What is Olivier called in other countries? Salad "Olivier"

The history of the creation of a real Olivier salad For many decades, the festive feast of Muscovites - from a rich restaurant table to a student party - has always included a traditional dish with a French aristocratic name - Olivier salad. Each of us ate it more than once. But is this the same “Olivier”? Let's see the story.

This salad was invented in the 1860s by the French chef Lucien Olivier, owner of the Hermitage tavern on Trubnaya Square. The tavern building has been preserved, it is house 14 on Petrovsky Boulevard, corner of Neglinnaya, now it houses a publishing house and a theater.

V.A. Gilyarovsky, in his essay “On the Truba”, dedicated to Trubnaya Square, talks about the circumstances thanks to which the Hermitage tavern appeared on this square. In the 1860s, smoking cigarettes was just becoming fashionable, but there were many lovers of snuff. Snuffers and snuffers put forward the advantage of this particular use of tobacco that you can “sniff” in any place and society and, unlike smoking, “you can’t spoil the air.” Amateur snuff, ground in a special way and with various additives, was held in special esteem. The preparation of such tobacco was carried out by the guards; each had his own recipe and his own clientele.

Among the customers of the guard on Trubnaya Square were the wealthy Moscow merchant Yakov Pegov and the famous French chef Olivier in Moscow, about whom they said that only he in the capital could arrange a real dinner, and who was invited to the most aristocratic and wealthy houses to organize ceremonial dinners . Meeting at the booth attendant, Pegov and Olivier agreed to jointly purchase the plot of land on which this very booth and the adjacent drinking establishment, known among the surrounding residents as the “Afonkin Tavern,” stood, and set up a first-class restaurant here.

In the mid-1860s, a building was built with white-columned halls, separate offices, sparkling mirrors, chandeliers and palace luxury of decoration and furnishings. The new establishment was named "Olivier's Hermitage Tavern." In all respects, the new tavern resembled the highest-class Parisian restaurant. The only difference was that instead of tailcoats, the waiters were dressed like Russian sex workers: in white shirts of Dutch linen, belted with silk belts. At the Hermitage you could taste the same dishes that were served in the mansions of nobles. The main attraction of the Hermitage kitchen was a salad of unusually delicate taste, invented by the owner - “Olivier Salad”, the method of preparation of which he kept secret. Many chefs tried to prepare this salad, but no one succeeded.

The Moscow nobility became the visitors and regulars of the Hermitage; in the eighties and nineties they were replaced by Moscow foreign businessmen, and then the Russian merchants came, acquiring a European luster. The Hermitage was visited by the intelligentsia; ceremonial and anniversary dinners were held in its halls: in 1879 in honor of I.S. Turgenev, in 1880 - in honor of F.M. Dostoevsky, in 1899 on the centenary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin, the Pushkin dinner took place, which was attended by the most famous writers of that time. Various anniversaries of university professors were celebrated here, and on Tatyana’s Day students had fun, but student feasts were very different from the decorous “professor’s dinners.”

The salad became the main attraction for visitors. His recipe was a secret that Olivier took with him to the grave. But, after a short oblivion, the recipe was restored in 1904 in memory of one of the gourmets who were regulars at the restaurant.

Here is the composition of the real Olivier salad (albeit, already during the period of its decline - 1904, and its creator took the secret of the true Olivier with him) as follows:

Reconstruction of a real Olivier salad!!!

So Olivier took:

. meat of two boiled hazel grouse,
. one boiled veal tongue,
. added about 100 grams of black pressed caviar,
. 200 grams of fresh salad,
. 25 boiled crayfish or 1 can of lobster,
. half a jar of very small pickled cucumbers (pickles),
. half a can of Kabul soybeans,
. two chopped fresh cucumbers,
. 100 grams of capers (a prickly vegetable whose flower buds are pickled),
. finely chopped five hard-boiled eggs.

All this bourgeois delight was seasoned with Provençal sauce, which had to be prepared with French vinegar, two fresh egg yolks and a pound (400 grams) of Provençal olive oil.

