In Maine, things are even simpler: Peekytoe crab is mixed with mayonnaise and stuffed into a toasted, buttered hot dog bun, much like a lobster roll.

What really makes peekytoe crabs better than other crabs is the care with which they are handled, cooked and picked -- essential work, because the crabs are too fragile to be shipped live. In Maine, this is still a cottage industry and the best job is done by lobstermen's wives. Until recently, the wives prepared the crabs in their home kitchens. But since the new Federal food safety laws went into effect, the crabs are now prepared in structures built next to lobstermen's homes.

Chefs have their favorite pickers. Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley, Mr. Vongerichten and Mr. Muller are among those who insist on the crab meat from Ms. Bengis, who collects from several pickers on Deer Island. Mr. Ripert and Mr. Boulud want only Linda Harford's crab meat, which is sold under the name Mac's through Browne Trading. Her crab also comes from the Penobscot Bay. The good pickers are in such demand that Ms. Harford said that two years ago she was offered $5,000 to pick exclusively for a distributing company. ''This business has become so cutthroat,'' she said.

There are plenty of others who distribute peekytoe crab meat, but their product does not have the cachet. That's partly because not all of them are so scrupulous about freshness, keeping peekytoe separate from other kinds of crab and being vigilant about pesky bits of shell that fall into the meat.

Mr. Keller is so partial to crab prepared by Tina Gray, who picks for Ms. Bengis, that he has asked her to sign each of the containers she does for him. Not many of the pickers can hear the sound of a fleck of crab shell when it lands in a bowl of crab meat. But Ms. Gray almost never misses, and it makes her daughter, Tiffany Eaton, crazy. ''Tiffany gets so mad at me because every once in awhile I yell, 'There's a shell,' '' Ms. Gray said, as she and her daughter picked away on a recent Monday morning.

''There are different levels of crab meat because there are different levels of pickers,'' Ms. Bengis said. ''It depends on how well you drain your crab meat, how dry it is. If it's too moist, it spoils quickly. If it's too dry, it loses its flavor. And freshness. Restaurants will have what Tina picked today by tomorrow at 3 o'clock.''

Every picker has a slightly different routine for processing the crabs. Ms. Gray's are kept in the water until minutes before cooking. As soon as Mr. Eaton brings the crabs from his platform ashore, he drives them to the home he shares with Ms. Gray and their children, about five minutes away. The morning I accompanied him, he did not have many. As he transferred them from the storage crates to baskets, he said he was in trouble. ''There aren't very many, and I'm gonna get chewed out,'' he said. Ms. Gray has to have at least 12 crates a week to fill her orders.