Fish Quenelles, Gratinated

I’ve never understood the eclipse of the quenelle and the mousseline. Along with bavarian creams, aspics and jellies, they seem to have been consigned to a culinary black hole, unworthy relics of a pre-fusion age, unlike their cousin, the soufflé, which in its unmoulded variations survives untarnished by the tiresome demands of fashion. Were it not for the soufflé, I’d be tempted to ascribe the nation’s improved orthodontic health to the passing of the quenelle’s denture-friendly textures,