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A
Provencale Bouillabaisse
Chef
Raymond Viale is called the King of Bouillabaisse for good reason.
The fish stew that he served for a picnic at a winery in Provence was
superb, and watching him prepare it was a seafare cooking lesson.
The
secret is in the timing, so that none of the ingredients become
overcooked. Each ingredient requires different timing, and Chef
Raymond orchestrated the feast like a maestro. The potatoes went
into the bouillon early, along with the saffron, tomatoes, garlic and
rosemary. The largest fish and the octopus then went into
the broth, followed toward the very end by the smallest fish and the
langoustines.
There
is no set recipe for a bouillabaisse, which means a chef can be very
creative. The one ingredient said to validate any bouillabaisse,
however, is said to the rascasse, or hog-fish. On this occasion,
the racasses were added to the broth late in the cooking.
Chef
Raymond removed the fish from the bouillon at just the right moments
and served them on large. absorbent, concave cork platters, so that
the fish would not slip around during service. The picnickers
then dumped the fish into their own bowls, followed by the broth
served separately from cauldrons. Last but not least came the
rouille, the spicy, garlicky mayonnaise rust colored from paprika.
On
this day we were a large group of winemakers and their guests, dining
under the sun at Domaine Saint-Andre de Figuiere, a leading Provencal
winery. Tables were set up on a backyard terrace, and the
bouillabaisse was cooked over barbecue pits. There were numerous
Provencal wines to taste, and the occasion confirmed that the dry
roses of the region were the ideal wines to accompany the
bouillabaisse.
Alain
Combard, the Saint-Andre winemaker, spent 20 years in the Chablis
district before arriving back in Provence in 1992, when he began
practicing organic farming in the Saint-Andre vineyards. The
domaine lies near the Mediterranean coast at La Londe les Maures, not
far from Le Lavandou, where Chef Raymond's restaurant can be found.
Chez
Raymond is at Les Tamaris, Plage de Saint-Clair, 83980 Le Lavandou,
Var, on the Cote d'Azur. Te. from the U.S. 011-33-4-94-71-07-22.
Fax 011-33-4-94-71-88-64.
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