Louis Diat
Encyclopedia
Louis Felix Diat was a chef and culinary writer who created vichyssoise soup.
. Thereafter, he and his wife lived in Hartsdale.
Diat's daughter married a George J. Lawrence. They had two children together. She described her father as "a gentle, humble man, simple in his tastes.... He enjoyed good cooking. It didn't have to be fancy as long as it was prepared well without too much seasoning and not too rich". She considered her father a patient instructor, "He would answer any question concerned with cooking. He had no secrets." Additionally, Diat "taught his family the art of using leftovers" to create new dishes.
Diat's brother, Lucien, who is seventeen years younger, also entered the culinary field, serving as a chef at Plaza Athénée
in Paris. Diat's other brother, Jules, was a teacher. Jule's son was the chef saucier (sauce chef) at the 1939 New York World's Fair
and was part of the French Resistance
. He was killed by the Germans.
/Montmarault
, France, where his father managed a shoe store. During the summer, when Diat and his siblings desired a cold snack, Diat's mother Annette often poured milk into leftover potato-and-leek soup (potage bonne femme).
At age five, Diat learned to cook. At age eight, he awoke early before school to cook soup. He observed the cooking of his mother and grandmother. His mother taught him tarts, while his grandmother demonstrated how to broil chicken over charcoal. By age 13, Diat resolved to become a chef, and by 14, he entered into an apprenticeship in a Moulins
patisserie
.
and L'Hotel Du Rhin. Diat was appointed chef potager (soup chef) in 1903 at Hôtel Ritz Paris
. In 1906, at 21, he transferred to The Ritz Hotel London, where he held the same position and also aided the main sauce maker. At both locations, Diat was coached by founder César Ritz
.
On October 8, 1910, aged 25, Diat immigrated to New York, becoming the chef of Carlton House on 23 October 1910 and about 7 weeks later the head chef of the newly opened Ritz-Carlton. The first week of November, Diat applied to be a citizen of the United States. Diat served as the chef de cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton
's roof-garden restaurant. Auguste Escoffier
oversaw the inauguration of the restaurant. Diat invented a novel recipe every summer for the sultry climate.
During his 41-year stint at the Ritz-Carlson, he cooked for King Edward VII as the Prince of Wales
; other nobles like queens, prime ministers, and ambassadors; and on one occasion, the exclusive wine club Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
("Knights of the Wine Cup"). He "worked fourteen hours a day, six days a week, and spent seven or eight hours at the hotel on Sunday, his day off". According to Lawrence, Diat was the supervisor of 150 chefs. "Formidable" yet benign, Diat served as the kitchen mediator and first aid expert in the case of injuries. Diat forbade the use of substitutes in food, and rejected the proposition of a canned version of vichyssoise.
Diat typically reached his office by 8:15 am and spent slightly over an hour ordering goods. For the remainder of the morning, he supervised and advised his kitchen staff and confirmed the menus. In the afternoon, he wrote in his office.
Diat taught cooking classes in the kitchens. Some of his students became chefs at other hotels in New York, Washington, D.C., and Colorado. Diat received a visit from the president of the Campbell Soup Company
, Arthur Dorance, who stayed at the Ritz for half a year to learn Diat's soup making techniques. In 1938, Diat won the distinguished Chevalier du Mérite Agricole
"for having done so much to bring an important element of culture and civilization to the United States". In 1947, Diat became the in-house chef of Gourmet
. Diat was included in a list of chefs with annual salaries of $10,000 to $25,000.
aged 72. None of his progeny followed in his footsteps to be a chef.
, a spa town
near his birthplace in France that is famous for both its exceptional food and its springs. The new item enjoyed "instant success". Charles M. Schwab
was the first to sample vichyssoise and requested another serving.
Vichyssoise was served the rest of the summer and the following summers. During the colder seasons, he did not include it in the menu, but so many people asked for it, in 1923, Diat placed it on the menu fulltime. Diat recalled that Sara Roosevelt
had had vichysoisse and "once called me up at five in the afternoon and asked me to send eight portions to her house".
When Diat had no access to leeks in his cooking, his vexation prompted the produce stocker to find a Long Island
farmer to cultivate a small yield.
Cooking à la Ritz included Diat's recipe for vichyssoise, along with other dishes he created during his time at the Ritz-Carlsen.
In Louis Diat's French Cookbook for Americans, Diat compared cooking in the United States with cooking in France. He noted that the key to cooking is appeal. "[Americans] could do it as well as the French, but one has to be interested. In France girls of 11 already are able to prepare meals from watching and helping their mothers. It's early training that does it". Diat proceeded to discuss meat, gravies, fish, and salads. Finally, he added that "fine cooking is the basis of a happy life... Men like to eat well...so if you want to keep your husband home, learn to be a good cook." Many of the recipes in this book are derived from the meals Diat's mother cooked.
