Once she retired from teaching and getting serious about it, she realized that people, including herself, didn't know much about scallops.
What better way of learning about scallops than boarding the Royal Fundy out of Digby with biologists from the Oceans and Fisheries department and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography.
“I went out on the boat, slept on it and even cooked for the crew. (No scallops though; we just ate them raw!)”, emailed Eberspaecher.
The result is a beautifully illustrated book containing delicious recipes from around the world, along with little-known facts about scallops.
Eberspaecher, who grew up in The Forties in Lunenburg County but now works as a travel, nature, landscape, wine and food photographer from Oakville Ontario, says a part of her will always stay in Nova Scotia and that scallops have always been one of her favourite foods.
“I think my mother took me off pablum and put me on fish and seafoods,” she said.
Most of the recipes in the book came from her friends because everyone seems to prepare them a different way. As she and her husband (who are both travel journalists) travelled to other parts of the world, she would often order scallops and track down the chefs for recipes. Others helped.
Her son received a recipe from the grandmother of a girlfriend in Tasmania.
Eberspaecher also interviewed well-known chefs who prepared scallops for her in their kitchens, including Claude AuCoin from the Digby Pines who now is with the Nova Scotia Culinary School in Halifax.
One chef, Lee Miller from Nags Head, North Carolina prepared scallops seven different ways for them while his staff was running around serving diners in a packed dining room on a Friday night.
Michael Blackie, the executive chef at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and feeds people like Stephen Harper and his guests. “These chefs are very special people,” said Eberspaecher.
Except for the ones prepared by the chefs, she has prepared all of the recipes and personally photographed them with the exception of half a dozen.
“I had to prepare them if I wanted photos in the book but my husband surely was sick of scallops after tasting and testing so many. I actually had over 50 more recipes that I cut out because the book would have been too big,” she said.
Some photos were provided by friends and family and some from departments of tourism in countries such as Isle of Mann, Thailand, etc.
As far as her favourite recipe, Eberspaecher has chosen a new one.
“I did like the Marguerita scallops a lot but you should try the scallops with sun-dried tomatoes and basil cream sauce. In the winter when it is cold I love the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland chowder,” she said.
The book has a website.
