Sea bass is the lean, firm, fine-flaked white flesh of the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) — the silver, sleek predator sold across the Mediterranean as branzino, spigola or loup de mer. Mild, clean and gently sweet, with only a whisper of the sea, it is a restaurant darling cooked whole in a salt crust, grilled, filleted, or sliced raw as crudo, and is now one of the most heavily farmed fishes of the Mediterranean.