This is from Bob Levi who says, “As most of you know, I love to cook. One of my favorite ingredients is fresh fennel. Often I’ll bake fish topped with sauteed sliced fennel and shallots along with some lemon zest and lemon juice. Give it a try sometime. While I was making this dish one night, the following popped into my head…)”

Although carp is a scavenger fish and has a bad reputation among many people, the true fish connoisseur recognizes that carp, when prepared correctly, can be a wonderful gastronomical experience. I recall reading about a gourmet society that held a competition among its members for recipes that used this underrated fish as the main ingredient. One enterprising member created a marvelous dish that was declared the winner. Using an entire carp, the recipe called for baking it with fresh fennel and then topping the fish and fennel with a special light sauce that was based on Dom Perignon champagne. The dish was considered to be sinfully delicious by the judges and anyone who tried it.

A food magazine reporter covering the competition noticed that in preparing the dish, the chef needed to vigorously whisk the champagne sauce ingredients for a long period of time. The reporter wondered if this activity could possible cause wrist injury and mentioned it in his story. When the article on the event was published in the magazine, a headline writer entitled the piece … The Carp and fennel – Sin Dom.