The story
Salade niçoise started out as cheap everyday food in Nice, on the French Riviera, in the late 1800s. The earliest versions were little more than tomatoes, anchovies and olive oil. In 1903 the chef Henri Heyraud published a fuller recipe in La Cuisine à Nice, adding artichokes, red peppers and black olives, but no tuna or lettuce. Later cooks, including the famous Auguste Escoffier, who was born nearby, brought in potatoes and green beans, a change purists still reject. Nice's former mayor Jacques Médecin pleaded in his 1972 cookbook for no boiled vegetables at all. Cookbooks such as Julia Child's carried the salad around the world.
Also known as Niçoise salad, salade nicoise, salada nissarda.
On the Meridish menu
Salade niçoise was the starter course on menu No. 11 on October 11, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Tomatoes, black olives, anchovies and hard-boiled egg, dressed in olive oil. Locals in this seaside city insist the real thing has no potatoes or cooked green beans.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
