Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

The Story Behind Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

### The Story

Onion soups have been eaten in France since medieval times, with an early version appearing in Taillevent's 14th-century cookbook "Le Viandier." A popular legend credits Louis XV with inventing the modern version late one night at a hunting lodge, when he found only onions, butter, and champagne at hand. Another story attributes its courtly rise to Stanislas Leszczynski, the exiled Polish king and Louis XV's father-in-law, who tasted it at an inn and introduced it to Versailles. The soup as we know it today -- caramelized onions in rich broth, topped with a bread crouton and melted Gruyere -- took its definitive form in mid-19th-century Paris at the restaurants surrounding Les Halles, the great central market.

### On the Calendar

Traditionally a cold-weather dish, but at Les Halles it was famously consumed at dawn as both a market-worker's breakfast and a late-night reveler's hangover cure.

### Then & Now

From market-stall sustenance in 19th-century Paris, French onion soup became a bistro staple and then an international classic. The gratineed presentation -- baked until the cheese forms a bubbling golden crust -- remains its most iconic form.

### Legacy

French onion soup proves that the humblest ingredient, the onion, can be transformed through patience and technique into one of the world's great comfort foods.