Sand dive into Fishthe first cookbook by Sylvain Roucayrol and Delaney Inamine, is like taking a big whiff of iodine. In this beautiful hardback book, the two authors explore the way we consume seafood when we live in Marseille, San Francisco, Barcelona, Naples, Lisbon or Tokyo. For more than two years, those who are also spouses in real life have traveled to these six major port cities to try to capture their gastronomic essence.
Fish, recently published by Editions du Chêne, is the sum of their memories and their learning. Each destination gives rise to a dedicated chapter: the couple shares their best gourmet addresses, sublime atmospheric photos (in fish markets, in restaurants, on ports or on the beach), and ten recipes that are popular gives pride of place to local aquatic fauna.
Each time, the procedure is the same. Roucayrol and Inamine begin by taking the pulse of the city by visiting the institutions (“These bars and cafes that have always existed”), local stores (“Where what is commonplace for locals becomes a treasure for us”), the fish market, the trendy restaurants…
“The secret geography of the city”
A crucial phase of gastronomic exploration, they explain, “almost social”, which allows them to better understand the eating habits of residents and to grasp “the secret geography of the city”. Then comes the creation phase during which Sylvain Roucayrol, chef of the Tuba Club hotel-restaurant in Marseille, and Delaney Inamine, photographer, designer and architect from California, design the recipes, imagine a menu and shape the plates. to take pictures.
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A meticulous work which, at a glance, allows you to understand the culinary culture of a given port city. Thus, in Marseille, we taste John Dory with harissa sauce, sea bass in a salt crust or violets (a local shellfish) with citron butter. In San Francisco, territory of the Dungeness crab, we try a crab boil (a seafood boil where the clawed crustacean reigns supreme).
In Naples, we indulge in fried octopus with puttanesca sauce or raw sea bream dressed with artichokes, drizzled with a colatura vinaigrette (a local anchovy sauce). Lisbon rhymes with clams with piri-piri (the famous Portuguese pepper) and Barcelona with a tempting prawn tortilla. Finally, once in Tokyo, at the Tsukiji market, a fish paradise, we succumb to amberjack sashimi: slices served raw and enhanced with a soy sauce-dried porcini powder condiment.
The graphic key The grain, colors and framing of Delaney Inamine's photos which freeze seafood on paper.
The star recipe The seafood platters, veritable edible paintings, whose composition changes depending on the cities visited.
Fish. Cooking fish from Marseille to Tokyo, by Sylvain Roucayrol and Delaney Inamine, Ed. du Chêne, 368 p., €39.90.