After Olivier’s death, the owner of the “Great Hermitage” restaurant (as the tavern began to be called at the beginning of the 20th century) was the “Olivier Partnership,” the composition of which changed several times. During the revolution of 1917, the restaurant closed, the building housed various institutions, during the NEP there was again a restaurant here, and from 1923 to 1941 it housed the “Peasant’s House.” In the “Great Hermitage” and in the Nepman restaurant, the menu invariably included the signature “Olivier salad,” but V.A. Gilyarovsky believed that already under Olivier’s heirs, the salad was no longer the same as it was under its inventor, and the one served to the NEPmen was “from cores.” We will look at the preparation of a real Olivier salad in detail below, but now let’s return to history. After Olivier’s death, the owner of the “Great Hermitage” restaurant (as the tavern began to be called at the beginning of the 20th century) was the “Olivier Partnership,” the composition of which changed several times. During the revolution of 1917, the restaurant closed, the building housed various institutions, during the NEP there was again a restaurant here, and from 1923 to 1941 it housed the “Peasant’s House.” In the “Great Hermitage” and in the Nepman restaurant, the menu invariably included the signature “Olivier salad,” but V.A. Gilyarovsky believed that already under Olivier’s heirs, the salad was no longer the same as it was under its inventor, and the one served to the NEPmen “was made from cores.”

It was considered special chic when dinners were prepared by the French chef Olivier. You will need poultry meat, pickled (not pickled) cucumbers, a sweet apple (at least sweet and sour). Both cucumbers and apples need to be peeled. In Olivier, it is very important to maintain the correct proportion: for 6 potatoes take 3 carrots, 2 onions, 1-2 pickled cucumbers, 1 sweet apple, 200 g of boiled chicken, a glass of canned green peas, 3 eggs, 1/2 jar of mayonnaise, salt and ground pepper - to taste.

"Moscow and Muscovites"

Salad "Olivier"- a popular salad in the countries of the former USSR, considered festive and traditionally New Year's. It received its name in honor of its creator, chef Lucien Olivier, who kept it in Moscow in the early 60s of the 19th century.

Abroad, the Olivier salad is known as "Russian salad" or "Russian Potato Salad".

The history of the Olivier salad

The Olivier culinary dynasty lived in the southern province of France - Provence. She did not stand out in any way from hundreds of her own kind, because the culinary profession has always been popular among the French. But at the beginning of the 19th century she became famous by creating a delicious sauce, which was given the romantic name “Provencal”. The three Olivier brothers worked their magic in the kitchens of France, while the youngest, Lucien, went to conquer hospitable Moscow. And men in Russia traditionally preferred pickled mushrooms and cucumbers, pickled apples and sauerkraut with cranberries as snacks. To top off all the troubles, the capital's taverns have learned to prepare approximately the same salads, only with sour cream sauce. There was an urgent need to invent something new. Lucien Olivier organized a grandiose “culinary-political council” with assistants: cooks Duguay and Marius, who knew the taste preferences of the Moscow public well.

A few days later, everyone offered their own version of a new salad. But Lucien Olivier decided to create something super-original. He almost never left the kitchen, inventing a new taste: he replaced “heavy” meat with “light” poultry, introduced apples, peas - everything was different. And suddenly - eureka! Cucumbers should not be salted, but fresh!.. The taste has been found! All that remained was to calculate the correct proportions and add savory little things to give the dish the “overseas extravagance” so beloved by Russians. And for such a professional as Olivier, this was a matter of several tests. Soon, a salad from Olivier appeared on the menu of signature dishes of the Hermitage restaurant. A few months later, a rumor spread throughout the capital that several masterpieces of culinary art appeared at once in the Moscow restaurant, which had not previously sparkled with original dishes. Among them is the Stolichny salad, which, according to Moscow gourmets, is closest in taste to Olivier. The name of the restaurant's chef, contrary to existing fashion, was absolutely Russian - Ivan Mikhailovich Ivanov. Competition again pushed Olivier to search, and he began to experiment with redoubled force. New combinations of meat, cucumbers and apples were selected, only hazel grouse remained the main ingredient. This version of “Olivier” has also reached us: 2 equal parts of fried veal and hazel grouse fillet, 5 boiled potatoes, a large boiled celery root, half a can of black olives and pitted olives, half a glass of pickled gooseberries and pitted cherries, 5 salted gherkins, 15 crayfish necks, 300 grams of boiled porcini mushrooms, 4 boiled eggs. You can also add 2 fresh cucumbers.

Just a couple of years ago it was impossible to imagine a festive table without Olivier. A traditional New Year's film memorized, down to the intonations of the characters, "Soviet" champagne and such a dear "French"!

