The opening of the new roof garden at the old Ritz Carlton Hotel at 46th am Madison in New York, was one of the major social events of 1910. 'To help celebrate the event, Louis Diat, the Ritz Carlton chef, created a soup which he called crème vichyssoise glacée, or at it was later called, vichyssoise. Diat named the soup after the  city of Vichy, a few miles from where he was born. Vichy was at that time France's most popular spa because of its hot mineral springs. When the Germans set up their puppet  French government at Vichy during World War II, the French chefs in 1the United States renamed the soup crème  glacee gauloise as a protest against the Vichy government.

Both the opening of the roof garden and Diat's cold puree of leek and potato soup were a success. Vichyssoise with its fancy French name went on to become p an American  favorite, but am you won't find it served in France. since  recipe for vichyssoise is practically identical to a famous French soup, potage puree de pommes de terre,  dite Parmentier (puree of potato soup, Parmentier), which is served hot instead of cold, and is usually garnished with heart-shaped croutons and chervil leaves instead of chopped chives.

It took us a while to find a film that would be appropriate for this anniversary,. We initially considered Puttin' on the Ritz (1930) but learned that the only available DVD wasof the  1940's re-release print that was censored for Pre-Code content and cut down by about twenty minutes.which ruined it  So we settled for Idiot's Delight (1939)  in which the Irving  Berlin song  "Puttin' on the Ritz " is sung by and  obviously uncomfortable Clark Gable. The song refers to the slang of the time that puttin' on the Ritz referred to the posh attire worn by customers of the Rita Garden. Berlin's original lyrics on the song  "Spending ev'ry dime / For a wonderful time" referred to the flashily-dressed but poor backs in Harlem who were often featured in local ewspapers parading up and down Lenox Avenue in imitation of the Ritz Garden customers.