Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie: Three Generations of Recipes and Stories from Summers on the Coast of Maine

Escape to the Maine seashore, an exquisite summer sanctuary where vacations stretch out forever during long, golden days and food is the stuff from which memories are made.

The summers that acclaimed chef Rebecca Charles and her family spent swimming in the Atlantic, scouring the beach for shells, and eating shore dinners inspired her to open the famed Greenwich Village restaurant Pearl Oyster Bar. In this heartwarming memoir, Rebecca combines more than seventy of her favorite recipes with captivating family stories.

Rebecca's adventurous granduncle Sam Goldsmith first took the family from the sweltering summer streets of Brooklyn to the exclusive seaside resort of Kennebunkport. But it was his sister-in-law Pearle Goldsmith, Pearl Oyster Bar's namesake and an opera singer with the Metropolitan and New York City operas, who fell in love with the rugged coast of Maine. Pearle passed this love on to her daughter, Eleanor, and her granddaughter, Rebecca.

Now, in Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie, Rebecca recounts her family's three-generation love affair with the small Yankee fishing village and shares the recipes that have New Yorkers waiting in line for hours to taste what food writer Ed Levine described as "the best lobster roll I have ever eaten."

Rebecca breathes new life into classic beach food. Whether re-creating an old-time clambake or grilling a whole pompano, she imparts the expertise that has made her one of the foremost seafood chefs in the country. She teaches the secrets of clamming, demystifies the selection and preparation of fish and shellfish, and helps you make these delicious Maine favorites in your own backyard, with recipes for her famous Pearl Oyster Bar Lobster Roll, creamy Scallop Chowder, Fried Oysters on homemade tartar sauce, succulent Lobster Pot Pie laced with sherry, and, of course, her famous Blueberry Crumble Pie.

With her mouthwatering recipes and moving family stories, Rebecca will inspire everyone to create fond summer memories of their own.

Rebecca Charles is the owner and head chef of Pearl Oyster Bar in Greenwich Village, New York. In Maine she was awarded four stars at the White Barn Inn before returning home to Manhattan to work as Anne Rosenzweig's sous chef at her landmark Upper East Side restaurant, Arcadia. She opened Pearl Oyster Bar in 1997 to enormous critical and popular acclaim. She lives in New York City.

Deborah DiClementi is a former television producer and freelance writer who has written for Cooking Light, Marie Claire, and Mademoiselle.