At The Continental, chef Sean Brock’s recently opened restaurant in Nashville, the chef draws inspiration from Paul Bocuse’s famous red mullet dish, but uses striped bass instead (although he notes that chefs can use red snapper, too, based on availability).
He brushes the fish with an egg wash and then covers it in thin potato disks that have been blanched and tossed in potato starch and clarified butter, so the disks resemble fish scales.
He cooks it in a non-stick pan with clarified butter until it’s golden brown and plates it with melted green garlic (slowly simmered until it’s almost a purée), and a saffron vin blanc sauce made with shallots, garlic white wine, bay leaf and fish stock simmerd with saffron.
Then, evoking traditional Nouvelle Cuisine technique from the 1960s and ’70s, he dots the saffron sauce with Port reducting and drags a toothpick through the dots to make heart shapes.
Price: Part of an $85 prix-fixe meal