The Story of Louis Diat: The French Chef Who Invented Vichyssoise in New York
About this episode
This episode explores the life and contributions of Louis Diat, the French chef who created Vichyssoise in New York.
The Story of Louis Diat: The French Chef Who Invented Vichyssoise in New York is the latest episode of Fabulously Delicious — and it tells the remarkable and largely untold story of one of the most influential French chefs ever to work on American soil. Louis Diat was born in 1885 in Montmarault in the Allier department of central France, spent forty-one years as head chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manhattan, cooked for kings, presidents and the Prince of Wales, and in 1917 created crème vichyssoise glacée — one of the most celebrated cold soups in the history of fine dining — inspired by a childhood memory of his mother's kitchen in rural France. The episode follows Diat's extraordinary journey from a small town in Bourbonnais country, where he was waking up before school at eight years old to make soup, through his classical training at the Ritz Paris under César Ritz himself and the Ritz London, to his arrival in New York in October 1910 at just twenty-five years old. Within weeks he was head chef of the newly opened Ritz-Carlton, with Auguste Escoffier overseeing the inauguration of the restaurant. The story of how a childhood memory — his mother pouring cold milk into…
People in this episode
Host: Andrew Prior
Topics covered
- French cuisine
- culinary history
- influential chefs
- Vichyssoise
- New York food culture
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Books & works: Vichyssoise
Places: Montmarault, Allier
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