Niçoise salad , is a mixed salad

Salad

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

 consisting of various vegetables topped The salad or "salade" is displayed on a flat plate or platter and arranged on a bed of lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

. Ripe tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

 wedges, wedges of hard-boiled eggs

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

, are topped with canned tuna

Tuna

Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...

 (tinned in oil), and Niçoise Cailletier

Cailletier

The Cailletier is a cultivar of olives grown primarily in the Alpes-Maritimes region near Nice. It is best known under the name Niçoise, which signifies its curing method, in which form it is an important ingredient in the Niçoise salad. It can also be used for the production of oil...

 olive

Olive

The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...

s. Finally the salad is garnished with tinned anchovies

Anchovy

Anchovies are a family of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.-Description:...

. The salad is served with vinaigrette

Vinaigrette

The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...

.

The original version of the salad always included raw red pepper

Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...

s, shallot

Shallot

The shallot is the botanical variety of Allium cepa to which the multiplier onion also belongs. It was formerly classified as the species A. ascalonicum, a name now considered a synonym of the correct name...

s, and artichoke

Artichoke

-Plants:* Globe artichoke, a partially edible perennial thistle originating in southern Europe around the Mediterranean* Jerusalem artichoke, a species of sunflower with an edible tuber...

 hearts, never potatoes. The French, especially in the Nice area, will clearly state no cooked vegetables are to be used. "[...] la salade Niçoise ne contient pas de légumes cuits."

Rumors suggest the famous choreographer Balanchine may have influenced the creation of this dish during his tenure in Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

. Others claim it is a Provençal dish. This salad was made famous in America by "the French Chef

The French Chef

The French Chef is an influential television cooking show created by Julia Child, and produced and broadcast by WGBH Public television in Boston, Massachusetts, from February 11, 1963 to 1973. It was one of the first cooking shows on television...

", Julia Child

Julia Child

Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...

.

Salade Niçoise and its ingredients are often debated by purists. A common debate is the use of lettuce, which differs from village to village.