Who do you think invented cream soup? Yes, the French. At least one of them. Marie-Antoine Carême is the creator of haute cuisine, “the king of chefs and the chef of kings.” He first ran the “Pastry de la Rue de la Paix” in Paris, and his pastries in the shape of recognizable castles and cathedrals so impressed the French nobility that he was invited to cook at the Château de Valence, where he was visited by Talleyrand and Napoleon. It was Talleyrand who set Marie-Antoine a cruel test, suggesting that she create a menu for the whole year, using only seasonal products, but not a single dish was repeated. Karem coped with this test with dignity, and it was in this annual menu that the dish he invented first appeared - soup seasoned with flour fried in oil - that is, puree soup, or cream soup, to which we are so accustomed now.