A plate of food with asparagus and a fork on a wooden table.
Most chefs make thousands of crab cakes in their career and eventually settle on their own 'secret weapon' crab cake recipe.
I haven't experienced too many exceptional crab cakes at restaurants-most have fillers, cheap crab meat, too much breading etc... so I simply make my own!
A plate of food with asparagus and a lemon on a table.

Fish cakes prepared with bluefish; mint & basil pesto

Crab Cakes & Fish Cakes

I think of crab or fish cakes in 'garde manger' terms... an exceptional, main ingredient, small amount of binder, garnish & seasoning. I usually prepare delicate crab cakes so I make them small & easy to pan fry and flip AND I serve them immediately upon cooking! Life changing...

New Paragraph

Prep Time: 3o min

Cooking Time: 20 min


Ingredients

Yield: 4 portions


Ingredients              

1 1/2 lb                 Crab meat, picked  or (codfish, fluke, bluefish etc…)

1 ea                        Egg, cracked & whisked

5  Tbsp                Mayonnaise 

1 Tbsp                 Dijon mustard                       

1 Tbsp                 Old bay     

1 tsp                     Kosher Salt

.5 tsp                   Cayenne Pepper

3 Tbsp                 Celery, washed, peeled & minced                       

3 Tbsp                 Scallion, sliced very thin (white section only)                 

4 Tbsp                Ritz Crackers, ground fine

3 Tbsp                Panko


2 Tbsp                 Bacon, crumbled and crisp (optional)

2 Tbsp                 Red bell pepper, minced (optional)

 

1 qt                     Canola oil for frying                        

How to make Crab Cakes

A large crab is sitting on top of a metal tray.
A close up of a tray of gnocchi on a table

Step 1

Although it's simple to purchase a variety of different crabmeat products, cooking live crabs, cooling & picking the crabmeat produces a more delicious crab cake. I like baking the crabs to avoid extra moisture. If you prefer to use moist heat, simmer about 10 minutes in water w a bay leave and some peppercorns, then cool.


If making fish cakes, season & bake the seafood fillet until firm (145 °F about 8 minutes in 350 °F oven); cool and break or cut into a small dice. The fish in the picture is baked cod fillet.



A close up of a crab salad with a spoon in it.
A white plate with a cookie on it on a yellow table
A pan filled with crab cakes is sitting on a table.


Step 2

Place the egg into a bowl, add the mayonnaise, mustard and seasonings; whisk to blend. Add the celery, scallion, crab meat, Ritz crackers and panko into the bowl, blend with a rubber spatula. 



Use an ice cream scoop to form one small ball and fry as a 'taster'; evaluate seasoning and/or panko based upon the flavor and texture. Some types of crab meat have excess liquid and it purges into the mixture after a few minutes so you may need to add more panko, depending on which crab meat you choose to cook with.


When the crab cake flavor and texture is the way you like, form the remaining filling into 8 or 9 balls, laying each onto a parchment paper, lined tray. Flatten (I use a cookie cutter ring to make the cakes evenly round).



A close up of a fried patty on a white plate

Step 3

Heat oil in an 8 inch sauteuse (this is a saute pan but with straight sides-not sloped sides, used for pan frying) There should be about 1/8th inch of oil in the pan. Pan fry 3 or 4 cakes at a time so you have room to flip the cakes with a spatula-I jiggle the pan so the cakes get evenly light brown.


I tilt the pan so that the hot oil is at one end, then carefully flip the cakes on the side of the pan with no oil so I don't splash hot oil.


I like to serve with a spicy tartar sauce and cole slaw.

Chicken Sauté, Fines Herbs & Champagne Cream

By Tom Griffiths • May 13, 2026
As chefs, we spend years mastering sauté work. I remember my early days working the sauté station for lunch in a French restaurant in NYC. We served over one hundred guests in an hour-and the food was excellent — a dozen hot pans on the flat top, stocks simmering, mise en place of freshly chopped herbs, minced shallots, butter for mounting into sauces à la minute. There is rhythm to good sauté cooking. You learn quickly that great sauté work is not about rushing — it is about organization and control .

