Cycle 3 – Item 171

24 (Sun) June 2012

Bouillabaisse

3.0

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ, In-Laws

The most ambitious undertaking yet from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, this bouillabaisse was also the most disappointing.  It was good, but far from great.  Not much better than the one that I’d previously attempted from a recipe in a generic cookbook (see 1.068 Bouillabaisse).  Maybe I didn’t use enough varieties of seafood, keeping it simple with 2 fish (cod + monkfish), 1 crustacean (shrimp), 1 shellfish (clam), and 1 cephalopod (squid).  Or maybe, despite fulfilling the 1-hour cooking time demanded by Julia, it wasn’t long enough – on the original Master Chef, a contestant once presented a dish that he called “bouillabaisse,” prompting Gordon Ramsey to declare dismissively that bouillabaisse” requires at least 2 days to prepare so therefore this dish couldn’t be considered “bouillabaisse.”  Maybe I’ve been idealizing the dish beyond realistic expectations.  Whatever the case, I’ve decided to turn the page on making my own and look forward to eating a proper batch of it in Marseilles someday.

(See also FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)