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BIRTH OF A DISH
WATCH A LARGER FORMAT OF THIS EPISODE HERE
At its most basic, cooking is about using the ingredients that you have available in a harmonious way. Some very simple, rustic dishes stand the test of time due to convention and geography. For example, in coastal towns, there are deep traditions of fishermen coming up with hearty, delicious meals using exactly what they have caught to sell or in most cases, using some of the more humble creatures that get caught in the nets to create food for themselves. In Livorno, Italy, a gorgeous town on the Western coast in Tuscany, the fishermen sail into the docks every morning to sell their catch. Right in that port, at restaurants up and down the main drag, a historically significant recipe—a sort of fisherman’s stew called “cacciucco”—is prepared in a way that pays homage to the fishing tradition of that town. Sometimes, humble, honest food can be the most inspiring. The birth of a dish starts with a story — either of the people who work with ingredients or of a very basic recipe. Usually it has to do with the products that come from a certain place or of a traditional technique of that place. I was very inspired by the cacciucco I tasted in Livorno and anxious to go back to Le Bernardin, my restaurant in New York City, to create a cod dish that uses a seafood, tomato and red wine sauce—like the cacciucco sauce--as the base. At the restaurant, we used some new techniques and complex flavors to achieve the final result and we were very pleased with the outcome. The plates at Le Bernardin must be very refined, but I knew that it could be interesting to also come up with a cod dish that is easy to do at home. In this episode, you will join me in my home kitchen to learn how to make Cod Basquaise — a traditional Basque country sauce but with red wine as the base.  
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