The author of our beloved culinary masterpiece is considered to be Lucien Olivier, a chef of Belgian or French origin. Coming from a large family, who came to the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, he remained here. Unlike his many brothers who fed the French intellectuals, the enterprising young man took a closer look at the gastronomic habits of the Russian bourgeoisie. A close acquaintance with the Moscow merchant Yakov Pegov, motivated by a love for snuff, soon led to the creation of the Hermitage tavern. Despite the official status of the tavern, the establishment did not at all look like an eatery. The waiters were dressed in shirts made of fine Dutch material, belted with cords of real silk. The name had nothing to do with the building in St. Petersburg; hermitage translated from French means “place of solitude.”

Initially, the Frenchman treated restaurant guests to truly French gourmet dishes. The mayonnaise sauce (the recipe for which Olivier brought with him from his homeland) was especially chic. This sauce included ground boiled yolks, vinegar, Dijon mustard, and butter. However, it became increasingly difficult to satisfy the fastidious tastes of the Moscow nobles, and Lucien began to think about innovations.

There is even a legend about what exactly prompted the great chef to change. One day, cook Olivier, who was preparing the sauce for the umpteenth time, either on purpose or by accident, put raw yolks in the sauce instead of boiled ones. Of course, he received a formal scolding. However, the taste of the sauce turned out to be so unusual that the chef decided to play with this innovation. Having improved mayonnaise with the help of seasonings (which ones are still unknown, it is believed that this is the main secret of the salad), Olivier came up with a dish called “Game Mayonnaise.” It was prepared as follows: boiled partridge and hazel grouse fillets, cut into cubes, were placed in a heap in the center of the salad bowl. They were mixed with cubes of jelly from the poultry broth. Boiled beef tongue and crayfish necks were laid out along the edges and poured with new sauce. By the way, the sauce was called “Provencal”.

However, the dish served in this way was gradually turned into a salad by the Russian intelligentsia, which horrified and confused the sophisticated Frenchman. But, yielding to the Russian mentality, the cook soon began serving the dish with the ingredients already mixed, thickly pouring sauce over it. The dish was named after the creator of “Olivier Salad”. This is the history of the creation of Olivier salad.

Composition of Olivier salad

As for the composition of the Olivier salad, no one was able to find out the recipe for the salad; the creator took it with him to the grave. However, in 1904, the composition of this salad was first published, reproduced according to the restaurant’s regulars.

The traditional composition of the salad is as follows:

crushed quail eggs (hard-boiled) in the amount of 5 pieces;
pressed black caviar in an amount of approximately 100 grams;
boiled hazel grouse in the amount of 2 pieces;
boiled beef/veal tongue in the amount of 1 pc.;
small pickled cucumbers (gherkins) in the amount of 5-7 pieces;
boiled crayfish (25 pieces) or boiled lobster meat in the amount of 1 piece;
mayonnaise sauce "Provencal".

During Soviet times, the original composition of the salad changed many times. More expensive hazel grouse and crayfish gave way to potatoes and green peas. As a result, today we are all familiar with the following composition of Olivier salad:

Boiled potatoes;
Boiled carrots;
Boiled chicken eggs;
Canned green peas;
Salted and fresh cucumbers;
Boiled sausage / chicken / boiled meat
Mayonnaise

It's interesting that: In February 2009, the “Olivier Index” was invented to determine the level of consumer prices for food. According to the Trud newspaper, this indicator more realistically reflects the situation with inflation than even Rosstat data.

The Olivier salad has long become a symbol of the New Year, without which the holiday meal looks incomplete. Today we remember the history of the Olivier salad and share interesting recipes.

Connoisseur of the Russian soul

The Olivier salad, beloved by millions, whose origin story begins in the 19th century, is associated with the name of the French chef Lucien Olivier, who came to Russia with the aim of increasing capital. To do this, he opened the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, which instantly became a favorite place for gourmets. Olivier personally developed the menu and, having thoroughly studied the tastes of the local public, came up with a signature salad.

The master creatively approached not only the recipe, but also the serving. The main ingredient of the salad was fried pieces of hazel grouse and partridge meat. Along the edges he laid out boiled crayfish necks, slices of veal tongue and pressed caviar. The center of the composition was decorated with a skillfully assembled pile of pieces of potatoes, eggs and gherkins. All this motley variety was generously sprinkled with Provencal sauce of our own composition. However, Olivier was perplexed to discover that the guests, without paying tribute to his design talent, mixed the ingredients into a shapeless mess, after which they devoured it with appetite. The next day, Olivier corrected the mistake and mixed all the ingredients himself before serving. The salad instantly glorified the French chef and immediately received his name.

