Capital salad or “Olivier” in early 1861 in Moscow
Created by Lucien Olivier, head chef of the Hermitage restaurant.
At that time, this salad was the signature salad of the Hermitage restaurant. For salad ingredients, Olivier used very expensive products such as sirloin, veal tongue, lettuce leaves, lobster tail meat, smoked duck meat, eggs, caviar and capers.
Traditionally, salad ingredients changed with the change of season. However, they did not use mayonnaise, and instead used a secret recipe dressing made with French wine vinegar, mustard, and olive oil.
According to history, the ingredients of the original Olivier salad were not mixed, but rather elegantly laid out on a plate. Lussien, who saw the Russians eating salad mixed with dressing, chopped up all the ingredients of the salad and mixed it with the dressing.
There is evidence that large Parisian cafes served the recipes of the Hermitage restaurant to the Russian upper class and intellectuals, including Turgenev and Tchaikovsky.
Ivan Ivanov, a Russian chef who worked with Lussien, stole the recipe and worked as a head chef at the Moscow restaurant and started making it under the name “Capital salad” (stolichny).
Of course, expensive rare ingredients were replaced with cheaper ones, but because he could not learn the secret recipe of the dressing, he made his own mayonnaise. In this way, capital salad has become a common use. Olivier salad does not have a single ingredient of the capital salad that we use widely.
CAPITAL SALAT MONGOLD
Capital salad was introduced to Mongolia in the 1960s. Since the introduction of olive oil, eggs, and mayonnaise to our country, it has been customary to use this salad as a side dish on holidays.
Chicken was difficult to find, so instead of ham, the greens were pickled, canned cucumbers, and peas.
Capital salad, which has become one of the symbols of the New Year, continues to decorate the festive table of every family, enriching its recipe with many varieties.
