Richelieu and the mayonnaise sauce

We have found several stories that link the Mayonnaise sauce to the Duke of Richalieu., nephew of the infamous Cardinal of The Three Musketeers. All these stories are set in Minorca in the spring of 1756, when the French troops leaded by Richalieu, had conquered the island from the English. We have come across at least three different versions. According to the first one, the Duke of Richalieu was wandering aimlessly along the streets of Mahon thinking about the fate of his military campaign. As he felt hungry he entered an inn and asked for something to eat. The innkeeper hadn’t much to offer but at the end he succeeded in making up a creamy sauce blending egg yolk with olive oil. It make such an impression on the Duke that when he came back to France he introduced the new recipe in court, and soon it became one of the best known sauces all over the world.

The second version is based on the Duke’s reputation as an incurable skirt-chaser (which it seems to be an undeniable historical fact). In Minorca he could have kept a more o less secret relationship with a local lady, who would cook for him such a sauce.

What seems to be true is that the conquest of Minorca, to their ancestral enemies, aroused a wave of patriotic enthusiasm in France. As a result, everything related to Mahon was suddenly on fashion. No wonder that such a sauce, regardless of who really discovered it, rapidly spread all over the country.

» More about Minorca's French Period