Beyond Sweet Basil: An Herb with History, Health, and Global Range

By Tom Griffiths • April 23, 2026
Beyond Sweet Basil: An Herb with History, Health, and Global Range 

Dessert; Italian Wheat Pie

By Tom Griffiths • April 11, 2026
Our Easter and Christmas meals were feasts... my mother's family all met at Aunt Flora's home in Jersey City to enjoy and celebrate the holidays. Dinner began with platters of fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, olives, Italian bread, then a pasta course (manicotti or lasagna for the religious holidays), a roast or sausages with plenty of vegetables and traditional Italian desserts with dark coffee.We ate Italian Easter Wheat Pie one day each year—and it was never store-bought. My Aunts brought Easter cookies and baked goods-the wheat pie was my favorite. I loved the slight 'bite' of the wheat and flavors of cinnamon, vanilla and citrus. My father sometimes let me have a sip of his espresso with the dessert. I'm not sure if my mother used lard for the pie crust-she was a fan of butter and Crisco but the crust was always flaky.

Roast Leg of Lamb

By Tom Griffiths • April 8, 2026
There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, roasting a leg of lamb over Pommes boulangère is one of those meals. I don't recall having lamb at any occasions growing up so this was a dish that I proudly introduced to our family. As a young cook, it was something I could prepare with limited experience, and it provided deeply satisfying results. The lamb roasts in the oven over a bed of potatoes, onions, and garlic, allowing its natural juices and fat to baste the vegetables below. It's actually a simple preparation but becomes a complete, delicious meal—the potatoes absorbing flavor and becoming just as important as the roast itself. These days I'm developing delicious recipes using spice blends such as Ras el hanout, Baharat, Za'atar, Togarashi and even Harissa. I also love roasting leg of lamb outdoors on a grill or rotisserie. I like the subtle smokiness from applewood or dried herbs when I'm roasting lamb outdoors.

Potatoes Boulangère

By Tom Griffiths • April 8, 2026
There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, Pommes boulangère is one of those dishes. As a young cook, it was a delicious meal I could prepare for my family with my limited culinary experience. I often return to this preparation when roasting whole chicken, pork, or lamb—letting the potatoes, onions, and garlic absorb the natural juices from the protein as it cooks. The potatoes becomes more than a side dish; it’s the foundation of the meal.

Holiday Au Graten Potatoes

By Tom Griffiths • April 7, 2026
There are countless versions of Potatoes au gratin , many of them heavy with cheese. I prefer a more restrained approach—using little or no cheese—so the flavor of the potatoes remains the focus rather than being masked. Milk produces a lighter, more delicate gratin, while light or heavy cream creates a richer, more structured dish. Both are valid—it simply depends on the desired outcome. One constant, however, is nutmeg. Used sparingly, it acts as a quiet “secret weapon,” adding depth without calling attention to itself. This recipe is inspired by Xavier LeRoux, one of the finest chefs I’ve had the privilege to work with. His method includes an extra step—gently simmering the potatoes in cream before baking—which yields a noticeably superior result. The potatoes begin to release their starch into the cream early, ensuring a more uniform texture and a fully integrated dish from the first bite to the last.

My favorite Brownies

By Tom Griffiths • March 19, 2026
There are plenty of brownie recipes—and then there is the one that lives in memory. This is the only brownie recipe I bake, from Julia Child, whose influence reached far beyond French cuisine and into the home kitchens of passionate bakers like my mother. A devoted admirer, she baked these brownies often—usually for the dessert trolley at my restaurant. We featured a brownie freeze... brownie cubes with homemade vanilla ice cream, warm melted chocolate and freshly whipped cream-amazing! For me, this recipe is more than a classic—it’s a reflection of how great cooking is passed down: through admiration, repetition, and a deep love of craft.

Curing Salmon fillet

By Tom Griffiths • March 19, 2026
I taught garde manager for many years at the CIA and this is one of my favorite recipes from class. I actually developed this recipe with one of my students, inspired by a recipe he had learned on his externship.

Dessert; Irish Soda Breadd

By Tom Griffiths • March 17, 2026
We ate Irish soda bread one day each year—and it was never store-bought. Soda bread wasn’t part of our cultural lineage, but it earned its place through something more universal: respect for tradition. My mother was not an occasional baker— growing up, her baking centered on Italian traditions: special Christmas cookies, the Vigna family birthday cake, and beautifully braided Easter breads that reflected heritage. Later, like many serious home bakers of her generation, she was influenced by Julia Child . That influence expanded her repertoire into classic European pastry—Paris-Brest, pound cakes, even German chocolate cake. The iconic cross cut into the top of the loaf is often said to “let the fairies out,” though in professional kitchens we recognize its functional role: allowing heat to penetrate and the loaf to expand evenly during baking.

Authentic Guacamole, Hospitality, and the Responsibility of Feeding People

By Tom Griffiths • February 26, 2026
Authentic Guacamole, Hospitality, and the Responsibility of Feeding People