Trout is quietly making a comeback at the dinner table, edging out the Atlantic salmon, which has long been crowned the king of fish but is now teetering on the brink of extinction.
Four to five decades ago, trout featured on many restaurant and hotel menus. I remember serving it myself when working part-time in a hotel kitchen. The dinner-plate-sized fish was cost-effective, convenient and easy to stash in the deep-freeze – a reliable staple.
My fishing friend and restaurateur Robin Hutson once told me about his trainee days working at Claridge’s in the 1970s, when he was put in charge of the guéridon trolley which starred truite au bleu – an old-school French dish where trout are plucked from the restaurant’s live fish tank and lowered into a vinegar-spiked court-bouillon within minutes, which turns the skin blue thanks to a natural pigment reaction.
As the broth cools, the fish poaches, but in Robin’s case, as he proudly lifted the fish from its aromatic bath and attempted to remove the meat for his eager diners, he realised – to his horror – the trout was still completely raw. The recipe I share here for truite au bleu recommends you test for done-ness before you present it to your guests with a grand flourish…
Dining and Cooking