Above: Chinook salmon Courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
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Each year, come late spring -- that is, right about now -- the sea offers up some of her most spectacular treats: buttery, succulent wild Pacific salmon, caught en route to their freshwater spawning grounds in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and British Columbia. Well-fattened to withstand extreme cold and hundreds of miles of swimming, these magnificent silver fish are in top form for eating, their healthy, deep orange-pink flesh rich in heart-friendly omega-3 fatty acids.

King (a.k.a. Chinook) salmon shows up on restaurant menus first, in late May. Copper River salmon is king salmon taken from the mouth of the Copper River, in Alaska. It's the biggest (50 to 100 pounds) and fattiest of the wild species, and it's the kind that many connoisseurs love best. Although it takes well to roasting and broiling, most chefs prefer to simply sear it, to crisp up the skin and lock in the juices.

"All we have to do is season it with a little salt and fresh cracked pepper," enthuses chef Cat Cora of Postino, in Lafayette, Calif. She lays it over two potato-pea raviolis and a generous helping of garlicky pea puree.

In Detroit, Jimmy Schmidt of The Rattlesnake Club serves seared wild salmon on a ragu of fresh peas, asparagus and Michigan morels. He finishes the dish with a green sauce made from sautéed shallots, Sauvignon Blanc, cream and raw sorrel. "It's quite herbaceous, with citrus notes from sorrel," he says -- an ideal match for clean, lemony Sauvignon Blanc from Stag's Leap, which he feels has just enough wood in it to complement the mushrooms.

Jim Swenson, chef at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., marinates salmon in tandoori seasonings before he sears it to create a boldly flavored dish that he likes to have with a strapping Zinfandel or very crisp New Zealand Riesling. This year, he's also hoping to get his hands on some ivory king, a rare genotype of the same species that's prized by gourmets for the clarity and delicacy of its bone-white flesh.

"On the East Coast there's no guarantee you're ever going to get it," he says. "You've got to snatch it up right away, before someone else does." If he does get some, he's planning to serve it over a broth of wild ramps and grilled scallions.

In Manhattan, Oceana has ivory king right now, which the restaurant is serving in fabulous 2 1/2-inch-thick slabs that are pan-seared, briefly baked at low heat and served in a pool of fennel coulis. The paper-thin skin, crisped and caramelized to a turn, is the perfect foil to this cream-colored fish.

Chef de cuisine Michael Schenk adds a little mustard "caviar" to the plate, tiny yellow mustard seeds poached in a Champagne-vinegar syrup. He prepares pink king salmon the same way -- tasted side by side, they have the same flavor profile, but differ in much the same way that an elegant, restrained Burgundy differs from a fruit-forward Sonoma Pinot Noir.

Once the kings run out, in early July, look for sockeyes and cohos, available through September. These are all distinct from one another, but in more or less subtle ways, and come in various shades of pink. Depth of hue, by the way, has nothing to do with quality.

Happily, environmental watchdog groups such as the Marine Stewardship Council and the Monterey Bay Aquarium have given consumers the green light on Pacific salmon. Order up, they say, because these creatures are taken from carefully managed waters. In an age when so many other beloved species are in serious peril from overfishing, this is welcome news. Chefs who are passing up endangered Chilean sea bass and bluefin tuna now have something even better that they can sell with a clear conscience.

This fish doesn't come cheap -- strict quotas do drive up prices -- but aficionados have proven willing to pay top dollar. Expect to pay up to $20 a pound for king filets and steaks at the fish market, and $25 to $35 (or more) for wild salmon entrees in restaurants. Sockeyes and cohos are only a little less costly.

Such pricetags may come as a shock to consumers used to paying just $5.99 a pound for farmed Atlantic salmon at the supermarket. But those fish, which are often fed synthetic carotenoids to turn their grey flesh pink, have just a fraction of the healthy fat and none of the profound ocean character of wild salmon. What's more, environmentalists will tell you that you shouldn't touch the farmed stuff, since salmon aquaculture wreaks havoc on coastal ecosystems.

So feast now, salmon fans. It's going to be another long, lean winter.