Legend Has It That Chasseur Sauce Was Invented By A Pope ... Sort Of
In classic French cooking you have five mother sauces, namely bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato, and hollandaise. Then there are other sauces based on the Big Five. One surprising sauce factoid, however, involves a man who seems to have invented a fair number of the latter sauces, these being sauce chasseur, sauce lyonnaise, sauce porto, and sauce Mornay. The last of these sauces may share the inventor's name because he's said to have been Duke Philippe De Mornay, a 16th and 17th-century nobleman.
But wait, what about that whole "pope" thing? If you're up on your Vatican history, you'll know that no French duke named Mornay has ever worn the pointy hat. In the amateur saucier's case, it was more of a nickname since in addition to serving as Governor of Saumur (which lies in the Loire Valley), he was also a noted theologian and writer who earned the moniker "Protestant pope" for his staunch anti-Catholic stance. While his religious views eventually lost him that governorship (the French king at the time was Catholic), De Mornay's chausseur sauce has stood the test of time and can still be found on restaurant menus from Paris to New York to Singapore.
What is chasseur sauce and how do you use it?
We may have been putting le wagon in front of le cheval by leading with chasseur sauce's origin story, but that bit about it being invented by a duke-turned-anti-papal theologian was too good to make you wait. The sauce itself is based on espagnole sauce, which is essentially the French version of brown gravy. The chasseur variant is fancied up with the addition of wine, tomato sauce, and mushrooms. It may have been originally meant to dress wild game meat as its name implies ("chasseur" is French for "hunter") but is now used with other meats, including chicken, pork, and beef. As well as featuring in French cooking, it also tops the breaded, fried pork cutlets used in German jägerschnitzel.
Poulet chausseur, which is chicken in chasseur sauce, holds a special place in history since it was served at the one and only state dinner ever to take place at Mount Vernon. The July 11, 1961 occasion was meant to honor Pakistan's President Mohammad Ayub Khan and was hosted by POTUS and FLOTUS John and Jackie Kennedy. As everything associated with the Kennedys and their "one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot" (to quote the musical, "Camelot") is forever touched with glamour, no matter what other food fads may come and go, chasseur sauce will never be out of style.