Bouillabaisse explained

The legend has it that bouillabaisse was originally made with seawater. Devised by Marseilles fishermen, it was a way of consuming the least desirable portion of their catch. Although there are almost as many variations on the recipe for bouillabaisse as there are on that for chili, the consensus among French gourmands is that the one found in La Cuisiniere Provençale by the esteemed Marseilles chef J.B. Reboul is in indubitable authentic. The first edition of this cookbook came out in 1895. Now in its 25^th edition, it’s considered the bible of Provençale cooking.

The rarity of the dish speaks of its elite status in the culinary world. Although the dish appears on menus from Marseilles to Monte Carlo, a good, authentic bouillabaisse is one of the rarest dishes on the Riviera. If you are lucky, you will encounter some variations of bouillabaisse served here in the United States. But rest assures they are 99.9% non-authentic. The local people of Marseilles believed bouillabaisse is folklorique, meaning that it’s become the Colonial Williamsburg of the French kitchen—a studied imitation of something past. Not even Alain Ducasse, the reigning chef on the French Mediterranean coast, serves bouillabaisse. Indeed, French Vogue recently asked, "Does real bouillabaisse exist?" The answer: Highly unlikely.

"To make a real bouillabaisse," said Pierre Minguella, the proprietor of Miramar, a Michelin one-star restaurant in Marseilles, "you have to cook for a minimum of six people and you need at least a kilo of poissons de roche per person." Poissons de roche is a collection of catch-of-the-day from the local fish market. Minguella believed the most important of them is the small, bony rascasse, both white and red, because it gives a deep flavor to the bouillabaisse. (Rascasse is also known as scorpionfish and is sometimes used in both the first and second courses.) Depending on the catch of the day, other good rockfish for the dish include conger eel, anglerfish, red or tub gurnard, and weever.

After all the ingredients are prepared, you brown onions, garlic, and tomatoes in olive oil, then add the clean and cut up rockfish and let it cook for fifteen minutes until it becomes a sort of paste. This is the heart of bouillabaisse. Then add boiling water, fennel, parsley, salt, and pepper and let it boil for an hour before passing it through a food mill. Once the soup is prepared, you add slices of raw potato and the tender fish, which are monkfish, loup, John Dory, chapon (a Provencale term for red scorpionfish), and whatever shellfish you’d like, maybe a few mussels, and cook another twenty minutes, adding some saffron five minutes before you serve. Sometimes adding a big shot of pastis just before serving can juiced up the dish.

The true pleasure of relishing an authentic bouillabaisse is both magical and nostalgic. Domaine de la Ferme Blanche is the white wine recommended most often with bouillabaisse. The first course should, as the French would say it, fait tourner la tête or make your head spin. The oil extract from the fish and the broth itself should be as one. When the oil and broth don’t mix, a bouillabaisse would taste watery. The second course should served with the waiter consistently replenishing the soup so the fish were never over exposed and dry. The fish fillets in the soup should be both succulent and tender, while other various seafood supplied additional flavors, as if they were meant for each other.