This is the best and easiest way to prepare fish soup. Ask your fishmonger to clean and chop the fish heads for you, including the removal of the gills and eyes. This is the traditional fish soup recipe of the French Mediterranean coasts - all the flavors of the Provençal coasts are found in this soup.

To start: Wash the chopped fish heads under cold running water until the water becomes clear. This should take about 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare and dice all vegetables in quarter inch cubes. Strain fish heads in colander.

Cook the soup: Place a large stockpot on medium heat, add olive oil and fish heads. Cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add wine and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chopped vegetables, quartered orange and zest, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, crushed tomato, tomato paste, saffron, salt, pepper, chili and water. Mix well and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer for about 3 hours on medium-low heat, stirring from time-to-time making sure that nothing sticks to the bottom.

Finish the soup: Pass fish soup through a vegetable mill to extract maximum flavors, and discard bones. Cool the soup and refrigerate overnight. Before boiling the soup again, discard excess fat on the top. When the soup is hot, taste and add more seasoning if desired.

Serve with crostini, grated Gruyere and Provençal Rouille sauce.

Where is Marseilles? Although part of the region of Provence, Marseilles has a soul of its own. Founded in 600 B.C. by the Greek sailors of Phocaea, this great city is the oldest in France and surely the most complex.

As the country's second largest city, and the largest commercial port, Marseilles, in the time of the French colonies, was the gateway to the Mediterranean. Today, Marseilles remains the capitol of southern Europe, and is cosmopolitan and exuberant with a picturesque old port, its famous Bouillabaisse and its folklore.