14/06/2026
June 14, 1800 – Today is 226 years since Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Marengo in Italy - the battle that marked the culmination of the campaign to cross the Alps via the Saint Bernard Pass.
This decisive victory (which began with a defeat before a miraculous turnaround) cemented Bonaparte’s reputation as a military genius in the public mind.
His chef created a dish for his post-battle victory meal with random ingredients he could scavenge from the Italian countryside. Napoleon loved it so much, he had his chef prepare it for him after every battle victory. Until the day the chef, in an attempt to better the dish which he saw as a mishmash of ingredients that really didn’t go together, served him a different version. Napoleon, furious, saw this as a bad omen and ordered never to be served poulet à la Marengo again!
But within just a few years, the dish was being served in restaurants all over France and quickly became a beloved tradition of French cuisine.
https://jamieschler.substack.com/p/poulet-ou-veau-a-la-marengo-marengo
(Thank you to historian Cédric Mas for his BlueSky post)
