Lucien Olivier Biography

The popularizer of mayonnaise: how the Frenchman Lucien Olivier came up with the most famous Russian salad as the Frenchman Lucien Olivier invented the most famous Russian salad on December 31, Anna Kruglova Salad Olivier, who became one of the traditions of the New Year's feast in Russia, like its creator, turned out to be completely simple as it might seem at first glance.

Very little information has been preserved about Lucien Olivier. When and where he was born, as he was in Moscow, it is not known for certain. Each guide tells its version, however, none of them were documented. It is certainly known that Lucien Olivier was a French citizen, died in Yalta on November 14 from heart disease at the age of 45 and was buried in Moscow at the Vvedensky cemetery.

About the life of the restaurateur and the famous recipe - in the material RT. How to prepare for the New Year the Olivier salad, every housewife knows. However, the dish, named after the famous Moscow restaurateur Lucien Olivier, is very different from the original, which was served in its popular Hermitage establishment in the 19th century. Around the life and death of Lucien Olivier, like around the recipe for his salad, there are many legends and speculation.

RT collected facts confirmed by historians and contemporaries. According to the researchers, in pre -revolutionary Russia there were two famous culinary culinary specialists by the name of Olivier. The first is Lucien, a restaurateur, whose name is popular salad and whose fame falls on the second half of the 19th century. The second is Charles, the chef of Nicholas II, who served with the last Russian emperor per year.

Another Olivier, the tradition of inviting French cooks in pre -revolutionary Russia was widespread among the nobles to his house, says RT French historian Nicolas de la Bretesh. According to the researcher, working on the book “At the Tsar of Tsars” dedicated to the chef Pierre Kube, he found out that no less French culinary specialists were prepared for the Russian tsarist court.

But I could not talk about him without mentioning Lucien Olivier, given his incredible fame in Russia. However, it was not easy to find information about Lucien Olivier, because he was a rather secretive person who left few traces behind. That is why there were many legends around him, ”says Nicolas de la Bretesh. According to him, two olivier are in no way connected with each other: “Charles Olivier was born near Marseille.

But nothing is known about Lucien Olivier. ” According to the historian, the name Olivier, which later became the surname, is very popular in Provence, where Olivier is also the name of the olive tree. This can, according to Nicolas de la Bretesh, be indirect confirmation that Lucien was also from there. Some articles came out in which Lucien Olivier with Charles Olivier confused.

So perpetuate it in your article. Explain that there is nothing in common between them. There is Lucien Olivier, he is older by age, and there is Charles Olivier - the cook of the last emperor. ” For the first time, merchant possession of the history of restaurateur Lucien Olivier was told by Vladimir Gilyarovsky in the essay “On the Pipe”, published in the year in the collection “Moscow and Muscovites”.

This is how he described the appearance of the restaurant Olivier “Hermitage” on Trubnaya Square: “Two lovers of his bergamot tobacco-Olivier and one of the Fegov brothers there, and Popov bought all his huge wasteland in almost one and a half ten, on the Butary's pipe. In place, the booth and Afonkina Kabaka grew up on the land of Pyegova "Hermitage Olivier", and the impassable square and the street were grilled.

" According to historians, in the essay of Gilyarovsky there are inaccuracies. For example, the land and the building, which the author was talking about, belonged to the merchants of the Pegovs long before meeting Olivier. If we are talking about Jacques Pyegova, then his father, Alexander Pegov, owned this site at least 50 years before the famous meeting, which Gilyarovsky describes, ”says Alexei Emelyanov, head of the Moscow Cultural Heritage Department.

However, in no more document, the first companion of Lucien Olivier is not mentioned. In turn, the journalist and author of the project “Go and watch unusual Moscow” Natalya Leonova says that the first information about Olivier in the archives date back to the year. Further - a reference book about persons who received merchant certificates in the year. It reports: “Olivier Lucien, 40 years old, a French subject, in a merchant state from a year, lives on Petrovsky Boulevard, house 3, contains a hotel,” says RT Leonova.

Special chic "and immediately the success is unheard of. The nobility poured into a new French restaurant, where, in addition to common rooms and offices, there was a white column hall in which you could order the same dinners as Olivier made in the mansions at the nobleman, ”Gilyarovsky writes. According to Natalia Leonova, the Hermitage, in fact, was an analogue of the modern cultural and entertainment center.

The buildings of the building are a hotel in which visitors were not allowed. Only Muscovites and residents of the Moscow province could remain there, it was fundamental.They had dinner quite tightly, after that they could stay, relax, invite someone to their rooms. Moreover, there was the famous “quarter of red lamps and yellow tickets” nearby, where there were many brothels, ”she said.

