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Lucien OlivierA cook of French or Belgian origin who ran the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow in the early 1860s; known as the creator of the recipe for the famous Olivier salad
Country:
 Russia |
Content:
Biography of Lucien Olivier
Lucien Olivier was a French or Belgian chef who owned the restaurant "Ermitage" in Moscow in the early 1860s. He is known as the creator of the famous Olivier salad. The name "Olivier" has long become a metaphor: it represents a widely popular, almost ritualistic New Year's dish, nostalgia for not so long ago times and traditions, and a somewhat ironic designation for calorie-laden and uncomplicated food pretending to be sophisticated. In any case, this salad, which has become part of Russian culinary classics, still carries the name of its legendary creator - Lucien Olivier.
Early Life
Little is known about the biography of the great restaurateur - he did not share details of his life with anyone and lived a solitary life, which sometimes gave rise to certain suspicions, although they were never confirmed. Lucien Olivier was born in Provence, presumably in 1838. In 1860, he arrived in Moscow and brought with him a family recipe for "Provencal" sauce. It was a variety of mayonnaise made with olive oil produced in Provence, vinegar, and mustard.
Restaurant Ermitage
In 1864, Olivier opened the "Ermitage" restaurant on Trubnaya Square, which became a very fashionable and prestigious establishment. In addition to Olivier, who was more of a manager, two French chefs - Duge and Marius - worked at the "Ermitage". The restaurant's cuisine and lavish banquets attracted the cream of Moscow society, wealthy foreigners, famous writers, musicians, and actors. Lucien Olivier died relatively young - in 1883; his grave can still be found in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow. However, even after the death of the great restaurateur, "Ermitage" remained a fashionable and exquisite restaurant until the revolution.
The Famous Salad
The legend of this establishment was the salad that was originally called "wild game mayonnaise" but later took the name of its creator - "Olivier". It is said that Lucien Olivier created this dish after the guests mixed the carefully arranged composition of various thinly sliced snacks together and poured mayonnaise over it. The recipe for Olivier salad was kept secret, and, according to writer Gilyarovskiy, no one was able to reproduce it exactly. Perhaps the secret lay in the special components of the family sauce or in the special treatment techniques of the salad's main ingredients. In any case, the most authoritative culinary book of pre-revolutionary Russia by P.P. Alexandrova includes a recipe for Olivier salad that includes roasted capercaillie, potatoes, fresh cucumbers or pickles, olives, and capers, all dressed with Provencal sauce and a more spicy Kabul sauce. This dish was served very cold and garnished with crayfish tails, cubes of boiled and hardened broth, and salad leaves. A more luxurious version of this salad also included boiled veal tongue, sturgeon caviar, and hard-boiled eggs. After the revolution, this recipe was forgotten, although a similar salad called "Russian" was served in the 1920s at a Russian restaurant in Wiesbaden. The revival of Olivier salad occurred in 1937 when Ivan Ivanov, the chef of the restaurant at the "Moskva" hotel, introduced a salad into the menu, prepared according to the recipe from Alexandrova's book, and named it "capital" salad. The recipe made its way into Soviet culinary books but gradually became simplified - capercaillie was replaced with chicken, then boiled beef, and pickles with salted cucumbers, and the exquisite and tasty decorations were removed. Nevertheless, this salad was considered a prestigious restaurant dish and gradually began to appear at home celebrations, displacing the less pretentious vinaigrette. The modern Olivier salad is often made with boiled sausage, and its essential ingredient is green peas, while many components are at the discretion of the hostesses.
