The body of the sea bream is oval, and narrow. The skin of the sea bream is covered with fairly large scales. It lives on sandy bottoms in shallow waters (up to 30 metres or 100 feet in depth). In the summer, it ventures into ports and brackish ponds.

Usual size: 20 to 50 cm (8 to 20")

The gilthead seabream has a golden crescent like a crown between its eyes. The flesh is excellent: firm, moist and fine-grained.

To cook a fairly large fish like sea bream so that it is moist and flavourful, cook the section of sea bream in fish stock in the oven at 55° C (130° F) for 20 minutes so that the flesh becomes tender and develops its full flavour.

You'll get even more interesting results if you cook the sea bream whole, gutted but not scaled. Sprinkle it with coarse Camargue sea salt, then briefly sear it on the grill before putting it into a 150° C (300° F) oven to finish cooking. The scales and the skin form a natural wrapper that seal in the flavour.

For this reason, you can fill the cavity of the fish with whatever flavourings you like - for example, vanilla, fennel, preserved lemon, bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, etc.