Type Soup | Serving temperature Cold | |
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Place of origin France or New York City, United States Main ingredients Leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, chicken stock Similar Gazpacho, Potage, Leek, Saljo, Leek soup | ||
Vichyssoise cream soup
Vichyssoise (/ˌvɪʃiˈswɑːz/ VISH-ees-WAHZ; [vi.ʃi.swaz]) is a thick soup made of boiled and puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is traditionally served cold but it can be eaten hot.
Contents
Potato leek soup recipe how to make vichyssoise
Origin
The origins of Vichyssoise are a subject of debate among culinary historians; Julia Child calls it "an American invention", whereas others observe that "the origin of the soup is questionable in whether it's genuinely French or an American creation".
Louis Diat, a French chef at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City, is most often credited with its (re)invention. In 1950, Diat told New Yorker magazine:
In the summer of 1917, when I had been at the Ritz seven years, I reflected upon the potato and leek soup of my childhood which my mother and grandmother used to make. I recalled how during the summer my older brother and I used to cool it off by pouring in cold milk and how delicious it was. I resolved to make something of the sort for the patrons of the Ritz.
The same article explains that the soup was first titled Crème Vichyssoise Glacée. Then, after the restaurant's menu changed from French to English in 1930, Cream Vichyssoise Glacée. Diat named it after Vichy, a town not far from his home town of Montmarault, France.
Earlier, French chef Jules Gouffé created a recipe for a hot potato and leek soup, publishing a version in Royal Cookery (1869).