinks about ways to stretch the protein.
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