Jérôme Dubois is a French chef and teacher of French cuisine. He was born on 21 July 1965 in Boulogne-sur-Mer. From 1980 to 1986, he was a hotel and catering student at the Lycée Hôtelier du Touquet hotel school. He gained his first accolade as a student in 1982 when he was awarded the title “Meilleur Apprenti de France” (Best Apprentice in France).

After his studies, he gained experience in numerous restaurants and hotels. First, he worked for Robert Bardot in the two-Michelin-star restaurant Le Flambard in Lille and later took up a post in the kitchen of Le Palace le Crillon in Paris. He went on to work as a chef at the Ministry of Industry and at Le Manoir Hôtel in Le Touquet.

After his experiences in cuisine, he wanted to move his career in a new direction and he resumed studies in Toulouse, to qualify as a teacher of cuisine. With a strong attachment to his home region, he returned to the Pas-de-Calais to work as a teacher at the Lycée Hôtelier du Touquet, where he competed in and won numerous culinary competitions such as the Grand Prix Culinaire August Escoffier, the Toque d’Or Internationale competition and the Trophée National de Cuisine et de Pâtisserie organised by the Académie Culinaire de France. A semi-finalist in 2000, he achieved the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, Cuisine, in 2004.

He decided to transmit his experience to his students, and with his Lycée Hôtellier du Touquet students he prepared for numerous culinary competitions. He thus contributed to the reputation of that institution, offering many students the opportunity to shine and win awards.

Today, some of his students have themselves become MOFs, and run Michelin-starred establishments. Among them are Meilleur Ouvrier de France Pierre Caillet and his Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Bec Cauchois, Francois Adamski and Stéphane Collet, both holders of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title, and Alexandre Gauthier who runs the two-Michelin-starred La Grenouillère in Montreuil (62).

Technical consultant to the company BONDUELLE for 20 years, and to Cacao BARRY for ten, he became technical consultant to Les Entrées de la Mer in 2010 and has been a shareholder since 2017. Jérôme brings us the benefit of his extraordinary knowledge of French cuisine, his rigour and his good humour. Uncompromising as to the taste and presentation of our products, he has given rise to our recipes, which also bear his name.

SEA BASS (WOLF FISH)

This round fish has numerous different names: it is called sea bass when caught in the Atlantic Ocean, and wolf fish in the Mediterranean The wolf reference comes from its voraciousness. In fact, the sea bass swims along with its mouth open and gorges on anything that ends up between its jaws which isn’t plankton: sardines, anchovies, young mullets, newly hatched eels (glass eels), squids, small crabs, shrimps and any crustaceans it comes across, in short, anything smaller than it.

Sea bass are rather solitary fish as adults while the young live in shoals. These can be whipped up into a ferocious feeding frenzy; they make the sea appear to boil, stunning other fish with their tails, the better to feed on them. In the summer, sea bass favour rocky coastlines and beaches with crashing waves. Here, they are line caught by anglers. Professionals fish for sea bass offshore, using lines or nets.

Buying it

Wherever it comes from, a sea bass must be fresh, that is to say, it must meet all the criteria for freshness: bright eyes, shiny scales, red gills, smelling of the sea. Sea bass are sold whole and gutted, fresh or frozen, or as fillets, portioned or otherwise, fresh, vacuum-packed or frozen. Whole fresh fish are gutted on-board the fishing boats and then packed into polystyrene crates and covered with a layer of ice so as to maintain a temperature of between 0 and 2°C until they are delivered.

Preparation

A whole sea bass, fresh or thawed, must be scaled (unless it is to be cooked in a salt crust), and then rinsed and dried. When filleting, it is important to be sure to remove all the red and bloody parts between the skin and the flesh, which are usually “ferrous” and tarnish when cooked.

Cooking

Sea bass can be baked with aromatics, poached or braised. A 1kg sea bass is sufficient to serve four people. Small farmed sea bass can be steamed or cooked in paper parcels (“en papillote”). Sea bass fillets are pan-fried. The fillets are taken from a 3 to 4kg fish, so as to obtain thick, plump fillets and to ensure that cooking is as even as possible.

Use

Sea bass fillets can be prepared raw, as a carpaccio or tartare. In Japan, they are served as sushi. If cooked, they are braised, grilled or roasted.

Storage

Fresh whole sea bass should be stored in a cold room or refrigerator for no more than a few hours after delivery, in the ice from the crate. Vacuum-packed fresh fillets display a UBD (use-by date). Frozen whole or filleted sea bass should be kept in the freezer from delivery until it is used.

Nutritional value

Sea bass is categorised as a semi-oily fish but it contains less than 5% fat. This is primarily made up of omega-3-rich unsaturated fatty acids which are beneficial for all cells, particularly those of the nervous system. Rich in proteins, it also contains mineral salts (iron in particular) and B vitamins.

 

Varieties

• Line-caught sea bass: As the name suggests, this is caught by line (rod, troll-line or long-line) from small boats under 12 metres in length. It is subject to eco-labelling. Landed on the boat live, the fish is identified by a label attached to the gill, indicating its provenance and the number of the boat. This is the best variety. To conserve stocks of this species, Breton fishermen stop catching it from late January until late March, the breeding period.
• Trawled sea bass: Caught with nets on the high sea, it is highly likely that they will be crushed and die in the nets. This means the flesh is of lesser quality. Whatever the fishing method used, the legal catch size is 36cm in the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Channel, and 25cm in the Mediterranean.
• Farmed sea bass: The common sea bass is produced in marine fish farms (in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy, France and Croatia), more or less intensively. The fish are graded and weigh between 350 and 500g. Their flesh is less fine and has a higher fat content. There are some organic fish farms.

A Label Rouge (red label quality label) identifies sea bass farmed in the sea in good conditions without overcrowding, and fed on a fish diet.

Flavour pairings

– Green olive

– Spring onion

– Citrus fruits

– Artichoke

– Turnip

– Foie gras