4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
REGIONAL RECIPES,
PERSONAL PORTRAITS
Astoria native’s maiden
cookbook, ‘Dig, Shuck,
Shake,’ picking up steam
By LAURA CHERAU
FOR COAST WEEKEND
J
ohn Nelson, an Astoria native,
has just put out his fi rst cookbook
“Dig (a clam), Shuck (an oyster),
Shake (a crab): Fish and Seafood Rec-
ipes from the Pacifi c Northwest.”
The book is a charming, us-
er-friendly, illustrated guide to eating
from the ocean. It’s packed with lively
anecdotes from Nelson’s childhood in
Ilwaco, and his disarming style, cou-
pled with handy illustrations, makes
even complicated recipes — such as
“poached Petrale sole with shrimp
fi lling” or “sturgeon and dumplings”
— a cinch.
With stories he began writing
down in 2006, the book was fi nally
published in March 2017. In August,
Nelson gave a reading at Powell’s
Books in Portland.
“I had no idea it would take off
like it did. It was the little book that
could,” Nelson said. “It just chugged
and chugged along.”
The book starts with straightforward
instructions, a how-to of sorts — how
to loin a tuna or fi llet a salmon, for ex-
ample, or how to dig and clean a razor
clam. Which makes it, in my opinion,
geographically necessary for the local
kitchen and somewhat indispensable.
Of course you can fi nd anything
online now, but how nice to have
these words of reason at your fi n-
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
John Nelson, author of “Dig, Shuck, Shake”
gertips when the need arises. What
emerges is a picture of the fi shing
culture and families unique to this
part of the world.
Recently, Nelson was living in cen-
tral Oregon, outside of Bend, where
he helped start up the Brasada Ranch
golf resort and began contributing his
food knowledge to local and national
cable and radio cooking shows. He’s
owned several restaurants and worked
as an executive chef and instructor at
the Cascade Culinary Institute.
Nelson recently relocated with his
family to Pacifi c City. He is thrilled to
return to the coast and has been spend-
ing time raking, happily, for clams.
The Northwest ‘melting pot’
Asked about his family’s reac-
tion to the book, given that so much
of their history is presented there,
Nelson said they were pleasantly
surprised. “It’ll be in our family and
something for our kids to enjoy and
draw upon in the future, which is
important to me.”
Several stories revolve around
Nelson’s mother and stepfather.
His mother, Joanne Friberg
Leech, was the owner of Sanctuary
in Chinook for many years. There,
mother and son began cooking
together.
“He really took to it,” she
‘I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD TAKE OFF LIKE IT DID.
IT WAS THE LITTLE BOOK THAT COULD.
IT JUST CHUGGED AND CHUGGED ALONG.’
remembered. “John and I cooked
together for seven years, and it was
wonderful.”
By virtue of Nelson growing up
locally, he was exposed to “farms
and fishermen, both the land and the
sea, and his recipes reflect that,” she
said.
Nelson’s step-father, Geno Leech
— a fisher-poet who contributed a
poem to the book’s frontispiece —
said his stepson was “lucky he grew
up when he did. A lot of this infor-
mation is going by the wayside.”
Leech admitted that, while it’s
true you can learn how to shake a
crab on Google, “it’s nice to have
something real. It’s nice to tell a
little story to get there.”
The gastronomic cultures repre-
sented in the recipes of “Dig, Shuck,
Shake” are varied. Scandinavia,
Asia, Germany, South America and
other locales suggest their flavors in
the book. Nelson said these cultures
presented themselves naturally
during his upbringing.
“The Pacific Northwest really
is a melting pot, and I’m not sure
how much people really realize
that,” Nelson said. “You can’t grow
up here and have blinders on and
have one flavor profile. It’s just not
accurate.”
Perhaps that approach, he said,
is why the book “seems to be doing
well in England, Germany, Austria,
Sweden and Japan.”
If you are interested in purchasing
“Dig, Shuck, Shake,” it can be found
at Lucy’s Books in Astoria and Cloud
& Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita. CW