Bouillabaisse (; oc, bolhabaissa, bullabessa ) is a traditional Provençal fish

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables a ...

originating in the port city of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

. The French and English form ''bouillabaisse'' comes from the Provençal Occitan word ''bolhabaissa'', a compound that consists of the two verbs ''bolhir'' (to

boil A boil, also called a furuncle, is a deep folliculitis, which is an infection of the hair follicle. It is most commonly caused by infection by the bacterium '' Staphylococcus aureus'', resulting in a painful swollen area on the skin caused by ...

) and ''abaissar'' (to reduce heat, i.e., simmer). Bouillabaisse was originally a stew made by Marseille fishers, using the bony

rockfish Rockfish is a common term for several species of fish, referring to their tendency to hide among rocks. The name rockfish is used for many kinds of fish used for food. This common name belongs to several groups that are not closely related, and ca ...

which they were unable to sell to restaurants or markets. There are at least three kinds of fish in a traditional bouillabaisse, typically red rascasse ('' Scorpaena scrofa'');

sea robin Prionotinae is a subfamily of demersal, marine ray-finned fishes, part of the family Triglidae. The fishes in this subfamily are called sea robins and are found in the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans, the other two Triglid subfamilies ...

; and European conger. It can also include gilt-head bream, turbot,

monkfish Members of the genus ''Lophius'', also sometimes called monkfish, fishing-frogs, frog-fish, and sea-devils, are various species of lophiid anglerfishes found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. ''Lophius'' is known as the "monk" or "monkfish" ...

, mullet, or European hake. It usually also includes shellfish and other seafood such as

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) o ...

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which ...

, velvet crabs, spider crab or

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, ...

. More expensive versions may add langoustine ( Dublin Bay prawn; Norway lobster), though this was not part of the traditional dish made by Marseille fishermen. Vegetables such as

leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of '' Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus '' Al ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es,

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, ...

, and

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es are simmered together with the broth and served with the fish. The broth is traditionally served with a '' rouille'', a

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tarta ...

made of

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeas ...

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma (botany), stigma and stigma (botany)#style, styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly ...

, and

cayenne pepper The cayenne pepper is a type of '' Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a moderately hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with ...

on grilled slices of bread. What makes a bouillabaisse different from other fish soups is the selection of Provençal herbs and spices in the broth; the use of bony local Mediterranean fish; the way the fish are added one at a time, and brought to a boil; and the method of serving. In Marseille, the broth is served first in a soup plate with slices of bread and rouille, then the fish is served separately on a large platter (see image at top); or, more simply, as

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

suggests, the fish and broth are brought to the table separately and served together in large soup plates.

Marseille bouillabaisse

Recipes for bouillabaisse vary from family to family in Marseille, and local restaurants dispute which versions are the most authentic. In 1980, 11 Marseille restaurateurs collaborated to draw up the Bouillabaisse Charter which codified both ingredients and method of preparation. An authentic Marseille bouillabaisse must include ''rascasse'' ('' Scorpaena scrofa''), a bony rockfish which lives in the

calanque A calanque (, "inlet"; co, calanca, plural ''calanche'' or ''calanchi''; oc, calanca, plural ''calancas'') is a narrow, steep-walled inlet that is developed in limestone, dolomite, or other carbonate strata and found along the Mediterranean co ...

and reefs close to shore. It usually also has ''congre'' (eng: European conger) and ''grondin'' (eng:

). According to the ''Michelin Guide Vert'', the four essential elements of a true bouillabaisse are the presence of rascasse, the freshness of the fish; olive oil, and excellent saffron. The American chef and food writer

, who lived in Marseille for a year, wrote: "to me the telling flavor of bouillabaisse comes from two things: the Provençal soup base—garlic, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, fennel, saffron, thyme, bay, and usually a bit of dried orange peel—and, of course, the fish—lean (non-oily), firm-fleshed, soft-fleshed, gelatinous, and shellfish."

