Please note the photo pictured below. Someone, I repeat, someone (you know who you are) got to Annie’s salmon before I could get my picture.

Did Annie’s dinner guests not know Simone Appetit’s camera gets first dibs on all beautiful meals even if they are eventually served cold due to my artistic efforts?

Annie and her husband, John Pugh, know about artistic efforts. He is a world-renowned Trompe L’ Oeil (trick of the eye) artist (artofjohnpugh.com), and Annie is an interior designer whose home is so incredible, with one cool thing after another to explore, that explore I did, and missed my shot before the hordes dug in.

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You know if I can be distracted from food, I must be admiring something pretty special. No, it was not the appetizers. I was mesmerized by the mural in the living room.

Fortunately, my reverie was interrupted by happy eating noises (“mmm,” “incredible!” etc.) or you would be looking at an empty platter — or I would have to recreate this masterpiece in my own kitchen. This I will definitely do, over and over.

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Ingredients:

2 1/4 pounds center-cut salmon fillets about 1 1/2 inches thick

1 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 1/2 teaspoons chili (Sambal Olek) paste

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons shredded fresh ginger

1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

2 tbls. sesame seeds (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 475 degree. Line an 8 by 12-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the salmon in the pan.

In a mixing cup, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, scallions, garlic, and ginger.

Pour 1/3 of soy sauce mixture over the salmon fillet. Sprinkle the panko evenly over the fillet. Pour the rest of the soy sauce mixture evenly over the panko.

Be sure to soak the panko completely and if any runs off, spoon back onto the salmon. Set aside for 15 minutes, leaving all the sauce in the pan.

Roast the salmon for 18 to 20 minutes, or for about 12 minutes per inch at the thickest part of the salmon.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sesame seeds, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving. This dish is great hot or at room temperature.

Simone Grandmain is an internationally published travel and food writer who currently calls Truckee-Tahoe home. She welcomes your recipes, kitchen “must-haves” and food news at simonegrandmain@gmail.com.