Pompano en papillote

Pompano en Papillote is a dish created by Jules Alciatore at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans for a banquet honoring the Brazilian balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont. The dish was based in turn on a dish that Jules's father Antoine Alciatore had created—Pompano Montgolfier--honoring the brothers who had created the first balloons. A filet of pompano is baked in a sealed parchment paper envelope with a white sauce of wine, shrimp, and crabmeat. With a bit of luck the steam will puff up the parchment a bit, suggesting a hot air balloon.

Pompano is a particularly appropriate choice for this kind of preparation. The fillet is uniform in thickness, thus it will cook evenly. A salmon fillet, for example, tends to be thicker at one end than at the other, making it difficult to produce an even result when baking. The texture of pompano is very firm, and so it will not break down when cooked in a sauce, like a trout fillet might. Finally, pompano has a delicate but distinct flavor that will not be lost in the richness of the sauce.

The traditional preparation calls for cutting a heart shape out of a piece of parchment paper. A velouté made with shrimp stock is combined with white wine (or champagne), shrimp, and lump crab meat. The sauce is spooned onto one side of the paper (which has been oiled) and the fish placed on top of that. The other side is folded over and the edges sealed all around. The packet is then placed on an oiled cooking sheet and baked in a hot oven (400 degrees) for about 10 minutes. The browned packets are placed onto plates and served as quickly as possible. Each guest slices open the paper, releasing the aroma.

It is tempting in the modern culinary world to view Pompano en Papillote with some derision—a gimmicky old warhorse of a bygone era. But it is important to understand its place in culinary history. It is in some ways the epitome of New Orleans grand Creole cooking; to understand the dish is to understand the cuisine and the nature of the grand dames of New Orleans restaurants.

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