It looks like a large sea chestnut, hiding its tenderness and character beneath dark spines. “Sea urchin is always highly anticipated in Marseille and has a certain resemblance to the city itself: it may prick, but inside it holds an incredible sweetness and intensity.” So says an adopted Marseillais. Originally from the Jura region, chef Emmanuel Perrodin has lived and breathed Marseille for decades and quickly fell under the spell of this local emblem that drives gastronomes wild every winter, from the Côte Bleue to the Côte d’Azur.
For three short months, many local sea festivals turn into true iodine-rich banquets where this echinoderm is celebrated and savored in grand style. Passion, however, does not exclude moderation: sea urchin stocks are limited and threatened by illegal harvesting at sea. To prevent their disappearance, the authorized fishing season has been drastically shortened (from December 15 to February 28 in Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and until April 15 in Alpes-Maritimes).
Only a handful of professional fishers, working artisanally and respectfully toward protected species, have been officially approved, such as Damien Feraud on the Côte Bleue. “Because of these regulations, 90% of the sea urchins served during southern ‘oursinades’ now come from Galicia and Brittany. Climate change has shifted the balance,” notes Ilane Tinchant, chef of the aptly named restaurant L’Oursin in Carry-le-Rouet.
Once at the table, however, origin matters little. Whether small or large, purple, red, or even green, sea urchin remains a unique concentration of the sea on the palate. “It is both briny and sweet,” says Emmanuel Perrodin, author of Sea Urchin – Ten Ways to Cook It (Éditions de l’Épure). “Eating it raw straight out of the water is priceless! But it can also be cooked, provided it is paired correctly.”
The chef enjoys placing the bright orange tongues on a blond foie gras cake, in a land-and-sea style; incorporating them into a Comté soufflé; or preparing a “loup à la Montredon,” a Provençal gastronomic masterpiece—sea bass stuffed with sea urchins, mussels, and lobster. A monument of simplicity, sea urchin pasta is another beautiful way to enjoy it. To prepare it, Antoine Villard, chef of the Paris restaurant Dandelion, emulsifies the liquid released by the urchin with butter and lemon before adding the tongues.
He then coats the pasta with this divine sauce, finishing with toasted garlic breadcrumbs and an oil infused with garrigue herbs. “It’s a luxury product, but originally it was a poor man’s dish, gathered between rocks during holidays while snorkeling,” the chef recalls. “Fortunately, sea urchin remains natural, wild, and complex in flavor, with finesse and even subtle metallic notes.”