Diat alleged that American women cannot cook since they "often ruin good food trying to save" money or time. In response to this dilemma, Diat wrote a book entitled La Cuisine de Ma Mere to divulge all his "cooking secrets". Diat suggests that they "approach their cooking with imagination, interest and an eye for artistic effects". Ascribing his culinary finesse to his mother, Diat dedicated the book to his mother, "Annette Alajoinine Diat, who guided the early years, inspired the later ones and whose memory is still a spur".
In Sauces: French and Famous (1951), Diat discussed how to make the sauces bechamel
, brown sauce
, tomato sauce
, and mayonnaise
. He also included a narration of his eating habits. Diat also wrote French Cooking for the Home (1956) and Gourmet's Basic French Cookbook (1961).
Personal life
Diat and his wife Suzanne had a daughter. Between 1916 and 1929, they lived in New Rochelle. Between 1929 and January 1950, they lived in Central Park WestCentral Park West
Central Park West is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States....
. Thereafter, he and his wife lived in Hartsdale.
Diat's daughter married a George J. Lawrence. They had two children together. She described her father as "a gentle, humble man, simple in his tastes.... He enjoyed good cooking. It didn't have to be fancy as long as it was prepared well without too much seasoning and not too rich". She considered her father a patient instructor, "He would answer any question concerned with cooking. He had no secrets." Additionally, Diat "taught his family the art of using leftovers" to create new dishes.
Diat's brother, Lucien, who is seventeen years younger, also entered the culinary field, serving as a chef at Plaza Athénée
Plaza Athénée
The Plaza Athénée is a hotel in Paris, France. It is located at 25 Avenue Montaigne, near the Champs Elysées and the Eiffel Tower. It is part of the Dorchester Collection group of international luxury hotels....
in Paris. Diat's other brother, Jules, was a teacher. Jule's son was the chef saucier (sauce chef) at the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
and was part of the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
. He was killed by the Germans.
Biography
Childhood
Diat was born in 1885 in Bourbon-l'ArchambaultBourbon-l'Archambault
Bourbon-l'Archambault is a spa town and a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne in central France.-Population:-Personalities:In 1681, Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Tours, the third daughter of Louis XIV and his mistress Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan died there at...
/Montmarault
Montmarault
Montmarault is a commune in the Allier department in central France.-Population:-Tourism:The Petite Valette campground has been named the best camping of the Auvergne by the German ADAC....
, France, where his father managed a shoe store. During the summer, when Diat and his siblings desired a cold snack, Diat's mother Annette often poured milk into leftover potato-and-leek soup (potage bonne femme).
At age five, Diat learned to cook. At age eight, he awoke early before school to cook soup. He observed the cooking of his mother and grandmother. His mother taught him tarts, while his grandmother demonstrated how to broil chicken over charcoal. By age 13, Diat resolved to become a chef, and by 14, he entered into an apprenticeship in a Moulins
Moulins, Allier
Moulins is a commune in central France, capital of the Allier department.Among its many tourist attractions are the Maison Mantin the Anne de Beaujeu Museum.-History:...
patisserie
Pâtisserie
A pâtisserie is the type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets. In both countries it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed maître pâtissier ....
.
Culinary profession
At 18, he spent tours of duty at Paris' Hôtel Le Bristol ParisHôtel Le Bristol Paris
Hôtel Le Bristol Paris is a luxury hotel, located on the fashion precinct of the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in Paris, France, at number 112.- History :...
and L'Hotel Du Rhin. Diat was appointed chef potager (soup chef) in 1903 at Hôtel Ritz Paris
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
. In 1906, at 21, he transferred to The Ritz Hotel London, where he held the same position and also aided the main sauce maker. At both locations, Diat was coached by founder César Ritz
César Ritz
César Ritz was a Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously the Hôtel Ritz, in Paris and The Ritz Hotel in London...
.
On October 8, 1910, aged 25, Diat immigrated to New York, becoming the chef of Carlton House on 23 October 1910 and about 7 weeks later the head chef of the newly opened Ritz-Carlton. The first week of November, Diat applied to be a citizen of the United States. Diat served as the chef de cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton
Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotels and resorts with 75 properties located in major cities and resorts in 24 countries worldwide...
's roof-garden restaurant. Auguste Escoffier
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmands, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine...
oversaw the inauguration of the restaurant. Diat invented a novel recipe every summer for the sultry climate.
During his 41-year stint at the Ritz-Carlson, he cooked for King Edward VII as the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
; other nobles like queens, prime ministers, and ambassadors; and on one occasion, the exclusive wine club Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
Originally founded in 1703 as the Ordre de la Boisson , and resurrected under its current name in 1934, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin is an exclusive club of Burgundy wine enthusiasts...
("Knights of the Wine Cup"). He "worked fourteen hours a day, six days a week, and spent seven or eight hours at the hotel on Sunday, his day off". According to Lawrence, Diat was the supervisor of 150 chefs. "Formidable" yet benign, Diat served as the kitchen mediator and first aid expert in the case of injuries. Diat forbade the use of substitutes in food, and rejected the proposition of a canned version of vichyssoise.
Diat typically reached his office by 8:15 am and spent slightly over an hour ordering goods. For the remainder of the morning, he supervised and advised his kitchen staff and confirmed the menus. In the afternoon, he wrote in his office.
