French cuisine is always in motion. From the extremely complicated dishes of haute cuisine ('high-quality cuisine') to nouvelle cuisine ('new cuisine'), where fresh products, preferably from the restaurant's own region, form the basis of creative dishes.
Haute cuisine was introduced in France in the sixteenth century because the aristocracy no longer wanted to eat traditional (read: popular) regional dishes. Chefs developed complicated and fatty dishes to satisfy their demanding landlords (and landlords).
At the end of the 19th century, the first restaurants and bistros emerged in Paris where 'the common man' could also come and eat. The dishes had to be simpler and the cost had to come down in order for a restaurant to stay afloat.
A man like Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) simplified the dishes of haute cuisine , but in essence it still remained haute cuisine . He did, however, record the recipes of the four mother sauces (Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomate) in his cookbooks. The fifth, sauce Hollandaise, which everyone includes in the previous list, Escoffier considered merely a 'daughter sauce'.
But chefs are naturally ambitious people and want to go down in history with a dish they developed. One of those men was the French chef Michel Guérard (1933) who further developed nouvelle cuisine
. Guérard introduced the sauce vierge ('virgin sauce') in 1976. The sauce vierge consists of (extra) virgin olive oil (huile d'olive extra vierge) , lemon juice, tomato and basil. Often crushed coriander seeds were added. Of course, there have been inevitable variations in the recipe and other kitchen herbs may be added to the sauce.
Did Guérard develop an original sauce?
No, in its original form the sauce vierge was a simple Mediterranean dressing or vinaigrette with lots of garlic. This sauce was served both cold and warm, after the herbs had been soaked in the oil for a while. It is therefore a kind of French salsa.
Sauce vierge is usually drizzled over shellfish, fish or sometimes pasta, but a summer salad is also taken to the next level with sauce vierge.
