Hello Fellow Foodies,
Well the last time we talked, I mentioned intrigue, food origins and French Royalty. What I did not mention was Carrots. Onions and Celery. Now what do all these items have in common? Ok, time’s up. I am talking of course about mirepoix.
Some of you may already know that mirepoix is a blend of aromatic vegetables that is the basis of many sauces and most stocks. To be precise it is a combination of 50% onions, 25% carrots and 25% celery, usually sautéed in butter but sometimes just added to stocks to bring out flavor. The onions provide a savory base, the carrots provide a sweetness and the celery brings it all together with its earthy background. The combination of these aromatics help enhance the simple goodness of many meat and vegetables.
You may now be thinking what the heck does this have to do with intrigue and French Royalty? Okay, the food origins may be a little obvious by now so we will leave that alone. The connection to royalty is that the person credited with documenting this blissful blend was the chef de cuisine for the Duke of Mirepoix in 18th century France. Although, contrary to popular belief, the French did not invent gourmet dining, they are generally credited to be the driving culture behind the documentation of fine dining and cooking. The Chef of Mirepoix was therefore the first person to document this use and expounded on its versatility.
The intrigue? Well according to According to Pierre Larousse (quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the Duke of Mirepoix was "an incompetent and mediocre individual. who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce One can only wonder what a demi-glace, or beef stock would taste like if Louis XV instead was attracted to the wife of the “Earl of Sandwich”, imagine a sauce where the main ingredients were bread and meat?
So the next time you taste an onion, carrot or celery, savor the individual taste of what it is. Perhaps even try all three at one time and appreciate “melange” for what it is, and then thank Charles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-Mirepoix aka the Duke of Mirepoix. Or better yet, thank his wife and his cook.
Enjoy the remaining days of summer and have a great week.
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Thanks,
Chef Rob
