BOUILLABAISSE...

Some Bouillabaisse History...

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. 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 found in a medieval text is the brodecto de li dicti pisci that appears in an anonymous fifteenth-century Italian cookery book.