The French historian Nicolas de la Bretesh believes that the restaurant Lucien Olivier was an extraordinary institution in Moscow. Localist historian Andrei Lednev notes that the Hermitage was very popular among the enlightened Moscow youth and professors-there traditionally celebrated St. Tatyana's Day. A crowd of drunk students burst. As Olivier himself said, "gentlemen, students often forget to pay, but they will pay anything when they become doctors and lawyers." Which, of course, speaks of him as a man completely wonderful.

Moreover, the professors of Moscow University also loved the Hermitage and gladly arranged feasts there, ”Lednev says. The historian shows the drawing, dated year: “By the wishes of Olivier, the Moscow City Duma gives permission to remake the facade. There is an inscription on the drawing where we see the date and interested parties: the heiress of the honorary citizen of Pegova and the French citizen and the temporary Moscow second guild merchant Lucien Olivier.

” The secret recipe precisely during the heyday of the restaurant in the Hermitage menu appears that very famous Olivier salad. True, Gilyarovsky writes in his essay that the original recipe was lost. No matter how hard the gourmets tried, it did not come out: then, not that, ”the journalist wrote. In an ordinary cold sauce, the Provensal add to the So Kabul to a dark color and piquant taste, mask with cancer neck, lettuce, brass and a slightly chopped lanspic.

Serve very cold in a crystal vase, like Maseduan from fruit. ” This confirms the theory that he was really a Frenchman from Provence, ”says Nicolas de la Bretesh.

He recalls that in France the Olivier salad is called a Russian salad. However, there is one more similar dish: “In my opinion, this is very similar to the fact that in France we call the Macedan salad“ in Macedonian ”. These salads are quite close in type. In fact, this is a lot of ingredients that mix with the sauce that connects all this. ” Journalist Natalya Leonova, who for a long time studied documents and collected legends about Lucien Olivier, believes that Gilyarovsky in his article relied on the images: “There is a persistent legend that the apprentices helped to prepare ripples and other ingredients.

But he did not allow anyone when he made his stunning sauce. And allegedly, someone spy it in the keyhole, and then, having become a cook at the Moscow Hotel, the former Big Moskovskaya, this sauce repeated. But if you reason logically: how can you see in a keyhole how many people add pepper, salt and other ingredients? According to the documents, Olivier was the tenant of the building at the merchant Pegov and the owner of the Hermitage Hotel, at which the restaurant is opened.

In addition to him, two more Frenchmen worked in the Hermitage. General supervision is Olivier. To the chosen guests - Marius, and in the kitchen the Parisian celebrity is the cook of Dyuga, ”wrote Gilyarovsky. So the author of a well -known recipe could not be Olivier himself, but his cook Dyuga. And the name received the name in honor of the owner of the restaurant.

The President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, Igor Bukharov, notes that there is another common opinion that in Soviet times, for ideological reasons, Salad Olivier began to be called “metropolitan”. But this, according to him, is a myth. And here is a completely different explanation. There was a restaurant "Capital" - on the other side of the Moscow restaurant, but in the same hotel.

In the Budapest restaurant, where I started my work, there was also such a salad, but it was called Budapest. Therefore, that Olivier is “metropolitan”, that “Moscow”, that “Budapest” and all the others are all Olivier, ”Bukharov explains. In his opinion, there was nothing secret in the recipe, nor in the Kabul sauce, and all myths around Olivier and its salad were born due to the lack of proper research.

I think that no one was looking for anything and all this is just rumors. We read there, read here. And Gilyarovsky could be mistaken. It is necessary to look for Dyuga in order to understand something. This needs to be investigated, ”says Bukharov. The petition of the French subject, the temporary Moscow merchant Lucien Olivier to the Governor-General of Moscow on the creation of the partnership of the Hermitage Hotel.

If not for Olivier’s salad, we wouldn’t know about him now, ”says Zarkov. The last voyage of Olivier is worth noting that Lucien Olivier planned to expand his business. RT found an announcement on the creation of the Hotel of the Hermitage Olivier Hotel, which was published on November 14 in the newspaper Moscow Vedomosti. Announcement of the beginning of the work of the Hotel "Hermitage".

The directors of the board were elected: L. Olivier, M. Polikarpov and F. candidates for directors: I. Kolganov and G. Marius Glemarek. " The following is a list of members of the audit commission and the address of the partnership.At the same time, shortly before the opening of the enterprise, Olivier acquired a house adjacent to the hotel. In a petition, the Governor General of Moscow, Lucien, asked him to allow him to redo the building for a restaurant, if suddenly the owner of the hotel would not want to extend the lease.

However, he did not manage to realize all his plans.