DEAR DAME EVELYN , Now that crab season is here, I find I am obsessed with crab cakes and not at all obsessed with cracked crab. Am I a bad person? Is it some East Coast thing? All you hear people talking about around here is cracked crab with chardonnay and sourdough bread.

Crabby

P.S. I hate chardonnay.

Dearheart, So you bring us more news from the whine country! Well, perhaps that is a little unfair, as Dame Evelyn, too, is not wild about chardonnays, at least those oaky monsters from California. And she, too, prefers crab cakes to cracked crab, at least if someone else makes them. So no, you are not a bad person, at least not completely. Division of labor is the real issue with crab; a crab cake – so golden, so crispy, so full of crab flavor, so easy to eat – is a very-high-value-added item. Someone has spent a fair amount of time beforehand separating meat from shell so the diner doesn't have to. Dame Evelyn allows about 20 minutes a crab and one crab a person, so if you are making crab cakes for six, you are going to be in the kitchen for a spell and making quite a mess all the while. Serving each guest a whole cracked crab is an elegant alternative, but it also means guests will be spending some time doing their own picking and snapping and gouging. If they are boring and tedious people who are better off not making conversation, this could be the way to go. They will soon be exhausted and go home early – and let's be frank, we all have dinner guests who never look better than when heading out the door. If, on the other hand, you like your guests, make them crab cakes. You will be cherished forevermore.

Crisply, E. G.-S.