AS she served customers at Nelson Bay Fish Market, Lynda Sloan often heard the same questions.
"What's local? What's fresh? What's sustainable?", Ms Sloan recalled being asked. "How do you cook it? What do you do with it?"
Lynda Sloan decided what was needed was a seafood cookbook, featuring a selection of recipes provided by locals. As she told the market owners, "We could flog it for 20 bucks out of the fish shop. It will be fun!"
Eighteen months later, that "fun" project is being unveiled, with the publication of Port to Plate.
But that little cookbook Ms Sloan planned grew into a Port community project involving at least 20 people, including photographers, artists, four chefs, home cooks, and fishers.
"I'm just an individual who is passionate about food, seafood," said Ms Sloan, who wrote a lot of the book's text. "But when you're out in the community, word spread."
The word reached renowned chef Ludovic Poyer, who runs a restaurant that perches above the water at Lemon Tree Passage. Actually, Lynda Sloan brought the word into his kitchen.
"Lynda knocked on the door with the idea of the book," Mr Poyer recalled. "And I thought, 'Oh yeah, it would be nice to have a book'."
"It was the Pied Piper effect," said Ms Sloan of Ludovic Poyer's involvement. "Once he was on board, other chefs said, 'Well, I'll be on board'."
While Mr Poyer contributed seven recipes to the book, he hoped it put the spotlight on those who put the key ingredient on the plate - the fishers.
"The fisherman is always forgotten," said the chef. "If we don't have the fish, we don't have the dish."
Among those local commercial fishermen is Greg Finn, who has contributed to Port to Plate. The abalone and sea urchin diver said he was "humbled" by the recognition, adding the book highlighted sustainable fishing and the need to support local produce.
"We have to do better at keeping local seafood in our community rather than just shipping it off and losing our identity," Mr Finn said. "Local seafood is something you should make the most of."
The fisherman said the book showed what could be done with local species that were underused and under-appreciated, such as blue mackerel and turban shells, or turban snails.
"It's very delicious," said Mr Finn of the mollusc. "But it's one of those species that doesn't get used very much in Australian culture."
The Port to Plate story goes beyond the book's pages, with QR codes taking the reader to video footage of the chefs cooking and fishing crews at work.
For Lynda Sloan, Port to Plate has been not just a passion project but one of belief. She invested thousands of dollars in its development. The book also received support from the NSW Department of Primary Industries through its Eat More NSW Seafood grant program.
She hoped Port to Plate, with its many photos and artworks, showcased the area's natural beauty. And, Greg Finn said, the book would help show what Port Stephens offered to the palate.
"You want to eat and sample the local species, and this book promotes that," he said.
Port to Plate is to be launched at The Poyer's restaurant on Wednesday.