But the story of the creation of the Olivier salad did not end there. In the thirties of the 20th century, the chef of the Moscow restaurant, Ivan Ivanov, made minor adjustments to the recipe and called it “Game Salad.” And after a couple of decades, the composition of the salad was finalized, and it began to be called “Stolichny”.

Bird classics

Today, the still popular salad has become more democratic in composition, but the main idea has remained unchanged. The Olivier salad with chicken was and remains a classic of the genre, the recipe for which is quite simple to follow. Boil chicken fillet (300 g) in salted water and cut into small cubes. We do the same with boiled potatoes (2 pcs.), carrots (2 pcs.), eggs (4 pcs.), onion and two pickled cucumbers. Mix all the ingredients in a deep salad bowl, add 200 g of green peas and chopped dill. Salt to taste, season with mayonnaise (250 g), mix thoroughly - a wonderful New Year's salad is ready.

Standard of taste

Many gourmets find beef salad much tastier and include it in the holiday menu. We start by preparing the beef: boil 200 g of meat and cut it into small pieces. Boil a couple of large potatoes and one large carrot in their skins, and 3 hard-boiled chicken eggs. Then we clean them and cut them into small cubes. Cut 2 pickled or pickled cucumbers, mix them with the rest of the ingredients in a salad bowl, add peas and onions, sprinkle with salt and spices. Olivier salad with meat can be dressed with mayonnaise and rich sour cream sauce. Then mix it again and serve.

Fish fun

There will be gourmets who will prefer the Olivier salad with salmon to all others. To prepare it, we will need 200 g of fillet of lightly salted fish, which we will cut into small pieces. We supplement it with boiled potatoes (4 pcs.), carrots (2 pcs.) and eggs (3 pcs.) - this part remains unchanged. But onions are excluded from the composition. Pickled cucumbers can be replaced with olives or pickled mushrooms. However, if you have a weakness for cucumbers, you can leave them. Season the salad with mayonnaise, decorate with sprigs of herbs and serve. By the way, salmon or pink salmon will look just as good in this recipe.

Sea fantasies

Continuing the theme of seafood, we bring to your attention another original recipe for Olivier salad. This time with shrimp and avocado. The potatoes leave the salad safely. We will boil only shrimp (200 g), carrots (2 pcs.) and eggs (2 pcs.), and then cut them into cubes. We send them a couple of chopped avocados, the same amount of fresh cucumbers, 200 g of green peas and the pulp of a fresh orange. Add salt, spices, mayonnaise to taste and mix well. Place the salad in bowls, garnish with whole shrimp, parsley leaves and serve.

Forest joys

An equally interesting holiday variation of “Olivier” can be made with champignons. First, fry 200 g of chopped mushrooms with onions in a frying pan. According to the already familiar pattern, cut into cubes 4 boiled potatoes, large carrots and 4 hard-boiled chicken eggs. We combine them with fried mushrooms and onions, complement them with a can of green peas and four pickles. As usual, add salt and pepper, season with mayonnaise and garnish with fresh herbs. This salad is best served cold.

Knowing how to prepare Olivier salad not only according to classic, but also original recipes, you will be able to decorate the New Year's table with excellent dishes. Share your favorite recipes in the comments - they will probably be of interest to other readers.

Almost no holiday celebration in our country is complete without preparing Olivier salad. This is especially true for New Year's Eve, which is already difficult to imagine without this legendary dish on the table. Many people know that the salad owes its name to the chef Lucien Olivier.

However, not everyone knows that the famous dish was invented by him in Russia, and the Russians themselves had a hand in it. The brilliant chef took many of the secrets of the salad with him to the grave. However, we can imagine what this dish looked like at the end of the 19th century and how modern Olivier differs from the original version.

A brief history of Olivier salad

How the Olivier salad was created

The history of the creation of the salad, which we call “Olivier,” begins with the fact that in the 19th century, the French chef Lucien Olivier went to Moscow in order, as it is fashionable to say now, to “earn extra money.” After several years of work in Russia, having acquired a small capital, he opened his own establishment called the Hermitage. It was a first-class restaurant for the elite with an appropriate environment, employing more than thirty chefs who prepared amazing delicacies.

