Vichyssoise

Vichyssoise was created by Louis Diat, a French-born chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, in 1917. He based it on the leek and potato soup of his childhood in Vichy and created the cold version for summer service. Despite its French inspirations, vichyssoise is an American invention — and one of the handful of preparations in the classical French-American canon that achieved immediate, universal adoption.

A cold cream soup of leek and potato — one of the handful of classical preparations where temperature is intrinsic to the dish's identity rather than a serving preference. Vichyssoise is served cold, always; a warm vichyssoise is a leek and potato soup. The transformation from hot to cold is not merely a temperature change but an entirely different flavour experience: cold suppresses the sweetness of the leek and the starchiness of the potato, leaving a clean, slightly mineral, richly cream-flavoured soup of exceptional elegance. The garnish — a small quantity of finely cut chives — provides the only colour contrast and the sharp, sulphur-fresh counterpoint.

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