At the fish pier, daily chaos over daily catch

While most of us are sleeping, the historic Fish Pier on Boston Harbor is the chaotic site of early-morning off-loading from boats, and then a daily fish auction. Wholesalers, brokers, and processors all vie for the best-quality seafood. Most restaurant owners and chefs don't visit the Fish Pier; they phone in their orders to local purveyors.

Not so with John McGee and Victor Paone. These two, whose paths have never crossed, each make a Fish Pier excursion part of their daily ritual and part of the character of their restaurant's varying menu.

"If you want to be an authentic Italian restaurant, you have to be really local," says Mr. McGee, owner of Mamma Maria, a restaurant located in a brick townhouse amid cobblestone streets of the Italian North End of Boston.

McGee's chef, Tim Hallama, is "completely in charge of the creative direction of the menu," says McGee, who makes a daily morning stop at R&P Seafood on the Fish Pier, emulating the European style.

When McGee met R&P fish broker Robert Bedenkop at the Beacon Hill Nursery School, where each had children enrolled, the two dads talked about their shared interests - - kids and great food. Mr. Bedenkop has a niche business and deals only in local East Coast and Atlantic Ocean seafood. None of R&P Seafood's fish comes by plane or is farmed.

McGee was intrigued by the possibility of hand-selecting his seafood and getting his pick of fish before the A-list restaurants in New York got theirs. Their relationship continued past the preschool, and now McGee meets the broker daily to select the day's seafood for Mamma Maria.

R&P distributes its premium products to high-end fish distributors such as the famous Brown Trading Company in Portland, Maine, but not to restaurants directly. Except to Mamma Maria.

McGee might pick up tuna, black bass, striped bass, swordfish, diver scallops, and Maine "Peekytoe" crab. He checks that the fish is still in rigor mortis - "the stiffer the fish, the fresher it is," explains McGee. He looks for bright red gills, clear eyes, and fish that are still slimy and viscous, that haven't dried out. McGee has learned that pink pectoral fins on a halibut show its freshness.

He feels a striped bass across the back. "That's where it gets soft first," McGee says. He or chef Hallama usually speak to Bedenkop the day before each pickup. "We have an inkling of what we're going to use," McGee says. But there is no standing order. "The trick is not to buy too much," he adds, "we don't want any left over at the end of the night." That's also the goal for R&P, which, as a wholesaler, wants an empty cooler at day's end. The equation between people who catch fish and people who buy it hopefully equals out.

"It's a guessing game," says Vitorio "Victor" Paone, executive chef of Trattoria Il Panino, a restaurant in the financial district of downtown Boston. "You don't know what you're going to sell. And I could run out of an item at 7:30 rather than at 10." If that happens, he walks out to a customer's table and explains that the requested menu item isn't available.

Mr. Paone started going to the pier about three years ago. "I was getting inferior product," he explains. "I got fed up." So he went to buy it himself.

Paone clicked with Robert Brandano and Douglas Nucatola at Great Eastern, a family business. Unlike the folks at R&P, who are brokers, those at Great Eastern are processors and wholesalers, distributing in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In contrast to R&P's niche market, their product comes from a wider market, but it is always shipped the same day.

Though Paone regularly needs certain fish, like hybrid striped bass, Chilean sea bass, langostinos, and swordfish, if he can get yellowtail snapper instead of the hybrid bass, he'll buy them. Paone likes to bake whole fish encased in a paste of sea salt, flour, white vinegar, black peppercorns, parsley, and bay leaves. The salt becomes hard and lifts off like a shell, leaving the fresh fish steamed to perfection.

Just as McGee is an anomaly at R&P Seafood, Paone is the only chef who personally shops at Great Eastern. He clearly enjoys his morning ritual.

"I have my cup of coffee, hang out with the guys, put on the hair net, and run through the plant," says Paone. "Before that, I get to spend a couple of hours with my 1-year-old daughter Erika. That's the worst part of the day - leaving my daughter. But then I get to go get fish."

Simplicity is key to serving fresh fish. Heavy sauces with cream or cheese only obscure its delicate flavor. The following recipes couldn't be more simple and work well with most varieties of fish that you would either grill or broil.

16 ounces swordfish

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the vinaigrette:

1-1/2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

1-1/2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained

Grated zest and juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Brush an outdoor grill or indoor grill pan with a little of the olive oil, and let it preheat until very hot - about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, wipe the fish with paper towel, then place the swordfish steaks on a plate, brush them with the remaining olive oil, and season both sides with salt and pepper. When the grill is ready, place the steaks on it, and grill them about 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette by placing all the ingredients into a small saucepan and whisking them together over gentle heat - no actual cooking is needed here; this only needs to be warmed.

When the swordfish is ready, transfer it to plates, pour the vinaigrette over the steaks, and serve with steamed new potatoes and a green vegetable or salad.

Serves 2.

Quick Tartar Sauce

This light condiment will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small clove garlic, peeled

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

1-1/2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained

4 cornichons (mini pickles)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Break the egg into the bowl of a food processor, and add the salt, garlic, and mustard powder. Turn the motor on, and add the oil through the feeder tube in a thin, steady trickle, pouring it as slowly as you can (about 2 minutes). When the oil has been added and the sauce has thickened, add all the other ingredients. Turn on the pulse button, and process until the ingredients are chopped - as coarsely or as finely as you like. Check seasoning, then transfer to serving dish and present with lemon wedges. Yields 1 cup.

-Recipes adapted from 'How To Cook' by Delia Smith (DK Publishing)