The fashion for everything French in cooking was typical at that time, so the establishment was extremely popular. The cuisine offered at the Hermitage also played a big role in this. After all, Lucien Olivier loved to add his signature mayonnaise with mustard and some secret ingredients to various dishes, as a result of which the dish acquired the necessary taste and spiciness.

After many years of success, the popularity of the restaurant decreased somewhat; visitors gradually began to get tired of the taste of the French and Russian cuisine served here. It was necessary to come up with something new and unusual. And then Lucien created that wonderful and delicious salad, which later brought him world fame. By the way, many chefs tried to repeat the author’s success, but the Frenchman strictly kept all the secrets of his culinary discovery, so these attempts were not very successful.

But it should be noted that the restaurant visitors themselves made a significant contribution to the creation of the famous salad. After all, initially Lucien prepared an exquisite dish “Game Mayonnaise”, which contained many individual ingredients, including, for example, boiled potatoes, hazel grouse fillet, eggs, spicy cucumbers, and boiled tongue. The French chef beautifully decorated his culinary invention, dividing the complex dish into separate parts. When Lucien served it to the table and began to observe whether the guests would like his new dish, he was sincerely amazed.

The fact is that guests of the establishment who were not the most experienced in cooking took a spoon in their hands and mixed all the components of a delicious dish, thus turning it into an ordinary salad. Then the next time Olivier himself mixed all the ingredients and served the salad that later became famous. Moreover, he did this in order to offend the most unscrupulous eaters, but his irony was completely misunderstood by restaurant visitors. But they instantly fell in love with the Olivier salad and the high popularity of the establishment was restored.

Real Olivier: classic salad recipe

The classic Olivier salad recipe, created by a French restaurateur, has not survived to this day. Lucien Olivier never discovered all the subtleties and secrets of preparing his dish. However, over time, primarily thanks to the feedback from regular visitors to the Hermitage restaurant, it was possible to restore at least the composition of the ingredients of that original Olivier salad.

At the end of the 19th century in the Russian Empire, restaurants and culinary establishments for the elite could order a wide variety of products, which made it possible to create truly exquisite and original dishes. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the classic Olivier salad recipe includes ingredients that are completely uncharacteristic of our modern dish.

So, Lucien Olivier used hazel grouse fillet and boiled veal tongue, boiled crayfish, black caviar, boiled eggs, fresh and pickled cucumbers in his salad. In addition, the salad contained other ingredients: lettuce, soybean paste, capers. All this was seasoned with a special sauce with olive oil, egg yolks, vinegar and mustard. Olivier's signature spices were also added to the sauce, so today we can only guess about the authentic taste of this sauce. As we can see, this recipe for Olivier salad, compiled in 1904, is completely different from how Olivier is prepared nowadays.

From Olivier to Stolichny salad

With the outbreak of the First World War, and then the revolutionary events in Russia, French chefs left the country. Connoisseurs of their culinary talent were also irretrievably lost. The famous Olivier establishment in Moscow has closed. In turbulent times, many exquisite ingredients disappeared from the tables, or they simply became irrelevant due to their high cost.

Capital salad with ham

As a result, during Soviet times, the Olivier salad changed somewhat. Instead of delicious hazel grouse and boiled crayfish, the salad included more accessible, relatively inexpensive products. In the Moscow restaurant in the 20s, a salad appeared, which became known as “Stolichny”. Its composition already seems more familiar to us in comparison with the modern Olivier. These are potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, boiled poultry, pickled cucumbers, boiled eggs, apple, olive mayonnaise.

The Stolichny salad became widespread in Soviet Russia, pushing into the background until then the main dish of the festive table - vinaigrette. Already in the 60s and 70s, having changed somewhat, “Stolichny” moved from a restaurant kitchen to a communal one, thus settling on the table of almost every Soviet citizen. Before this, the salad, of course, was also well known, but it was still popular mainly among the Soviet intelligentsia and party workers.

Throughout its history, Olivier was constantly changing - some components were replaced by others, from an expensive meat dish it gradually turned into a wonderful vegetable salad, accessible to everyone. And today there are many variations of this legendary salad. Almost every housewife prepares it the way it is customary in a particular family. Nothing prevents people from experimenting by adding some new ingredients to the Olivier salad or replacing them with others.

What is Olivier called in other countries? Salad "Olivier" - an eternal Russian classic