 By
Clifford A. Wright
The most famous fish stew of the Mediterranean is bouillabaisse,
and its home is considered to be Marseilles, although
it is made in every little port throughout the coastal
regions of Provence. The apocryphal story of the origin
of bouillabaisse that is popularly told by the Marseillais
is that Venus served bouillabaisse to her husband, Vulcan,
to lull him to sleep while she consorted with Mars. Greek
food writers have laid claim to inventing the precursor
of bouillabaisse.
They argue that when the Phocaeans, Greeks from Asia
Minor, founded Marseilles in about 600 B.C. they brought
with them a fish soup known as kakavia that was the basis
to the future bouillabaisse. This can be said to be true
only in the most general (and meaningless) sense.
In fact, we have no idea whether such a soup was "brought" to
the western Mediterranean. In the culinary writings of
the ancient Greeks, especially as represented by Athenaeus
(A.D. 170-230), there are many mentions of boiled fish,
cooked in unspecified ways, as well as one fish stew
made with grayfish, herbs, oil, caraway seeds, and salt.
The most likely precursor to the Provençal bouillabaisse
is likely to be an Italian fish stew and, in fact, the
closest thing to a bouillabaisse that I have found in
a medieval text is the brodecto de li dicti pisci that
appears in an anonymous fifteenth-century Italian cookery
book from southern Italy where sardines and anchovies
are boiled in vino greco (a strong Neapolitan wine) with
black pepper, saffron, and sugar with a little olive
oil. There is also the matellotte du poisson recipe found
in Jourdain Le Cointe's La cuisine de santé published
in 1790 that Alan Davidson, author of Oxford Companion
to Food believes is a relevant precursor.
The most distinguishing characteristic of a bouillabaisse
is not the fish, because all fish stews and soups have
fish, but the unique flavoring derived from saffron,
fennel seeds, and orange zest. A famous Provençal
food writer, Jean-Noël Escudier, called bouillabaisse
the "magical synthesis." Another famous French
epicure, Curnonsky, called it soupe d'or, soup of gold.
The origin of the word bouillabaisse has been attributed
to the abbess of a Marseilles convent (a pun on bouille-abbesse,
the abbess' boil?) and, most credibly, to bouillon abaissé "to
reduce by evaporation." One of the earliest uses
of the word bouillabaisse was in the 1830s as a term
expressing the rapidity of the cooking. Stendhal mentioned
bouille-à-baisses, perhaps referring to a fish
stew, in his travels from 1806. But the famous French
chef Raymond Oliver, writing in the Gastronomy of France,
makes some extraordinary claims about bouillabaisse.
He tells us that it is first mentioned in a dictionary
from 1785, that its heritage is Phoenician via Greek
Sicily, and that the rules for the making of bouillabaisse
were laid down in the sixteenth century.
None of this is supported by any evidence but in any
case, I agree with his estimation that in 'bouillabaisse'...,
it is essential to retain all the delicacy of the fish
and never to debase through too much zeal a symphony
of tastes which is so hard to achieve."
Strong opinions about the proper bouillabaisse are typical
from its proponents such as the French writer and gourmet
August de Croze who said it is a culinary heresy to use
white wine in a bouillabaisse because wine only changes
the nature of the fish.
Others, including myself, disagree; it is natural. But
I agree with everything else he has to say: live fish
in great variety, good olive oil, saffron, and furiously
boiling water (the most critical step) are all essential
for a successful bouillabaisse.
So how did bouillabaisse originate? My guess is that,
given all the hallmarks, it was the invention of a nineteenth-century
restaurateur of Marseilles. Because of its expense it
most certainly was not an invention of the fishermen.
Article © 2002-2006, Clifford
A. Wright. All rights reserved.
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