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What Side Are You On in the Salade Niçoise Debate?
The purists versus everyone else
A debate is raging over what constitutes a “correct” salade Niçoise. To the purists, the rules are very clear: no vinegar, no lettuce, no fresh tuna, and absolutely no boiled vegetables, like potatoes or green beans. If you try to add any of these, you will be labeled as a heretic and sent to hell for your sins. To everyone else, any and all additions are fair game. So what is the true history of salade Nicoise and what exactly goes into it?
Salade Niçoise began its life as a household catch-all salad based on what was available from the garden, with the addition of anchovies packed in olive oil. It first appeared on menus in the late 1800s a few decades after Nice became part of France finally for the last time. Over the years, everything under the sun has been added, from salmon, corn, shrimp, avocados, lemons, to even grains. Even in Nice, I have witnessed every possible mutation of this salad on restaurant menus.
Simple Cooking for Frugality
Jacques Medecin, the disgraced former mayor of Nice who wrote the definitive cookbook on Niçoise cuisine, said, “At its most basic — and genuine — it is made predominately of tomatoes, consists exclusively of raw ingredients (apart from hard-boiled eggs), and has no vinaigrette dressing: The tomatoes are salted three times and moistened with olive oil. However, nowadays even the Niçois often combine anchovies and tunny fish in the same salad, though traditionally this was never done — tunny used to be very expensive and was reserved for special occasions, so the cheaper anchovies filled the bill.”
Traditional Niçoise Cuisine: “Simple Food for Poor People”
Take equal quantities of diced French beans, diced potato, and quarters of tomatoes. Decorate with capers, olives, and anchovy fillets. Dressing: oil and vinegar. — Escoffier from the 1903 Le Guide Culinaire
Renee Graglia, ambassador of cuisine Nissarde and former president of the Cercle de la Capelina d’Or, a group devoted to defending traditional Niçoise cuisine once said, “Our cooking was simple food for poor people. At first, Salade Niçoise was made only with tomatoes, anchovies…
