Randy's Fishmarket Restaurant Cookbook

You'll find more than Randy's great seafood, bread, dessert, cocktail and appetizer recipes in this book! Before you even reach the first recipe, you will enjoy 20 pages of useful information about different types of fish and shellfish, Randy's Food Philosophy, a marvelous tour of Historic Naples and Collier County, and much more. The recipes are amazingly easy to follow, yet the truly impressive results will leave your guests wondering if you brought in a personal chef to prepare the meal! The recipes are enhanced by 110 color photos by renouned photographer Vanessa Rogers. When asked why he wrote the new Randy s Fishmarket Cookbook, author/restaurateur Randy Essig says without a moment s hesitation, Because my customers asked for it. We have a very loyal following of local residents, part-time residents, and tourists. Over the years I ve listened to so many snowbirds say how much they miss our food when they return to their homes up north. Many folks have actually called me from their homes in Ohio or Massachusetts asking me how to cook something they really enjoyed at the restaurant! So many customers have suggested a cookbook over the years . . . well, I finally just did it!

Besides the incredible food and cool libations, one of the other memorable things you will appreciate at Randy s Fishmarket Restaurant is owner Randy Essig s friendly demeanor and off-beat sense of humor. When I was a kid growing up in Syracuse, my first job was frying fish on Friday nights at a local seafood market. Wow, we sold a lot of fish on Friday! Times were different back then . . . all our Catholic customers believed they had to eat fish on Friday so they wouldn t wake up in hell on Saturday! I knew my future was in the food business from the time I started working in the fish market back in junior high school. Later, I was in the nightclub business for many years. It was fun, but my heart was really in the food business. It wasn t long after a 1978 Florida vacation that Randy and his wife, Georgianna, decided they had had it with New York winters. They moved to Naples, Florida, and Randy began his search for his next opportunity in the food business. In 1989, he and a partner bought a local produce market. A fish market, a restaurant and a gourmet food department were soon added. Randy and his original partner in the produce market parted ways in the late 1990 s. In 1999 he spotted a great location for his current venture. On September 2, 2003, after two-and-a-half years of construction and expert decorating by Randy s wife, Georgianna, Randy s Fishmarket Restaurant finally opened for business. We ve got exactly the type of restaurant I envisioned before we started this venture . . . a casual, laid back, family-oriented Key West-style fish house. It s the type of place where people come in the first time as customers and return again and again as friends. Randy can be found at the restaurant seven days a week . . . except when he s off to make a personal appearance on the QVC television shopping network where Randy regularly sells thousands of his famous Key lime pies in a matter of minutes.