Legends can be as yummy as the food they describe.
Take mousse. It’s a savory or sweet dish that uses air bubbles to give it a light texture. The word “mousse” means foam in French.
Some foodies believe that the famous post-impressionist artist, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, invented chocolate mousse. Let’s check it out.
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was born into aristocracy in 1864. His parents were first cousins during a time when no one knew the dangers of inbreeding. It probably accounted for the genetic condition in their son. Henri’s legs stopped growing after he fractured them as a teenager. The rest of his body developed into a normal-sized adult. The result was a four-foot-eleven-inch man (see below).
The little man was an odd-looking, creative genius. He studied painting, became a famous artist, and had friends that included Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Oscar Wilde. He was well known for his cooking before his iconic paintings.
Today, his paintings sell for millions of dollars.
Back in the late nineteenth century, Henri was drawn to the colorful, scandalous Montmartre district on the outskirts of Paris. It was perched on a hill – a lively area known for its brothels, dance halls, salons, cabarets, and cafes. Montmartre was ideal for creatives – artists, writers, anarchists, and radicals. Henri fit in. He partied like the best. It’s said that he hollowed out his cane and filled it with the powerful, anise-flavored alcohol, absinthe – always available for a nip.
Henri was intrigued by the loose, lively people who lived and worked in Montmartre. He found them more interesting than the stiff, formal aristocracy. He immortalized them in his paintings, like The Laundress, At the Moulin Rouge, and At the Circus. Check below the working women At the Salon of the Rues des Moulins.
At the Salon of the Rues des Moulins, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Compliments of Wikimedia Commons
Henri considered cooking an art form, making many signature dishes. Gil Harris reported in Taste of France, that Henri often celebrated a new artwork with food and drink. Poet Paul Leclercq described him as a “great gourmand [who] loved to talk about cooking and knew of many rare recipes for making the most standard dishes.”
Legend says Henri always carried a little grater and a nutmeg to flavor his port wine.
Autumn Swiers in Tasting Table noted that the artist was inclined “to include grilled grasshoppers, stewed porpoise filets, quails in ashes, thrushes in juniper, squirrels, herons, stewed marmots, and baked kangaroo.”
Ummmm – not on my menu.
Fortunately, Henri also created a signature mousse dessert he called “mayonnaise du chocolate.”
The recipe stuck and lucky for us, the name faded into history.
While it’s nice to believe that a flamboyant post-impressionist artist invented chocolate mousse, some facts get in the way.
In 1615, when Princess Anne of Austria (see below) – the daughter of King Philip of Spain, married King Louis XIII of France, the chefs made a unique dish for the wedding feast – mousse flavored with chocolate.
Portrait of Princess Anne of Austria later Queen of France, 1600s, Compliments of Wikimedia Commons
The first documented recipe for chocolate mousse appeared in a hotel cookbook by the most prolific culinary author in France, Franꞔois Menon. It was 1750. According to Coeur de Xocolat, “before then it was used in savory dishes like chicken livers, fish, shellfish, and vegetables . . .”
Not quite grilled grasshoppers and baked kangaroo.
There were probably others who used the process of incorporating air bubbles to create a light, foamy texture. Maybe Henri simply popularized and improved mousse? Who knows? It still makes a great story.
Leap forward a few centuries to modern times where leading chefs include mousse in their cookbooks, television shows, online, and videos. Chef Gordon Ramsay has a tasty chocolate avocado mousse with sticky honey. Wolfgang Puck makes a frozen white and milk chocolate mousse. Martha Stewart leans toward the traditional with her 5-ingredient decadent chocolate mousse.
Try some savory mousse like smoked trout, goose, salmon, or what is known as “meals in a mold.” Experiment with flavors from orange chocolate, mango and passion fruit, or salted caramel. Indulge in a mousse cake, mousse ice cream, or white chocolate mousse.
Whether savory or sweet, homemade, from a powdered mix, or in a restaurant, you can’t go wrong. Consider the largest serving of chocolate mousse – the winner of a Guinness World Record – at the Aventura Mall in Florida. It weighed 496 pounds, used 24 pounds of egg yolk, 108 pounds of chocolate, 20 pounds of sugar, 66 pounds of butter, 50 quarts of heavy cream, 5 gallons of milk, and raised thousands of dollars for the Children’s Craniofacial Association.
Now that’s a mouthful!
Enjoy.