Ingredients

The ingredients of a traditional Marseille bouillabaisse vary depending upon what fish are available that day and the taste of the chef. These are the typical ingredients used in one of the most traditional Marseille restaurants, the Grand Bar des Goudes on Rue Désirée-Pelleprat: Four kilograms of fish and shellfish, including, on a typical day, ''grondin'' (

), ''Rascasse'' ('' Scorpaena scrofa''), ''rouget grondin'' (

red gurnard The red gurnard (''Chelidonichthys cuculus''), also known as the East Atlantic red gurnard or soldier, is a benthic species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Triglidae, the gurnards and sea robins. This fish is found in the eastern Atl ...

), ''congre'' (

conger eel ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during ...

), ''baudroie'' (lotte, or

), ''Saint-Pierre'' ( John Dory), ''vive'' (

weever Weevers (or weeverfish) are nine extant species of fishes of family Trachinidae, order Trachiniformes, part of the Percomorpha clade. They are long (up to 37 cm), mainly brown in color, and have venomous spines on their first dorsal fin ...

), and

sea urchins Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

. Other ingredients in the broth include a kilogram of potatoes, seven cloves of

, onions, ripe tomatoes, and a cup of olive oil. The broth is seasoned with a

bouquet garni The ''bouquet garni'' (French for "garnished bouquet"; ) is a bundle of herbs usually tied with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, casseroles and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients and removed prior t ...

, fennel, eight pistils of

, salt and

Cayenne pepper The cayenne pepper is a type of '' Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a moderately hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with ...

. The ''rouille'', a spicy mayonnaise which is spread on thick slices of country bread and floated on the bouillabaisse when served, is made with an egg yolk, two cloves of garlic, a cup of olive oil, and ten pistils of saffron, and is seasoned with salt and Cayenne pepper.

Preparation of a traditional bouillabaisse

In the traditional bouillabaisse served in Marseille restaurants, first the fish are cleaned and scaled and then washed, usually with sea water. Then the fish are cut into large slices, keeping the bones. Next olive oil is put into a large casserole, and onions, cleaned and sliced, are added, along with crushed garlic and tomatoes, peeled and quartered, without seeds. This mixture is browned at low heat for about five minutes, so that the olive oil takes on the flavors of the other ingredients. When this has been done, the sliced fish are added, beginning with the thickest slices. The fish is covered with boiling water, and salt, pepper, fennel, the ''bouquet garni'' and the saffron. The dish is simmered at low heat, and stirred from time to time so that the fish does not stick to the casserole. The fish simmer as the broth is then reduced, usually about twenty minutes. When the bouillabaisse is done, the rouille is prepared: the stem of the garlic is removed; the garlic cloves are crushed into a fine paste with a pestle in a mortar; the egg yolk and saffron are added and blended with olive oil little by little to make a

. The potatoes are peeled, cut into large slices and boiled in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes. The last step is to open the sea urchins with a pair of scissors, and to remove the ''corail'' (gonads) with a small spoon. The pieces of fish are then arranged on a platter, and the ''corail'' of the sea urchins is added to the broth and stirred. In this traditional version, the bouillon is served first, very hot, with the rouille spread on thick slices of bread rubbed with garlic. The fish and potatoes are served next on a separate platter. Another version of the classic Marseille bouillabaisse, presented in the ''Petit LaRousse de la Cuisine'', uses congre, dorade, grondin, lotte, merlan, rascasse, saint-pierre, and velvet crabs (), and includes leeks. In this version, the heads and trimmings of the fish are put together with onions, celery and garlic browned in olive oil, and covered with boiling water for twenty minutes. Then the vegetables and bouquet garni are added, and then the pieces of fish in a specific order; first the rascasse, then the grondin, the lotte, congre, dorade, etrilles, and saffran. The dish is cooked for eight minutes over high heat. Then the most delicate fish, the saint pierre and merlan, are added, and the dish is cooked another 5–8 minutes. The broth is then served over bread with the rouille on top, and the fish and crabs are served on a large platter. Other variations add different seasonings, such as orange peel, and sometimes a cup of white wine or cognac is added.

Marcel Pagnol

The French screenwriter and playwright

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionabl ...

