Our Soups

Our tasty soups: the history and the myths  

How about a genuine, traditional fish soup? The first ever la belle-iloise canned fish soup is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The original recipe goes back to 1962 and over the years we have devised many more (fish, vegetable and bisques), taking our inspiration from French culinary traditions. And we’ve been creative too!   

There are the famous Brittany fish soups such as cotriade and Godaille du pêcheur (a fisherman’s soup with potatoes and baby vegetables). There are also some great soups from other regions such as the Provence-style fish soup, a Mediterranean speciality, the Basque-style tuna soup from the South West and Lobster bisque, a very old soup originating from the South. Some of our more innovative recipes include our sea bream soup with Jerusalem artichokes, buckwheat and slithers of chestnut, our truly unique shellfish velouté and our two cold summer soups made exclusively from vegetables and seaweed.   

We also have assortments of all our canned soups so you can ring the changes and enjoy them on a daily basis. We have created our own rouille sauce, the perfect accompaniment to fish soup, which is available in two versions: classic and its spicier counterpart, chilli and garlic. To open all these tasty treats, there is a very stylish zinc and beech wood can opener with an ergonomic handle.   

A delicious soup is a great winter warmer. Ahhh... cradling a warm mug of soup in your hands or blowing on a steaming bowl of tasty ingredients that are good for you too. Invigorating the body and warming the heart from the very first spoonful. And who could resist cooling down with a lovely fresh cold soup in summer?  

La belle-iloise canned soups are just as good, and sometimes even better, than home-made. Thanks to the super powers of canning, the carefully selected fish, vegetables and other ingredients retain their full nutritional value to give us the magical boost we need. The soup of the indomitable Gauls is said to have comprised mainly vegetables and fish. Maybe that’s the secret?  

Yes, human beings have been eating soup since prehistoric times. Fire-making skills and the appearance on the scene of farming, fishing and crockery 10,000 years ago, led to the introduction of the first broths made from grains, herbs, vegetables and fish and meat carcasses.    

The forerunner of fish soups was the soup fishermen made from the fish they did not or could not sell, primarily to avoid waste. But gradually better fish was used. The fishermen began to use the choice pieces to cook a fish soup while out at sea. And at the end of lengthy fishing seasons, they brought home their cherished recipe and the good quality fish they had received by way of payment.   

And this is how the secret of fish soup spread on terra firma and you can now order fish soup in the world’s best gourmet restaurants!  

Fish soup can be found in the culinary traditions of every continent, each with its own specific recipe according to the fish available locally, the fishing season and the customs passed down through generations. In France alone there are more than 20 different regional fish soup recipes. And it is not the sole preserve of the coastal populations. There are soups made from the fresh water fish of the Rhine in Eastern France and of the Loire, far inland in France’s Centre region. 

That’s the history of soup. Now for some modern-day myths.