Diat taught cooking classes in the kitchens. Some of his students became chefs at other hotels in New York, Washington, D.C., and Colorado. Diat received a visit from the president of the Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company , also known as Campbell's, is an American producer of canned soups and related products. Campbell's products are sold in 120 countries around the world. It is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey...
, Arthur Dorance, who stayed at the Ritz for half a year to learn Diat's soup making techniques. In 1938, Diat won the distinguished Chevalier du Mérite Agricole
Mérite agricole
The Ordre National du Mérite Agricole is an order of merit established in France on 7 July 1883 by Minister of Agriculture Jules Méline to reward services to agriculture...
"for having done so much to bring an important element of culture and civilization to the United States". In 1947, Diat became the in-house chef of Gourmet
Gourmet (magazine)
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. Founded by Earle R. MacAusland and first published in 1941, Gourmet also covered "good living" on a wider scale....
. Diat was included in a list of chefs with annual salaries of $10,000 to $25,000.
Later years
On 2 May 1951, the Ritz-Carlton closed for demolition. Diat prepared a "farewell luncheon" for the kitchen personnel. Diat retired, returning to his home in Hartsdale, where he spent the rest of his life writing cookbooks. On 29 August 1957, Diat died in New York HospitalNew York Hospital
New York Hospital or “Old New York Hospital” or “City Hospital” was the oldest hospital in New York City and the second oldest hospital in the United States.-Early History:...
aged 72. None of his progeny followed in his footsteps to be a chef.
Invention of vichyssoise
In 1917, seeking to "invent some new and startling cold soup" for the menu at the Ritz-Carlton, he recalled his mother's soup. His experimenting soon led to a combination of "leeks, onions, potatoes, butter, milk, cream and other seasonings". Diat named it "crème vichyssoise glacée" (chilled cream vichyssoise), after VichyVichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
, a spa town
Spa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...
near his birthplace in France that is famous for both its exceptional food and its springs. The new item enjoyed "instant success". Charles M. Schwab
Charles M. Schwab
Charles Michael Schwab was an American steel magnate. Under his leadership, Bethlehem Steel became the second largest steel maker in the United States, and one of the most important heavy manufacturers in the world....
was the first to sample vichyssoise and requested another serving.
Vichyssoise was served the rest of the summer and the following summers. During the colder seasons, he did not include it in the menu, but so many people asked for it, in 1923, Diat placed it on the menu fulltime. Diat recalled that Sara Roosevelt
Sara Roosevelt
Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt was the 2nd wife of James Roosevelt, Sr. , and the mother of President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her only child.-Childhood:...
had had vichysoisse and "once called me up at five in the afternoon and asked me to send eight portions to her house".
When Diat had no access to leeks in his cooking, his vexation prompted the produce stocker to find a Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
farmer to cultivate a small yield.
Writer
Aside from writing magazine features for Gourmet, Diat also authored some cookbooks. He collaborated with Helen E. Ridley, a home economist and administrator of the J. Walter Thompson Company. She reminisced, "Louis always thought the United States had a magnificent supply of really fine foods, that there was no place in Europe that could rival it in the variety and quality of available ingredients."Cooking à la Ritz included Diat's recipe for vichyssoise, along with other dishes he created during his time at the Ritz-Carlsen.
In Louis Diat's French Cookbook for Americans, Diat compared cooking in the United States with cooking in France. He noted that the key to cooking is appeal. "[Americans] could do it as well as the French, but one has to be interested. In France girls of 11 already are able to prepare meals from watching and helping their mothers. It's early training that does it". Diat proceeded to discuss meat, gravies, fish, and salads. Finally, he added that "fine cooking is the basis of a happy life... Men like to eat well...so if you want to keep your husband home, learn to be a good cook." Many of the recipes in this book are derived from the meals Diat's mother cooked.
Diat alleged that American women cannot cook since they "often ruin good food trying to save" money or time. In response to this dilemma, Diat wrote a book entitled La Cuisine de Ma Mere to divulge all his "cooking secrets". Diat suggests that they "approach their cooking with imagination, interest and an eye for artistic effects". Ascribing his culinary finesse to his mother, Diat dedicated the book to his mother, "Annette Alajoinine Diat, who guided the early years, inspired the later ones and whose memory is still a spur".
In Sauces: French and Famous (1951), Diat discussed how to make the sauces bechamel
Béchamel sauce
Béchamel sauce , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine and is used in many recipes of Italian cuisine, for example lasagne. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white roux...
, brown sauce
Brown sauce (meat stock based)
In classical French cuisine, a brown sauce generally refers to a sauce with a meat stock base, thickened by reduction and sometimes the addition of a browned roux, similar in some ways to but more involved than a gravy...
, tomato sauce
Tomato sauce
A tomato sauce is any of a very large number of sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish...
, and mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
. He also included a narration of his eating habits. Diat also wrote French Cooking for the Home (1956) and Gourmet's Basic French Cookbook (1961).