, a member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

and a native of Marseille, showed his own idea of a proper bouillabaisse in two of his films. In ' (1935), the chef Cigalon serves a ''bouillabaisse provençale aux poissons de roche'', (Bouillabaisse of Provence with rockfish) made with a kilogram of local fish; '' Scorpaena scrofa'' (''rascasse'');

capelin The capelin or caplin (''Mallotus villosus'') is a small forage fish of the smelt family found in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin ...

;

angler fish The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order Lophiiformes (). They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent fin ray (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure for other fish. The luminescence c ...

(''baudroie''); John Dory (''Saint-Pierre''); and slipper lobster (''cigale de mer''). "When I put these fish into the pan," Cigalon says, "they were still wiggling their tails." Cigalon specifies that the slices of bread served with the broth should be thick and not toasted, and that the rouille "should not have too much pepper." In the 1936 film ''

César (film) ''César'' is a 1936 French films of 1936, French film, written and directed by Marcel Pagnol. It is the final part of his Marseille trilogy, which began with the film ''Marius (1931 film), Marius'' and was followed by ''Fanny (1932 film), Fanny'' ...

'', Pagnol's hero Marius reveals the secret of the bouillabaisse of a small bistro near the port in Marseille. "Everybody knows it," Marius says: "they perfume the broth with a cream of

History and legend

The dish originates in ancient Greece. The

Phoceans Phocaea or Phokaia ( Ancient Greek: Φώκαια, ''Phókaia''; modern-day Foça in Turkey) was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, in ...

, an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

people who founded

in 600 BC, ate a simple fish stew known in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

as "'' kakavia''". A dish similar to bouillabaisse also appears in

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

: it is the soup that

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

fed to Vulcan. The legend has it that bouillabaisse was created by Marseille fishermen who wanted to make a meal when they returned to port. Rather than using the more expensive fish, they cooked the common rockfish and shellfish that they pulled up with their nets and lines, usually fish that were too bony to serve in restaurants, cooking them in a cauldron of water on a wood fire and seasoning them with garlic and fennel. Tomatoes were added to the recipe in the 17th century, after their introduction from the Americas. In the 19th century, as Marseille became more prosperous, restaurants and hotels began to serve bouillabaisse to

upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...

patrons. The recipe of bouillabaisse became more refined, with the substitution of fish stock for boiling water and the addition of saffron. Bouillabaisse spread from Marseille to Paris, and then gradually around the world, adapted to local ingredients and tastes. The name bouillabaisse comes from the method of the preparation—the ingredients are not added all at once. The broth is first boiled (''bolh'') then the different kinds of fish are added one by one, and each time the broth comes to a boil, the heat is lowered (''abaissa''). Generally similar dishes are found in Greece, Italy (''zuppa di pesce''), Portugal (''

caldeirada Caldeirada (, ) is a Portuguese and Galician (Northwestern Spain region) fish stew consisting of a wide variety of fish and potatoes, along with other ingredients.Ilí Lacerda, ''The Secrets of Portuguese Cookery'' (2009), p. 45. A fishermen's ...

''), Spain (''sopa de pescado y marisco'', ), and all the countries bordering the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. What makes a bouillabaisse different from these other dishes are the local Provençal herbs and spices, the particular selection of bony Mediterranean coastal fish, and the way the broth is served separately from the fish and vegetables."Serve the bouillon very hot with the ''rouille'' in soup plates with thick slices of country bread rubbed with garlic. Then serve the fish and the potatoes (Jean-Louis André, ''Cuisines des pays de France'', Éditions du Chêne, 2001) "The fish are served on a platter, and the broth in a tureen, and you eat both together in large soup plates." (Julia Child, ''The French Chef Cookbook.'', Knopf, 1968)

References

External links

History of Bouillabaisse Marseille Tourism Office

An American Style Bouillabaisse

Marseille Bouillabaisse Charter
{{seafood Ancient Greek cuisine Cuisine of Provence Occitan cuisine French soups French stews Monegasque cuisine Fish and seafood soups Fish stews