The Dead Fish Sizzling Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels, Shrimp and Crab Combo

By Mary Swift-Swan

The Dead Fish restaurant sits on the ridge overlooking the Carquinez Straits Bridge in the city of Crockett. Their popular outdoor seating has just been expanded, again. Expect great food and a beautiful view up the Napa River toward Vallejo.

The Dead Fish seems like a funny name for a restaurant, unless you saw their commercial showing a waiter serving a whole fish to a table. The patron calls out, “Waiter, my fish doesn’t seem to be dead!” As the waiter starts to leave, he turns and fires a handgun, killing the fish. As he pockets the gun and turns again to leave, another patron calls, “Oh, waiter!” The handsome Italian who plays the waiter in the commercial is actually executive chef and partner Andrea Froncillo. The commercial was Andrea’s idea. People remember the name, The Dead Fish. Outrageous perhaps, but it worked! The commercial can be seen on their website, www.thedeadfish.com. Now the chef/partner would be very happy if only he could get people to understand Andrea is a man’s name in Italy.

The Dead Fish is part of the restaurant group that includes The Stinking Rose in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, plus the Crab House at Pier 39, Calzone’s, and Boboquivari’s, a great new place for steak, in San Francisco. The Dead Fish, with its Italian-style fused with California-influenced cuisine, fits perfectly into this distinguished group of fine eateries.

When asked to share a recipe with Bay Crossings’ home cook readers, Chef Andrea was very generous. He focused on their top- selling appetizer, the Sizzling Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels, Shrimp and Crab Combo. Andrea also shared their world famous Killer Crab and Italian Pot Stickers to create a true feast. (To find the Italian Pot Sticker recipe, check out www.baycrossings.com. The Killer Crab recipe is under lock and key, however.) As mouthwatering as this food is when it’s served hot, it is also great cold and just right for a romantic, outdoor Indian Summer picnic feast in the wine country or at home in the backyard.

The Dead Fish Sizzling Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels, Shrimp and Crab Combo
A flat, cast iron griddle or skillet is essential for preparing this dish.

Preparation:
Marinate shrimp ahead of cooking time and prepare seafood butter and seasoned soy sauce. Place the shrimp and marinade in a plastic bag and keep cool until time to cook. Seasoning comes off shrimp when it cooks. To get the best flavor, infuse seasoning before cooking. This can be done from an hour to a day ahead.

Heat a well-seasoned skillet across two burners. Set the burners to medium heat. When the skillet is hot, place fresh cold mussels on the skillet. As they begin to open, spread them out to make a place in the middle for the shrimp and crab legs.

Add the marinated shrimp and spread out in the pan. While the shrimp are cooking, heat a sauté pan for the crab. Turn the shrimp over when they begin to loose translucence, becoming pink on the cooked side.

Place the legs from a crab in the hot sauté pan. Add a 1/4 cup seafood butter and juice from half a lemon, then sprinkle with 1/2

of the chopped fresh basil. Heat the cold cooked crab legs, then flip, roasting the legs on the other side, moving the pan in and out of the heat rapidly to keep from burning. Pour the crab legs and seasoning on top of the cooked shrimp. Place dipping containers of butter on the corners of the skillet to heat.

The final step before serving the Sizzling Skillet of seafood is to dress the mussels with a sprinkling of olive oil. Olive oil keeps the shells and delicate meat of the mussel from drying out. Add seasoned soy sauce to the mussels for the final sauce. Squeeze juice of 1/2 a lemon over crab and shrimp. Finally, sprinkle with remaining fresh chopped basil.

The entire dish takes no more than 15 minuntes if prep is done ahead of time. The Dead Fish Sizzling Skillet Roasted Mussels, Shrimp and Crab Combo is a mouthwatering dish to serve as a group appetizer, picnic dish, or dinner for two with a little wine and a loaf of bread.

Chef Andrea Froncillo
The name The Dead Fish comes from a fond memory of Andrea’s Nonna. When Andrea was a young boy growing up in Napoli after World War II, work and pay were so little that things like food on the table or clothes to wear to school were scarce. His parents tried hard in the rebuilding economy, but in rubble-strewn streets the children simply made do with eating once every day and half, sharing not only clothes but also taking turns in the winter months wearing one coat between the first three children. They lived in a rooftop apartment with only one and a half rooms. “We did not feel deprived. Since no one had it any better, we did not know how poor we were. We were happy as kids.”

Andrea’s grandparents sold fresh vegetables from a cart. Andrea helped his grandfather, or Nonno, getting up at 4 a.m. to go to the farmers’ market to pick out the best fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes they traded for fish. When Nonna cooked, Andrea would ask, “What kind of fish is that Nonna?” “A dead fish, it’s good for you. Eat!” She always answered. He pestered his Nonna to write down her wonderful recipes, but she never did. He had to learn by watching her. Later, as Andrea began to excel in school, he realized his Nonna did not know how to read or write, nor did she know the names of the fish. To her they were simply dead fish and good for her family to eat.
Andrea began his cooking career at a pizza house at age 11, when he was so small they had to place boxes boxes in a stack so he could stand tall enough to knead and toss the dough. He noticed when some people were not kind. They had to wait for their pizza, while those who were nice always were served first. Pretty soon people were greeting him in the streets and many were very nice to him. He realized early on that learning how to cook not only enabled him to eat more, but gave him a definite sense of power.

He learned so quickly that school was very boring. “When I could, I would get away from school, sometimes out a window. I’d head to the railroad tracks. My two friends and I walked the tracks to the beach. We picked up a slab of iron along the way. At the beach, when we got hungry, we waded into the water to fill our shirts with mussels. Setting the flat iron across two rocks we built a medium fire under it. We dropped the mussels on the iron and seasoned them with seaweed and seawater and herbs if we could find some.” Andrea smacked his lips in memory, “Delicious!” The Sizzling Skillet came from those creative times.

Andrea left home to attend a respected culinary school in Trieste and another in Genoa. He later joined the chef staff of a top cruise ship for a decade. After leaving the ship, he came to San Francisco in 1980. The first restaurant he worked for was the famous Ernie’s. “It was so fun. I would have worked there for free. It was a great job.” Andrea moved on to open for a number of top restaurants before finally joining the partners of Crab House and The Stinking Rose. When The Dead Fish opened, Andrea lived upstairs and worked nonstop for the first year getting it launched. He is very proud of the restaurant. “We only serve food someone will enjoy eating.”