Bouillabaisse

Marseille's tourist office describes bouillabaisse as a fishermen's dish, made from the fish they set aside for their families when sorting the catch, and later refined with a binding base and even shellfish. It repeats, with a cautious "serait", the idea of a Greek or Roman origin, and the folk etymology "quand ça bout, on abaisse" (when it boils, turn it down). Neither is documented in the sources we used.

Escoffier admitted in his Guide culinaire that "unity of view and execution" for bouillabaisse was still to be made, and chose the method of his friend Caillat. In 1980 a group of Marseille restaurateurs created a charter to stop the name being used for any fish soup. The tourist office says the Marseille dish must contain at least four species from a list that includes rascasse, monkfish, conger, weever, chapon, John Dory, slipper lobster and spiny lobster, and that it is served in two dishes with rouille or aïoli and the fish cut in front of the guests.

Unlike most fish dishes, a bouillabaisse boils fast. Escoffier gives 15 minutes over a high heat, with the firm fish in from the start and the tender ones after 7 or 8 minutes. The oil and the gelatine from the fish heads and skin blend into a cloudy, slightly thick broth; Caillat insisted on whiting for that binding.

The tourist office's home version adds a step: soup fish are browned with onion, garlic and tomato, boiled for at least an hour, passed through a food mill and a sieve, and the noble fish and thick potato slices are then cooked in that base for 20 minutes.