Vichyssoise

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Vichyssoise ([ˌˈvɪʃiˌˈswɑz]^[1], commonly mispronounced [viːʃiːˈswɑː]) is a French-style soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is usually served cold.

1 Origin
2 Pop Culture
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Origin

The culinary provenance of vichyssoise—namely whether it is a French dish or an American innovation —is a subject of debate among culinary historians. Credit for the dish usually goes to Louis Diat, the chef at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City for most of the first half of the 20th century. Diat related his recollection of the invention in the New Yorker magazine in 1950:

"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.^[2]

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. Vichy is a town not far from Diat's home town of Montmarault, which was not yet tainted by ignominy.

Others contend that French chef Jules Gouffé was first to create the recipe, publishing a version in Royal Cookery (1869). Diat may have borrowed the concept from an older generation of French chefs and added the innovation of serving it cold.

Vichyssoise is often confused with its warm cousin Potage Parmentier.

[edit] Pop Culture

Vichyssoise is referenced in the 1992 movie Batman Returns. In the film Alfred Pennyworth serves Bruce Wayne a bowl of vichyssoise. Bruce is surprised at its temperature, saying "It's cold!" to which Alfred responds that "It's supposed to be cold."
On an All in the Family episode, Archie Bunker's new neighbor, Frank Lorenzo, who has a passion for food, brings over a dish of vichyssoise for dinner. In the Bunker's kitchen, Edith offers to warm up the soup, but Frank said it's supposed to be served cold, and that heating it up would cause it (the soup) to 'weep.' Archie turns his nose up at the cold soup, leading the hyper-emotional Lorenzo into a tirade about Archie "not even being ready for McDonald's!"
In the 2000 book "Kitchen Confidential" by chef Anthony Bourdain, he tells a tale of his first transatlantic voyage on the Queen Mary at the age of 9, when he first discovered this "delightfully cool, tasty liquid". And from there on, Vichyssoise is referred to as the catalyst of his lifelong passion for food. Bourdain's own recipe is available.
In the movie V for Vendetta the title character, V, uses the word vichyssoise to characterize the elaborate speech he delivers at the beginning of the movie.