I was sad to learn that the great chef Roger Vergé died last week at age of 85. When I was a young cook in the late 70’s, he was one of a handful of chefs who changed the way I thought about food, pioneering the innovative style that became known as “nouvelle cuisine”. His restaurant Moulins de Mougins was a landmark in the south of France, renown for its inspired Provencal cooking.
When I interviewed him at his restaurant during a stay in Provence, he used words like ‘hunger’, ‘generosity’ and ‘pleasure‘ to describe his philosophy of food. Like other great Provencal cooks in the region, Verge cooked with the bounty of the local markets – seafood, herbs, vegetables, olives, “to satisfy hunger in its deepest sense – for communion, comfort, celebration“.
To Verge, how one eats reflected how one lives. His philosophy was simple: he ate what he felt he needed to eat, in a balanced way, to feed his hunger, both emotional and physical. “Sometimes if I need a whisky, I drink a whisky, not the whole bottle. You have to eat and live and cook following what you like, not what others tell you”.
He taught me a singularly simple and delicious sauce for grilled or roasted fish that I have relied on over the many years since, below. He served it with a fish scented with bay leaves. It is equally good with the fennel-scented fish, below, that can be roasted or grilled. – Sally Schneider, June 2015
Recipe: Citrus and Olive Oil Sauce (You can make the sauce up to 2 hours ahead/ makes 1½ cups, serves 4)
- 3 navel oranges or 4 blood oranges
- 1 large or 2 small lemons
- ⅛ tsp kosher salt, or to taste
- Freshly ground white pepper
- 3 or 4 tablespoons fruity extra-virgin olive oil
With a thin sharp knife, cut the tops and bottoms crosswise off the oranges and lemons to expose the flesh. Stand an orange on the work surface, and, working from top to bottom, carefully cut off the peel and white pith in wide strips, leaving the orange flesh intact. Then, holding the orange over a bowl to catch the juice, cut between the membranes to release the orange sections. Drop the sections into the bowl of juice. Squeeze the membranes to extract the juice and discard membrane. Repeat with the remaining oranges and lemons.
Season the juice lightly with salt and white pepper. Add the olive oil and toss gently. Set aside until ready to serve.
