“Our idea is to preserve tradition by evolving it, to make good fish accessible to everyone”

Marie-Victoire and I have known each other since high school. First friends, accomplices, then lovers. She studied energy engineering, I studied insurance law. At the end of my master’s degree, I took a position as a lawyer in the sector, at Allianz, while Marie-Victoire had already been working for a year at EDF, with a good salary. We were both starting promising careers, but somewhere we knew we didn’t want a life in offices.

A year later, in June 2019, we decided to resign to our respective employers. We got married in August and, in September, we started our new lives: I got hired at Yves Camdeborde’s fish counter, in 6^e Parisian district, Marie-Victoire enrolled in a CAP in cooking.

I have always been passionate about fish. When I was little, I did a lot of scuba diving, I loved observing aquatic life, colors, shapes, movements. And I also loved making it and eating it. The fishmonger came naturally to me, but it took me a while to admit that I could make a career out of it.

The issue of conservation

Our families were very doubtful about our reconversion to this craft, which is not necessarily valued. We were convinced, and are more so than ever. Our idea is to preserve the fish tradition, by developing it, to make good fish accessible to everyone.

When setting up our project, the first thing I looked into was the question of ice. Presenting and storing fish on crushed ice, as fishmongers have always done, seemed counterproductive because the ice, by melting, moistens the fish and creates a favorable breeding ground for spoilage bacteria. To keep best, the fish must be gutted and put in a dry place. This is usually what chefs do, drying and storing fish in cold storage, but fishmongers don’t traditionally work like this.

Well caught and well slaughtered

I consulted scientists to determine the best temperature and design the ideal refrigerated display cases for our store. You have to start with well-caught, well-killed fish (with the Japanese method). ikejime, which reduces the stress and pain of the fish), well cleaned. They can then be hung whole and allowed to mature, like meat. There is no smell, but superb tastes and textures.

Since 2021, we have had our counter at the Saint-Germain market, opposite my brother-in-law’s butcher’s stand, and we offer fish, shellfish and some culinary preparations concocted by Marie-Victoire: fish rillettes, tarama, and our “signature” fish soup.

It’s an anti-waste soup made with the carcasses and heads of fish that we sell in fillets. Everything is toasted to extract the flavor, then crushed and pressed. It is ideal with rock fish, scorpion fish, grouper. We make do with what we have, and all fish, provided they are well preserved, will make a tasty soup.