Gaston Pierre de Lévis



Gaston Pierre de Lévis, known as the duc de Lévis-Mirepoix (Charles Pierre Gaston François; 1699–1757), maréchal de France (1757) and ambassador of Louis XV, was a member of a house that had been established in Languedoc as seigneurs of Mirepoix, Ariège since the 11th century.

The chef de cuisine of the duc de Lévis-Mirepoix established the sautéed three vegetables that served as a basis for his culinary art, as a mirepoix in honor of his patron.

According to Pierre Larousse (quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the unfortunate Duke of Mirepoix was "an incompetent and mediocre individual. . . who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings"