French Style Cold Soup

Vichyssoise is a French-style soup made of puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream and chicken stock. Traditionally, it is served cold. It is believed that the soup was created by a French chef Louis Diat (1885-1957), who was the chef at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City for most of the first half of the 20th century.  Diat wrote about his recollection of the invention in The New Yorker magazine in 1950.

“In the summer of 1917, when I had been at the Ritz for seven years, I reflected upon the potato-and-leek soup which my grandmother and mother used to prepare during my childhood,   I recalled how my elder brother and I used to cool it off by pouring in cold milk, and how delicious it was. I decided to make something of the sort for the patrons of the Ritz. Vichyssoise can be confused with its warm cousin Potage Parmentier.”

Louis Diat