Dominick’s Seafood, founded in 1992 by Dominick Ficarino, is just the latest venture in four generations of shrimp and seafood processing in the Ficarino family. With a fleet of seven boats named after family members like Dominick’s mother (Miss Barbara), his wife (Miss Loraine), his two daughters (Miss Ashleigh and Miss Hannah) and more, the…

KATIE DIXON THE BIRDHOUSE CAFE Katie’s love for food was born from a desire to fuel her body while developing a passion for healthy eating. Her heart is to nourish and heal lives with good nutrition that leaves your body & your tastebuds satisfied. Katie opened the Birdhouse Cafe in 2017 to create an environment…

Have you ever eaten shrimp and noticed a thin black strip along their back? The technique to remove this strip is called deveining, but it’s actually not a vein: it’s the shrimp’s digestive tract, and the dark shade is from grit in the tract. The “vein” isn’t harmful if eaten. It’s not essential to devein…

Within the shrimp industry, the commonality of a family-run business holds as much pride as the Wild American product they harvest from domestic waters. Of course, not all processing plants that line the Gulf and South Atlantic have a rich story of family history, but C.F. Gollott & Son Seafood based in D’Iberville, Mississippi, embodies…

For nearly 700 years, the shrimpers of Oostduinkerke, Belgium, have been using draft horses to help them pursue the local catch. Typically weighing more than 2,000 pounds, these horses are well suited to the task of carrying shrimp fishermen through the cold waters of the North Sea, but only after at least a year of…

CHRIS HASTINGS HOT AND HOT FISH CLUB & OVENBIRD Christopher Hastings is the Chef and co-owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club and OvenBird in Birmingham, Alabama. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Hastings is a graduate of the Johnson & Wales Culinary School in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduation, Hastings moved to Birmingham—where he…

Picture this: it’s before work and everyone is gathering their things before heading out the door for the day. That’s when the lightbulb goes off: what’s for lunch? What can I make quick and easy that will fill everybody up over a long day? Does that sound familiar? Most of us have experienced this scenario,…

Gulf Crown Seafood Company Inc. has been in operation since 1987 when it opened in Delcambre, Louisiana, which is a city centrally located on the Gulf of Mexico, and is about the halfway point between the Texas and Florida coastlines. Every morning, Jeff Floyd, president of the processing plant, drives down a special road to…

It’s October once again, which means that it’s our favorite time of the year: National Seafood Month! This month is about celebrating all the good that sustainable seafood brings to our lives, specifically all the fantastic qualities of wild-caught American shrimp from the Gulf and South Atlantic! From their tasty flavor to how they’re caught,…

ERIK NIEL EASY BISTRO Erik Niel was raised in Mandeville, Louisiana, a community on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain and an hour away from the Gulf. He describes it as a place where people care deeply about food, and everyone has that special dish they’re known for throughout the community. “In Southern Louisiana, food…

Wild American Shrimp are naturally delicious either frozen or fresh. But if you’re buying fresh shrimp, how can you know your potential purchase is truly fresh? Shrimp that have been freshly caught still have the heads on. Heads should be removed before shrimp are frozen, to prevent mushy texture. Make sure there is no “fishy”…

About 16 miles outside of Houma, Louisiana, across a few drawbridges, lies a family-owned business that has sustained four generations of Authemonts. The office walls are adorned with taxidermy trophies of their hunting exploits over the years ranging from bobcats to deer. Hi-Seas of Dulac was named in 1981 during the shooting of Vice President…

JEREMIAH BACON OAK STEAKHOUSE Jeremiah Bacon, a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef Southeast for three years in a row, is Executive Chef and Partner of The Indigo Road Restaurant Group’s Oak Steakhouse. Bacon joined Charleston’s beloved Oak Steakhouse in November 2010 where he presents classic steakhouse fare in an impeccable setting on downtown Charleston’s…

The flamingo: an exotic bird perhaps most well-known for its distinct pink color. Because of this unique technicolor trait, flamingos are flocked to by adoring audiences at zoos, aquariums, and more. While it’s true that flamingos are near-synonymous with the color pink, have you ever wondered why flamingos are pink? Especially when so many other…

If you’ve ever gone to your local grocery store to purchase wild-caught American shrimp or ordered them online, you’ve probably noticed just how many ways shrimp can be sold. Head-on, headless, peeled and deveined, tails-on: all of them used in different ways for a variety of recipes. Unless you’re going with shrimp that have been…

David and Kim Chauvin are big visionaries. They currently own three businesses in Dulac, Louisiana: David Chauvin Seafood Company, a fuel/ice dock, supply house, retail location and give you a 1.5-hour tour of the facilities where you take a deeper look into the domestic shrimp industry; Bluewater, an IQF processing plant; and Mariah Jade, a…