(Augustin de Croze, who gives the following recipe in Plats Régionaux de France, says he considers it the best there is. It was contributed by a Marseillais. M. Etienne Fauché, one-time mayor of Cassis.)
The secret of a succesful bouillabaisse may be summed up as follows: live fish in large variety; good olive oil and top quality saffron. The only difficulty in executing the dish consists in bringing it to the boil rapidly and fiercely.
Every locality in Provence has, of course, its claim to the genuine bouillabaisse. But the true one comes from Marseille. For it is not in the waters of the beautiful bay of Marseille that all the requisite varieties of brillant-hued rockfish, which go to make up the excellence of a bouillabaisse, are to be found?
Those who have attempted to complicate the simple recipe for a bouillabaisse have succeeded only in spoiling its character; it is a mistake to cook the fish in a previously prepared broth of small fry; it is a culinary heresy to add white wine to a bouillabaisse (although it is indispenasble on the table with it). It is superfluous to thicken the sauce, even with a puree of sea-urchins. All such elaborations are simply a fashion of disguising the poverty or lack of freshness of the fish. Bearing these considerations in mind, here is the recipe for bouillabaisse, in its simplicity and integrity.
