The internet is full of fabulous fun facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided that when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with you, our readers, in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Vichyssoise fun facts.

Vichyssoise Fun Facts: Vichyssoise (vee-shee-SWAHZ) is a cold soup made of puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock that was invented in America in 1917 and named after the French town of Vichy—long before Vichy would become the seat of France’s Nazi collaborationist government.

• Louis Diat was the chef at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New York City for most of the first half of the 20th century. In 1950, he recounted to The New Yorker magazine the potato and leek soup of his childhood, and how he would cool it off during the summer by pouring in cold milk, which resulted in a delicious summer soup. He decided to make something similar for the patrons of the Ritz.
• French chef Jules Gouffé published a similar recipe with potatoes, leeks, chicken stock and cream, in Royal Cookery, in 1869, but did not serve it cold.
• November 18th is National Vichyssoise Day.
• Anthony Bourdain lists vichyssoise as the catalyst of his lifelong passion for food, telling of a transatlantic voyage on the Queen Mary at the age of 9, when he first discovered this “delightfully cool, tasty liquid.”
• In the 1992 movie Batman Returns, Bruce Wayne is surprised at its temperature, saying “It’s cold!” to which his butler, Alfred responds that “It’s supposed to be cold.”

Vichyssoise fun facts we missed?

Let us know if we missed any Vichyssoise fun facts in the comment section below. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Vichyssoise.