Vichyssoise is a French-style soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is usually served cold.

Origin

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The culinary provenance of vichyssoise – namely whether it is a French dish or an American innovation – is a subject of debate among culinary historians. Some subscribe to the idea that it was created by chef Louis Diat in 1917 for the opening of a rooftop garden restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City. Others contend that French chef Jules Gouffe 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. He named the soup vichyssoise in honor of the town where he was born, Vichy.

Pop Culture

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• In the 1991 adventure game Monkey Island 2, the swanky chef at The Bloody Lip, a local dive bar on Scab Island, is cooking vichyssoise. One of the puzzles in the game involves sabotaging it by putting a rat inside. More vichyssoise references are made in the following game, The Curse of Monkey Island, where Guybrush owns a book called "Voulez-vous Vichyssoise" and Goodsoup is putting up an opera with the same name.
• Vichyssoise is mentioned 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." In the Batman Returns script, Michael Keaton's character Bruce Wayne was supposed to deliver the line "Vichyssoise. Supposed to be cold, right?" It is believed by many that Michael Keaton forgot his line and Michael Gough (Alfred) improvised and delivered the line himself, thus saving the crew from having to film the scene again.

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